CFM,

The wusses comment was in a post that concluded: t.i.c., meaning, tongue in cheek. I’m sorry you didn’t catch it; perhaps others did not as well, altho there were hints all along the way with my promotion of sport gillnetting and blasting caps as fishing lures.

I stand by my collective ignorance statement. Note, I don’t call anyone an ignorant person; we all make ignorant statements from time to time, and I think many posts in this thread contain examples.

Yes, I’m educated in fisheries and other things, but I’ve also been an angler for more than 40 years, so I’ve got my expertise covered on all sides! I do agree that some educated people act woefully uninformed at times, and you and I have had to deal with them far more than should be necessary.

I don’t have documentation at home or even at the office that proves two rods will catch the harvest allocation sooner, but I have access to such information. Do you really need to see it? It is a principle of fisheries management that there is a direct relationship, usually linear, between standing stock, effort, CPUE, and harvest. That’s the thumbnail rationale for saying that a two rod regulation would result in a harvest allocation being achieved sooner. Yes, there are also exceptions; this is a discussion of generalities, not a specific fishery.

True. Agency personnel are supposed to do their jobs consistent with law, regulation, and policy. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen 100% of the time, as indicated by your example. That is one of the reasons I’m such an avid supporter of citizen watchdogs like you. You, and others like you, help keep agencies more honest and responsive to the citizens we serve. Yeah, it shouldn’t be necessary, but where there are pluralist interests and politics, it is necessary.

I didn’t say criticism is foolish. I mean unreasoned and unreasonable criticism is foolish and a waste of time. There is no logical response to unreasoned arguments, so agencies end up blowing it off. Anyone would unless they enjoy or are forced to engage in useless and pointless debate.

The 2 fish plus 2 fish equals 5 fish is my analogy to posts suggesting that a two rod regulation would have no effect on others aspects of fish management, such as season length, after Smalma and I explained that it would. It’s OK to disagree with me on that, but I’m not letting someone off by labeling it BS. I want the critic to post a reasoned, intellligent, and persuasive argument proving his opinion correct and mine wrong. Reasoned debate like that can be informative and educational to this BB. Mudslinging and calling BS and one another a clueless idiot neither informs nor educates. It simply alienates me. Which leads to your last comment about my posts: I was responding to your post, not asking supporters to rally ‘round me. The statement is what it is. If you and others whose opinions I respect (even if I disagree occasionally) think I’m wasting my time posting here, I’d seriously consider quitting. My garage sure needs cleaning. And I need to tie some flies.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.