nuttyprot wrote:What I don't understand is why on earth is they a min keep size and not a max also? Bigger fish breed more so would it not be logical to say have
Below are just examples
min 40cm
max 60cm
max 2 fish per person
this would keep the bigger fish in the water to allow them to continue to spawn on and give the younger ones a chance to spawn. I may be wrong on this but don't bigger fish spawn more eggs?
You're quite correct nutty
while I applaud anglers who have landed a 'fish of a lifetime' with a 10lb+ bass, it also makes my heart sink to see them glassy eyed and dead as a dodo.
It's not just anglers though, who in reality account for a very small percentage of bass taken, it's the commercials who net whole shoals and wipe out the local bass communities.
As well as a bag limit, I would go further and have an off season for anglers & commercials alike, during the peak breeding season. There's too many anecdotal stories of double figure bass being hoyed aboard like mackerel, spilling their precious eggs & milt all over the decks of commercials off the channel islands where the main spawning grounds are. Why not let them breed in peace?
In reality, none of our proposals are going to happen until the stocks take a calamitous collapse like it did with the striped bass stocks in the states. Only then did the government take the brave stance of imposing a management plan for striped bass along the Atlantic Coast, which effectively completely banned the taking of striped bass which helped the stocks recover. They then drip fed new amendments which allowed bag limits, size limts etc. which everyone accepted. I think it's going to take a moratorium like this for any new proposals to be taken seriously.