Reflections 2013

[makobob]

These questions are mostly addressed to the guys who have been around a few years. The answers might help some new guys to gain some perspective and the rest of us to reflect on our priorities for the future.

How would you compare this years fishing/catching to the last 5-10 seasons? Were the fish bigger, more of them, easier to locate or catch? What do you think made things this way, better boats, electronics, techniques? What do you think the future holds for local fisheries and why. What would make it better or worse for ourselves and specially our CHILDREN?

Thanks for your thoughts. Your input will be of benefit to all of us.

[makobob]

Wait for it, wait for it!

[ful-rac]

This is an on going discussion amongst my buddies and nobody seems to know why and what reason but everybody has their theories....but the quality and quantity of many species seem to be improving...

The days of a 20lb halibut being huge are long gone...for many years a 30lb halibut was like the holy grail of halibut, at least to me it was...now it's pretty commonplace, with 40 and 50 pound fish becoming a lot more common. This season I personally saw a 51 pounder and a 48 pounder caught on the same day....

Seabass and yellowtail seem to be improving in size as well...why who knows...? A 50 pound local yellowtail, or even at the islands were a very rare or almost even legendary, mythical, hard to believe occurrence....now it happens several times a season....I hear guys complaining about their small 20lb yellowtail...a 20 pounder is a nice fish!!! Especially a local one....These days if its not over 30 it's not even big...??? Go figure...for many years fishing off boats everyone was stoked to catch 15-20 pound class yellows...and they still are but us kayakers are just so spoiled when it comes to quality....

Seabass...Tankers...Tankers...Tankers....again we have been spoiled with huge Coastal tanker seabass for the past couple of years...I remember going on many seabass trips and never see a single seabass...I spent thousands of dollars on chasing seabass that never bit...and when they did a good one was again 20-30 pounds...a tanker was 40 back then...now a tanker is 50 and above...and so common place now it's ridiculous... I'd never thought I would see the day...

So who knows why or what reason.....? All I know is that it seems to be improving, as far as size and quantity goes. I would have expected the exact opposite but hey I'll take it!!!

[beef78]

Maybe the reasons are new regulations and MLPAs and catch and release policies? Not to mention, kayak fishing is growing in popularity, so there might be more people on yaks taking one or two fish and fewer people on boats taking as many fish as they can carry.

[ful-rac]

Originally Posted by beef78

Maybe the reasons are new regulations and MLPAs and catch and release policies? Not to mention, kayak fishing is growing in popularity, so there might be more people on yaks taking one or two fish and fewer people on boats taking as many fish as they can carry.

I doubt after 1 year of the mlpa that it would have any effect on the size or quantity of the fish we catch...I think it's everything but the mlpa that has improved our fishery at this point.

[makobob]

Maybe, the population of market squid, sardines, anchovies and even macks have increased. The fish follow the bait.