[B-Faithful]

I posted this in a response on a thread on TF and thought it warranted being discussed over here. While I know a lot of the back and forth is in fun and I enjoy that as much as most, I do have concerns that that some of this rec on rec setiment is gaining traction and serves little good to recreational fishing as a whole. Lets face it, even DNR was at SPSP taking surveys this week and was not even looking at the fish. They wanted to know how long an angler fished, how many rods they trolled if they were trolling, and how many fish were caught/kept (without a check). I am unware of any fish inspections that took place to check the size of the fish, sex of the fish kept, whether or not they carried roe, etc. I know DNR does do some gill net surveys to check these things and maybe it is possible that other surveys of the sort were taken in other areas of the bay but I found it odd that they were concerned about rod numbers when information about the fish being caught on artificials would seem more pressing to me. Afterall, all recreational anglers can only keep one fish over 28" this time of year anyhow so the rod question seems irrelivant unless people were keeping more fish than their limit.

Well, here is what I had said:

It appears that there is a growing feeling of superiority for their method of fishing or concerns that trollers are catching more fish due to their use of a greater number of rods by some on the fishing forums and local light tackle bloggers. I would like to address this trend. While trollers tend to use more rods at once, they are attempting to cover large open areas of the bay and not stay on structure. Trollers tend not to run 100 miles in a day looking for signs of heavier fish concentrations but stay close to port and find a few fish. Dont get me wrong, there will be big number reports occassionally by the troller who finds a good concentration of fish. However this is not the norm and the same for other methods of fishing. Just as there is the occassional report of trollers catching high numbers of fish, there are reports here of light tackle guys handling 50-100 fish between just a couple of guys on boat on the flats and in the rips. It only takes a few minutes to scan through the reports here and other places to see that despite trolling with planerboards and the use of several rods per angler that the vast majority of anglers are fortunate to catch a few fish each. As one who launches out of the most popular access point in the state, I will say that this becomes very evident from speaking with other anglers. This is also evident through DNR and MRFSS studies that show about one fish is caught per 3 angler trips on the bay.

Trolling is a very popular method of fishing due to the ability to find a few fish that are not in higher concentrations and not having to run very far from home. It also a way where more anglers can fish together effectively and safely while working as a team in different capacities. Trolling is a method that is used by many on the bay to get out and enjoy our most-prized, beautiful natural resource. This is evident by the amount of people on the water utilizing this method this time of year.

I believe some of these concerns and growing attitude towards those who troll is probably due to the crowds that many fishermen encounter this time of year. While I too can get frustrated by the crowds of people fishing this time of year in some areas (trollers in the channels, light tackle guys in the flats, rips or around the bridge, chummers off Hacketts or love point, even sailboaters outside the severn, etc), I do fully appreciate the fact that so many other recreational users are out enjoying the public natural resource. Because so many citizens directly enjoy the resource, I know that issues pertaining to its health will get more attention. By those enjoying the resource through recreational angling and having such a strong economic impact to our state regardless of how they enjoy to fish, it gives us fishermen ammuniton to argue to retain our access and opportunity over other interests.

With all this said, I ask that recreational anglers to stop its apparent migration towards criticizing those who dont enjoy the type of fishing that a particular angler favors. We all have the same creel limit, season length, and fish size regulations regarldess of how one choses to enjoy fishing. Also let's face it, regardless of how you fish, if everyone fished like you, your spots would be even more crowded.