Call all you want, but your several doesn't equal to the scientific assessment from the Florida Marine Research Institute scientists, who worked for me for seven years. The information came from them, I didn't make it up. Hatchery operations do produce fish, but do not substantially alter the stock assessment, except in Dade County where we did make a difference where there were no reds at all. Texas loves hatcheries because CCA loves hatcheries.MudDucker wrote:Who told you that it was recreational fishing that depleted the stocks? I call BullShite on that one. Back when the fishery started to decline, I talked with SEVERAL fish biologist who were on the gulf coast studying the problem and they agreed to a man that the problem WAS the loss of the offshore breeders. The fishery showed NO signs of depletion from YEARS AND YEARS of recreational fishing. The fishery dropped within 3 years of the netting of the big reds offshore. Only one biologist even said that a creel limit for recreational fisherman might have made any difference at all due to the big difference in the age of the breeding fish caught offshore versus the age of the immature fish caught inshore. This was the reason why Texas decided to have redfish hatcheries for release. A few breeders delivery a huge amount of eggs.EddieJoe wrote:There may never be as many reds as there were in the old days, and I did fish for them here over the last 40 years. By the way, the problem in the fishery was not just commercial boys taking the big breeders offshore, it was the overharvest of small fish inshore by both commercial and rec. guys. Many, many, many coolers filled to the brim with inshore reds headed back to the hill in those days, and not just to the fish house. But that is all in the past, thankfully.
Whether it appeared depleted to you doesn't matter, it was being depleted. Commercial boys taking the offshore stock (a very bad move that should never have happened)certainly did push the fishery over the line, but it was the over harvest of sub-reproductive fish inshore by both recs. and commercials that provided the most damage overall. Everyone had a hand in it, and you can believe that or not, I don't care. There were so many small fish not making it offshore to breed that entire year classes did not exist in the fishery. That is not from overharvest offshore, it is from harvest inshore. Again, all of that stuff is old news, even though a lot of us recs refuse to believe that we can play a part in hammering a fishery down, too.
EJ
