NY Fluke Season and the #@$& DEC

[levittownnick]

(is #@$& the correct spelling?). I don't know where the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation get their numbers from but I can assure you it's not from me or what I see at the dock.
This year at the last minute, they finally came out with the Fluke fish regulations. They raised the size limit from 18" to 19.5" and extended the season to "All Year". I fish in the bay area on the south shore of Long Island NY, in the area of Jones Inlet and the surrounding bays. In general I avoid the ocean. In 2006 fishing season, the take of Fluke on my boat was less than 20 (and that was at the 18" minimum size limit). This year, there was only 1 keeper on my boat. I know that's not typical but at least its honest.
Now much to my chargrin, I read that they closed the Fluke season without advanced notice because they are overfished. ??? BY WHO??? Because of the outrage mostly by charter/party fleet they reversed themselves and the season will end on Sept. 17th. to satisfy Labor Day.
For my money, this is not fisheries management, but bureaucy & miss-management. I think it stinks!

 

[FLATHEAD]

Re: NY Fluke Season and the #@$& DEC

Not sure I understand your gripe. You say they raised the size limit, and opened it all year. Then you say they closed it, and then reopened it only till sept 17th.

Is your gripe with the fact that it is only open till the 17th? Or is it because they closed the season? Or is it the all year thing that gets your goat? Maybe it is they way they change direction like the wind?

Don't feel bad The Pa. fish and boat commission is blind too. They spend tons of money stocking trout in warm water lakes and streams for the one day hero drunk trout guys. Those fish can not hold over in that water, but it sells lots of license's. Meanwhile our native bass and other warm water fish get completely ignored, and are on the decline. There is a rumbling among fisherman in this state to try and get the PFBC to wake up. Hopefully we can make a difference.

 

[rolmops]

Re: NY Fluke Season and the #@$& DEC

I have my own gripes with these regulators.When will the different states come up with uniform rules???
The MA regulators closed the season around the 15 of August. The commercial guys are allowed to take fluke that is smaller than the sports fisherman can take.When fishing for fluke on Mashpee flats this summer, most of the fluke was about one inch under legal size,but most of them swallowed the bait and putting them back was useless because they would surely die.
Regulators are supposed to protect the fish population,so our children can go out and fish.Nowadays they mostly protect political interests.

 

[MikePags]

Re: NY Fluke Season and the #@$& DEC

Here's a place to vent your steam Nick
Call 641-444-0435 (LI Office) or the 518-402-8540 (Direct line to commissioner) to voice your concern and your complaints!
I called to let them know How I felt and asked why this doesn't apply to commercial fishing. But they'll never tell you how much $$ is paving the pockets of politicians. I knew Grannis was gonna be trouble. I better buy my Hunting license today before it goes up in price

 

[Flukinicehole]

Re: NY Fluke Season and the #@$& DEC

I fish the North Shore and can honestly say that I have never caught such big fluke. Every trip this year we came in with at least a 5lb. fish. They keep changing the limit around and the fish get bigger what do they think is going to happen? I have been fishing for fluke since I was a squirt (over 30 yrs) and have never seen so many big fish. The DEC really has no idea what is going on and they don't care. For instance they should put a tonnage on every boat (comm.) instead of a daily take. More dead fluke are thrown back in one pull then I catch in a season. I don't understand there reasoning for this. Why not say this boat gets 2000 lbs for the year instead of 250lbs. for the day? Kind of like they did for the king crab you would have less bycatch going back dead right? But no they would rather kill the recs. and let the commercials continue to rape the sea.

 

[levittownnick]

Re: NY Fluke Season and the #@$& DEC

Thanks for the replies. I know my writing isn't the most consise but I try. What I was trying to say is they changed the size limit and I thought that they were throwing us a bone by greatly extending the season (a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down), then without warning they pull the rug out from under us by cutting the season off (they replaced the sugar with gall) not even allowing this great Labor Day weekend. Then thankfully they gave back a couple of weeks (possibly because of the screams of pain).

Well I guess I did it again (not directly to the point.).

Happy Boating/Fishing,
Levittownnick

 

[Big Keepers]

Re: NY Fluke Season and the #@$& DEC

The DEC is run by gutless wonders. The rediculously overinflated numbers provided to the DEC by the Marine Recreational Survey f**kshow convention claimed that NY anglers caught 370,000 some-odd pounds of fluke by mid June. In other words, they claim we caught that much in three weeks. Because there sure as hell weren't any major catches of fish from season's opener in mid May until the first week of June. The weather was horrible and the water temps, very low. The DEC was basically forced to shut down the fluke season by a stupid, useless federal law.

Here is the problem. The Magnusson-Stevens Act which was passed in 1997 wanted the biomass of fluke to be restored to an unprecedented 208 million pounds by 2007. The biomass was never ever that high in the history of recording these numbers. Last year a politician from Jersey fought to have the act extended another three years. That is the only reason NY had any kind of fluke season. In ten years of fishing nobody has ever asked me how many fish I caught, threw back and/or kept. Allegedly these numbers are gathered by making bi-monthly phone calls to random people and bi-monthly visits to fishing docks to ask a handful of anglers what they caught. Then these numbers are grossly overinflated using horrible statistical jargon. So basically in three trips to a few fishing docks and a bunch of phone calls the ASMFC decided we caught 370,000 pounds of fluke already.

Right and my junk is made of gold.

Here's the funny part, the federal regulatory committee in charge of destroying our fluke seasons knows the science behind the numbers is severely flawed. But they can't fix it and they can't bring in an independent to change the system because allegedly there is no budget money to do so.

The quotas every season are based on poundage caught. Every year the size limits are increased, thus increasing the pounds caught. This combined with the rediculously overhyped catch estimates kills us season after season. The real numbers are seen by party/charter boat captains and recreational guys like us. I know for a fact that every season for the past three years I've thrown back dozens of fish that were just under the size limit. There are more fluke now than ever before and it isn't good enough because some B.S. law says we need to reach goal X. The letter of the law is the excuses I keep reading about.

You're all right about one thing, political red tape bullsh*t is running this game right into the ground. However the DEC is stupid also. If they were smart, they'd shut the season down for the month of August when fluking slows down for the majority of the Long Island fishing areas. This would help stock up some poundage for September when the fluke start their migrations to deeper waters. There are no fluke being caught regularly by mid-October anyhow. Keeping it open for an entire season was stupid to say. That benefits the draggers mostly.

 

[kiksav]

Re: NY Fluke Season and the #@$& DEC

You are all correct in complaining. The problem is the enviornmental lobby as well as the commercial fishing lobby "rule the roust"!! We as recreational fisherman do not have the clout that these groups do. We have a good source of help. We ALL need to join the Recreational Fishing Alliance! They are located in New Gretna, N.J. They attend all of the important meetings and do a tremendous job in representing us in Washington. There is a huge amount of mis-information that is being supplied to our elected officials by some very dangerous anti-recreational fishing groups. In some cases they are out in out lies! Fluke fishing as we know it will become extinct if we all don't get involved. As fisherman and boaters we all contribute to the millions of dollars that enter the economy through our purchases of fuel, equipment and the related gear whether because of boat ownership or fishing from the shore. Our favorite tackle shops will all be put out of business as well as the countless wonderful party and charter boats. We need to act NOW!

 

[rolmops]

Re: NY Fluke Season and the #@$& DEC

There is also a bone to pick with the charter boat fleet in the Long Island sound area. This group is just as commercially interested as the commercial fleet.There are more and more charter boats and they run more and more trips daily.All of this with fluke as their target.
We should be very careful with supporting the "recreational" fleet above the commercial fleet.
It is also important to have the PETA type fish protectors in the mix ,because they are the only real counter force that has purely the interest of the fish at heart.If not for nuts like them,many fish populations would have been totally destroyed because of commercial interest.