!!!spot!!!

[goinsfishin]

The spot are really not late yet......they usually turn up in numbers around the 2nd week of June......I think a lot of us are over-eager.

That said, I hope I'm wrong, but I'm in agreement with Gary.......we've been beating the spot population pretty hard for the last 5-6 years and I'm not sure it's sustainable.
While it's true that spot have a pretty high mortality rate from natural predators, I think the added cumulative pressure from bait use may be enough to tip the scale.......I hope I'm wrong but food for thought.
We have been taking an extraordinary amount of premature fish for years now, it has to catch up numerically to the breeding population eventually......remember rockfish in the late 70's / early 80's? Size limit 12" and no creel, then size limit of 14" with a 25 creel? And the entire population crashed eventually.
I hope we don't have a repeat.