I feel the amount we catch changes day to day. I’ve been out one day and caught 30 and three days later only 4. I’ve seen low numbers on here some days and good others. One thing we need more of is tagging. I know some of you don’t want to let go of any dolphin even the smallest slinger but we really could learn so much more about these fish by tagging and reporting tagging. I agree we need a lower catch limit. 6/person/day would be great. Or 30/boat per day I think would be even better. We tagged 30 last year and not one has been reported. Is no one calling these in or are these fish smart enough to not get caught again? Point is we can help learn a lot about what these fish do by tagging them. If you want to figure out if it’s migratory patterns, overfishing or just weather, go get some tags and let the fish teach us something.
If you are referring to my post, let me clarify something. I used to post on this site years ago under another boat name but quit bc I got got tired of the trolls but continued to follow. A few years ago I realized that I was using the information but contributing nothing so I decided I was going to post every trip, good or bad, so that I am not taking without giving. I am way too old to give a f#$@ if you or anyone else thinks I am “cool”. I am not btw. Not even close.
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If you are referring to my post, let me clarify something. I used to post on this site years ago under another boat name but quit bc I got got tired of the trolls but continued to follow. A few years ago I realized that I was using the information but contributing nothing so I decided I was going to post every trip, good or bad, so that I am not taking without giving. I am way too old to give a f#$@ if you or anyone else thinks I am "cool". I am not btw. Not even close.
Yea FS I was referring to your post, but was not passing any judgement on whether you are cool or not - but I am fairly certain you are.
Point I was making was that you inspired others to post the “bad.” There’s no wrong in that, I think it is fine to post the skunk. I’ve been plenty of times and caught only a couple or even 1 fish (cause that was all I could handle).
Now, let the head scratchers and “adults” continue with thier scratching and conversing.
I agree with an earlier poster who said it’s really hard to judge the health of a stock of a migratory fish and unless all the states along their migratory path agree to the same limits, then you’re sort of defeating the purpose of setting limits.
When you consider the stretch of water off the SC coast that holds dolphin in the month of May, it’s probably anywhere from 30-50 miles wide E to W (based on the width of the stream), depending on temps, weeds, etc. Therefore, you might have a boat in 180 get 2 fish, while another boat due east of them 20 miles in 1800 ft of water might get 42 fish on the same day.
Obviously, the fish are not evenly distributed and right now, they’re spread out from FL to VA. So, just for fun, that’s roughly 44,000 (Key West to Va Bch, 1100 miles x 40 miles wide stream) square miles of dolphin habitat ( about the size of PA) that may hold large or small concentrations of fish depending on any number of factors. When you consider how little water a boat can actually cover during a day of trolling, you can easily miss where the fish are holding.
As a rec fisherman, I’ve love to see tighter limits on the commercial guys, including an elimination of long lines. It would be interesting to see how many pounds of fish the avg long liner brings in on a typical trip compared to how many rec boats it would take to match that same amount of fish. Economically, does one long liner provide more benefit that a bunch of rec guys? Does the long liner impact the fish stock more?
SC, or any other state, can only regulate the fish caught in state waters! SC, can’t do much except moan and complain. Aren’t very many dolphin passing through state waters!
Dolphin are still south or they looping back around out far. My buddy was in northern Bahamas last week and they still catchin 'em at Grand caye. Last three times I have been in Bahamas in late April or early to Mid-May they have been gone from there. But who knows. I want some tags from Mr. Hammond.
SC, or any other state, can only regulate the fish caught in state waters! SC, can’t do much except moan and complain. Aren’t very many dolphin passing through state waters!
There used to be a SC limit of 27 Dolphin per boat. They moved it to 60 to match the federal limits.
SC, or any other state, can only regulate the fish caught in state waters! SC, can’t do much except moan and complain. Aren’t very many dolphin passing through state waters!
There used to be a SC limit of 27 Dolphin per boat. They moved it to 60 to match the federal limits.
SC, or any other state, can only regulate the fish caught in state waters! SC, can’t do much except moan and complain. Aren’t very many dolphin passing through state waters!
There used to be a SC limit of 27 Dolphin per boat. They moved it to 60 to match the federal limits.
Whats the commercial limit per boat?
Not sure, but they are only allocated like 10% of the annual ACL (harvest quota), and rec gets the rest. Tread lightly about who you blame or it might backfire.
Got to find the fish to catch them. It’s always been like that.
Fish are a public resource. We are all entitled to them but to whom and how many? We’ve been arguing over this for a long time. When fishing gets slow due to forces we don’t completely understand we will assign blame and argue some more. Then politicians get involved and make more rules that are impossible to enforce and costly to comply with. No party will be satisfied and we will spend way too much time and energy fighting each other. If only we could put all that aside and use our resources to really understand scientifically what is happening and why then maybe we would finally get some progress.
On a separate topic…
I don’t know if there are many people who have gone fishing in Charleston in the early 90’s, but I have a question for ya.
I seem to remember there being many more calm days where we could go fishing back then. Not so much any more. Middle of May through June were usually pretty good. For those of you who were here back then, do you feel like we go fishing’s less now than 20 years ago due to the weather?
Got to find the fish to catch them. It’s always been like that.
Fish are a public resource. We are all entitled to them but to whom and how many? We’ve been arguing over this for a long time. When fishing gets slow due to forces we don’t completely understand we will assign blame and argue some more. Then politicians get involved and make more rules that are impossible to enforce and costly to comply with. No party will be satisfied and we will spend way too much time and energy fighting each other. If only we could put all that aside and use our resources to really understand scientifically what is happening and why then maybe we would finally get some progress.
On a separate topic…
I don’t know if there are many people who have gone fishing in Charleston in the early 90’s, but I have a question for ya.
I seem to remember there being many more calm days where we could go fishing back then. Not so much any more. Middle of May through June were usually pretty good. For those of you who were here back then, do you feel like we go fishing’s less now than 20 years ago due to the weather?
I haven’t been in Charleston long enough to know what the fishing was like in the 90’s, but I wonder of all of the development has had an impact on the wind due to the seabreeze effect. In laymens terms, the heating of the land sucks the cooler air from the ocean creating the onshore wind flow. With all the development over the last 30 years, there is a lot more asphalt, concrete, roads, buidlings, etc to heat up.
There’s a reason that one of the biggest sailing regattas happens in Charleston in April and it’s because of the seabreeze.
No. I go fishing less now because there are a lot more boats and a lot less fish. That is a statement you can hang your hat on.
If anyone is going to spend $100K+ on a CC with 400+ HP hanging off the back, primarily to go troll, and doesn’t want to see better dolphin conservation on the East Coast, you are really throwing your money in a hole.
I got skunked one day trolling last May. A first in May in 25 years. I don’t point the finger anywhere other than a lot of pressure on the stock. We won’t keep more than 5 per person, it is a good habit to get into.
No. I go fishing less now because there are a lot more boats and a lot less fish. That is a statement you can hang your hat on.
If anyone is going to spend $100K+ on a CC with 400+ HP hanging off the back, primarily to go troll, and doesn’t want to see better dolphin conservation on the East Coast, you are really throwing your money in a hole.
I got skunked one day trolling last May. A first in May in 25 years. I don’t point the finger anywhere other than a lot of pressure on the stock. We won’t keep more than 5 per person, it is a good habit to get into.
Chas’n born, Chas’n raised!
So what about a person like myself that may only make two of three offshore trips a year? Should I get in the habit of only keeping 5? Or would that be for those that go 5 times a year? Then we have to add in all those that (**() the torpedoes and brave all kinds of weather and go several times a month. What about them? Maybe only 3 per trip?
It’s funny, but like Sells said. In 1998 you would go out and catch 15 tuna, and a few mauis. Now you are pissed if you don’t catch 20 mauis. I remember those days. Everyone jizzes about YFT’s, but at the end of the day I would rather have A mahi. Love to have a mix of both. One day perhaps.
right the cobia fishing in SC has been good (outside of the broad river fishery), but we cant keep them, so NC and VA benefit from our loss. Not to derail the thread.
.Good years … bad years… Remember when the YFT were all the rage and no one was catching many Dolphin? I kind of like the taste of Dolphin better and was disappointed a couple of times for lack of Dolphin over YFT.
As long as we keep long line trawlers off our coast, recreational fishermen are not going to decimate Dolphin. Good lord we have to have at least one species left for us over the commercial guys.
Everytime I’ve been out this year someone is complaining on the radio about to many boats out here. It’s getting to much fishing pressure. But to who ever it is on the radio you wouldn’t know if you wasn’t out there too.
EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON !!!
Cat-Chin-Any
(Team Hawaii)
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