I think that you just proved my point… You DON’T want to ever see deer on your property, so you kill every last one you see hoping to exterminate them all… I would assume that the poster doesn’t have crops on his live bottom that he is trying to protect and hoping to have many more days of hogfish slaughters… If that’s the case, then you have to leave a few around to breed and get bigger.
Truth is, of the fish we eat, Hogfish are the eaiest ones in the ocean to kill on spear.
Notice these dudes did not have many grouper.
We set a self imposed limit of 2 hogfish per diver on both of the boats I dive on.
I’d rather police myself than have the law set a limit.
Notice there are NO big Hogs in Florida anymore?
Guys, great day. That’s a lot of legal fish. Now please consider the resource the next time you guys go out.
No Skinny, that does not prove your point because no matter how many we kill in a given season there are just as many or more the coming year. We have hunted this particular piece for twenty plus years and there are always deer there. All day long I can show you deer If I wanted to.
Nice catch by the way. Thanks for sharing. Welcome to the site.
Nice kill. Next time, instead of doing that twice a year, take four on each trip ten times a year and get your limit of dolphin on the same trip. You will be a better person.
Nice bag boys
28’ Grady White Sailfish
twin 250 yammies
quote:Or just shoot the big ones and let the little ones get bigger. Dolphin live 4 years. Hogfish live 20+ years. Dolphin are free roaming. Hogfish take up residence on a reef which means that you can wipe out a resident school... It's not a fair comparison.
Originally posted by 7csNice kill. Next time, instead of doing that twice a year, take four on each trip ten times a year and get your limit of dolphin on the same trip. You will be a better person.
quote:Well in that case, if you know the deer are going to keep coming, then why try to kill them at all? Are you suggesting that your attempts to kill the deer to protect your crops is in vain? Are you trying to imply that "herd management" is a myth? A lot of wildlife managers would likely argue that point. Why do we even have laws around deer management? Why do we have doe tags and seasons? If they are in infinite supply as you suggest, then maybe you should write to DNR to suggest how silly it is to try to limit harvest.
Originally posted by beaglewomanNo Skinny, that does not prove your point because no matter how many we kill in a given season there are just as many or more the coming year. We have hunted this particular piece for twenty plus years and there are always deer there. All day long I can show you deer If I wanted to.
Nice catch by the way. Thanks for sharing. Welcome to the site.
The bottom line is that there aren’t really any limits on hogfish in South Carolina. There is no minimum size limit and they are only restricted by your general bag limit of 20 fish per person. If you think that is a reasonable limit for our local hogfish population, then you are smoking crack!!!
Red snapper are crawling the ocean and you aren’t allowed to keep any. Gag grouper are probably one of the most plentiful fish off of our coast and you can only keep 1 per person. Hogfish are a fairly limited find (especially these honey holes that the author has tapped into), yet they are NOT limited. This isn’t rocket science!!! Do the math!!!
When the fish are not properly protected, then it’s up to us to use common sense. Please, don’t listen to me. Keep whacking your favorite hogfish hole like that and see what happens to it after a few slaughters! Don’t take my word for it… Learn the hard way as several other’s have in the past.
This discussion is all well and good and I don’t have a dog in this hunt…but someone in that opening photo has larger breasts than the love of my life and he needs a bra…It’s all good, guys…congratulations on the expedition, I’m envious.
Not to be a wiseass here, but I have a ton of respect for those who have come before me and those who practice wise conservation techniques and policies…keep only those that you need and plan for tomorrow…it is an investment in the future. But, that dude still needs a Maiden Lift or something…
im4usc…if you’re talking about the guy on the right. that would be me bud. its also called working out.
its the fastest that get paid, and the fastest that get laid.
Heyes,
Now you see why I dont post pics on this site anymore. Whether the commentary is right or wrong, there’s always commentary. Just use caution when posting pics of big scores. If there’s a pic posted of me somewhere, it’s usually limited to one of the big fish of the haul. Congrats, and remember that as you get better with that gun, you do have a duty to be conservation minded. I’ll get up with you after I get back from Africa and we’ll go.
Stephen Goldfinch
“Sleep When You’re Dead!”
…Crabman
Good shooting guys. Plenty of hogs out there and they are well within their legal limits. Why give em a hard time?
Rob Harding
Charleston diving
http://www.charlestondiving.com
(Fish not Biting? Try a fast presentation of spring steel)</font id=“green”>
Finally got a boat!
Come on CD, what limit? We all know that it’s too liberal. It ain’t much of a “limit” if it’s impossible to reach. There should at least be a minimum size limit on them.
Is a speed limit of 600 mph really a speed limit?
F&B - you are a douche - if you think that most posts are ignorant on this site, why are you wasting your time reading this info???
Man I love America but I have to agree with skinnee on this one,the people who shoot every deer they see will never kill a big one and don’t tell me it doesn’t make a differance on how big or how many fish we kill I have longlined a time or two and we always cut pups off even though nobody else did and look what happened they almost got wiped out!!!Just a point
Some argue you can shoot all the big ones and then not have any sexually mature adult fish to reproduce. So you have a stall in the gene pool for who knows how long until another boom comes around. Or you can shoot the smaller ones and possibly not have the next generation to replace the bigger ones once they disappear.
From what I have seen there are plenty of hogs out there. I see CD pulling up massive hogs all the time. The world record free diving spearfishing hog was taken out of NC http://iusarecords.com/display_record.php?id=349. In FL there are still plenty of big hogs especially in the middle grounds at least before the oil.
Its just all opinions. There are no facts to say that the hog population is hurting or what kind of practice mentioned above is better or worse. I will admit that Hogfish are probably the dumbest fish in the ocean. But you have to remember that to get to the hogs in SC isnt as easy as in FL. Spearfishing isnt quite as popular either. Also I dont think Hogfish are commercially fished nor are easy to bring up on H&L. So spearing them are basically the only easy method to harvest them. So Im not sure how they would be hurting so much around SC. If they aren’t as thick in the normal spots… Well then that spot is probably receiving too much pressure from spearfishing. It just means the fish have become weary and not necessarily decreased in population.
All in all I adhere to the rules of the captain of the boat otherwise I take what I can eat for the next couple of weeks.
You don’t have to wait until fish get in trouble before you act responsibly. It’s better to be proactive than reactive. I’m not arguing that hogs are in trouble, but once they are in trouble, it’s too late to act. The feds will come in and bend us over like they always do. Shouldn’t we stay in front of that curve? But just because fish are plentiful, doesn’t mean that you should slaughter them by any numbers that you like. There is still the looming responsibility to take only your “fair share” and to leave some for the future. The number of fishermen are growing by 3.4% in SC each year. That means you will have twice as many out there in the next 20 years and 3 times as many in the next 30 years. In south florida, they have a hard time finding any over 12" inches which is the legal limit down there. Also, I suspect that hogs will be under pressure in the next few years as the latest spiny SEDAR claims that there is a 2/3rds reduction in spiney lobster because of some kind of lobster virus going around.
these fish were taken on four different ledges by four people we made two dives a piece. mark my words i will never post anything like this again.
hold on to your ass boys…its gonna get a little bit bumpy
Good job on the fish.
It’s the same BS every time you log on this site. It’s amazing how many people hide behind the key board and spout there crap it just get’s old.
" The seas was angry that day, my friend"
George C.