[Tman]

I will give my take on this, and probably catch some grief from one side or the other.

This is going to be a long read, last chance to back out, you have been warned.

I have a history with bugs, not on the same level as some of the more seasoned and knowledgeable people, but I have been around them for a long time, over 20 years in the LJ area. I still know my honey holes in LJ from my free-diving days and I am going back to my roots. I started yak bugging a long time ago, back when hoop nets came into their own. With evolution comes progress. When hoop nets (not the crab type, with the fold down sides) first came out, it was easy, you just had to have the right bait and know where the kind spots were.

Knowing reefs and spots and tides was easy, and there was never any pressure. The lobster boats could never get in tight for fear of prop damage, and only the hard-core divers stayed shallow, that was where the bigger boys were, tucked in tight. Progress came in the form of better traps, more yakkers doing it, and more boaters doing it. And with that came the scuba divers, to add to the increase of pressure.

Actually, I knew this was coming. This is just another obstacle that we will have to face. You can read through their recommendations all you want, but the bottom line is they had this planned a long time ago. Hence the reason the bug permit is now an extra cost, and one that is not an annual permit. Bug season typically starts in October and lasts to March. It has always been that way, the only difference being that years ago, the right to catch bugs was included in your CA fishing license.

Now, that has all changed, and to which I think personally, it is just a way to increase revenue since the most logical way to go about it would be to define limits and methods to catching. So the best way to increase revenue is to set your own rules. By this I mean that no longer is your right to catch lobsters a guarantee with the fishing permit, it is a separate cost, just as an abalone card is up North. But it goes beyond that.

Now you pay for an extra lobster license, not annual, but bi-annual. A permit for October to December, and then purchase another January to March when the season ends. Why is a lobster permit valid for only a couple months, the height of lobster season, just to have you renew it again when catches taper off?

Now the shocker...just as in the whole MLPA fiasco, why do you think they have the lobster cards?

Tell me that unless you were not stopped by a DFG pawn you did not fill out how many bugs you caught and at what location, just to turn in the mandatory lobster card. Twice...at the end of the year, and at the end of lobster season. It was done for one simple purpose, to see what area was producing, and a way to monitor your habits, just as what was tried with the initial phase of the MLPA process.

What has been done N of San Fran in regards to the abalone population, they limited times of the year when you could hunt for the abs, a good thing to replenish the stock and not have man interfere with the breeding and growing periods. To which I fully agree, as many others do, the population has rebounded. But they took it a step further - you can only free-dive for abs...no tanks, no scuba.

What has become of your honey hole for bugs has been decimated, not by poaching, but indulgence brought about by rules not defined, all in the name of increasing revenue to ultimately set rules. Had they first made changes, I know us yakkers and boaters would have welcomed them as we did in in the MLPA process, agreeing to setting limits to our catches. Had they mirrored what was done in regards to the abalone gathering, maybe all of us would see more bugs in our traps.

Bottom line, there are alot more of us yakkers now, and a ton of us are going to go hooping. So we are just as guilty, even though we have a couple weeks reprieve before the commercial guys set out their traps. We are guilty only for our numbers and the traps we set and our ease of access to our holes.

More boaters have gotten into hooping for bugs, as they should. They have the benefit of being able to cover more territory and can cover more ground. But to limit the number of traps to 10 per boat is absurd, do the numbers. So you have 'only' 10 traps, but you have 3+ people on the boat, do the math. What if you have 5 people?

Bug limit possession is 7...how many of those '7 per person' are not females, not breeding old males, or egg bearers? Enlighten yourself and read The Secret Life of Lobsters, which I think should be a must read for any lobster fisherman.

Why is scuba diving for bugs legal? That to me is weak...really, how fair is that? Where is the sport to that?

As I said, I knew this was coming, from the days of being on the water and not seeing another kayak except buddies who went out with me, to seeing a couple more yaks in the area which was welcomed (esp. knowing they had to get through the surf), to seeing all the lights and bubbles beneath me, near my nets. I even had to help a diver out one night since he had lost his 'dive buddy'...and that was in shallow water.

You can't stop progress, you can't stop evolution, but you can prevent it from getting to the point of being ridiculous. Unfortunately, we are at that ridiculous stage...

As with the MLPA process, we all know the 'logic' behind their ideology...

Time for me to get back to my roots, the lad is getting of that age...