06-06-2009, 07:54 AM
Have you ever asked yourself how the heck the DEM knows how many fluke recreational fisherman take??? It is a farce!!! They have survey folks in the parking lots or occasionally on a head boat... They extrapolate the numbers from their survey which is very unrealible!!! The also assume a 10% discard of dead fluke. Or yet a better question to ask is how many pounds of fluke are caught in the draggers nets and they have to throw back dead because they already have their 100 pd limit.... An article in the fisher man two years ago quoted that 5,000 pds of fish on average are caught with only a 100 pd limit they are able to catch..that is very bad sht.... the draggers are still dragging right now...the commerical rod and reel guys are catching 14 inches upto 100 pds a day, but the recreational fisherman can not fish yet....it is having a dramatic effect on the head boats and the charter guys in RI.... If they DEM had accurate data, then that would be one thing, but it is not even close.... Per a number of the long time fisherman in RI, the fluke fishery has never been better.... and what about the dog fish which you could not commercially kill for the past few years...ever think what the effect of having dog fish in the area for the entire season that fluke are in our waters has done to the fluke population.! The regulations are just BS. On the bright side, RI fared a lot better than the sister states....