Thanks Fishinnut, I figured you of all people would already be on top of things
Thanks for all your hard work, by the way.
They are advocating that the biggest impact to Puget Sound Rockfish will be salmon fishers.
That is INSANE! Where exactly do they get that idea? Just querying the dockside data they should be able to see that salmon fisherman encounter almost NO rockfish. That same data would tell them that the majority of salmon fishers stay above 120'. Are they seeing something I'm not?
I am trying to get the tribes to say they will not honor them. Just want to make sure we are not the only ones that are excluded. some of the tribes I have talked to are against them.
OK good. So if there were NOAA-mandated RCAs, the tribes would have to abide by them, correct? If so that would severely hamper NOAAs efforts. I might even smell a court case or two.
Finally, is there anything we can do right now (preemptively), or do we need to just wait for NOAA to issue their recommendations?
I am definitely on board with making fish descenders law. Nobody likes floaters. I certainly don't like dead, wasted fish on my conscience.
Just to toot my own horn... I am geared up and ready for ling/halibut season with a dedicated rockfish descender. Sawed off an already-broken rod, patched together a franken-reel and stuck a shelton descender on the end.
Two things I've learned about rockfish descending: 1. It has to be easy. If you have to unclip your bait and clip on a descender, send the fish down, reel up, and clip your bait back on....it's just not gonna happen. Too much hassle. You need to have a dedicated rod. 2. actual descender devices work way better than home-brew devices (like upside down barbless jig heads). After a few failed attempts with the homebrew device you get frustrated and give up. Bonus lesson: if the descender is compact it helps ALOT (that's why I chopped mine off). Boat decks are usually cramped already, the last thing they need is more gear in the way.
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