BigBendFishing.Net

My wife is teaching at COAST charter school in St. Marks. To raise money for the school all of the classes are tasked with putting together themed baskets to sell/auction off at the stone crab fest this saturday. My wife chose fishing of course because she enjoys it more than I do if that is possible. That girl will swing a gulp all day long. Anyway the kids are supposed to all bring in a little bit of stuff to load the basket with. Well apparently middle school kids just don't participate in stuff like this so she got zero items brought in. So it's up to us to put it together. Well we swung by Crums yesterday to pick up the things we needed. While there my wife asked if they would like to help out a little with maybe a small gift certificate or something. They explained that they do not have gift certificates but would put together a few items to add to the basket. Well we finished shopping and paid for the items we were getting and they hand her a bag of stuff. Ended up being numerous packages of gulps, some hooks, and a tshirt. Probably about 40 bux worth of merchandise. So if you get a chance to and are in panacea stop by and support these guys. They have a great selection of all kinds of different items, pretty good prices, and nice folks. If I can get what I need there I will always give them my business first. Just another good reason to shop locally.

Oh if you are at the festival Saturday stop by the COAST booth and show your support for them.

Crum's is good folks

My favorite bait and tackle store of all time. Wish they were franchised thruout the BigBend and Panhandle.

dogonenuts wrote:My favorite bait and tackle store of all time. Wish they were franchised thruout the BigBend and Panhandle.

Then it wouldn't be the same, I frequent there also.

Crum's is my go to spot when I am fishing at the Point.

Like everybody said. Good folks.

Dubble

A good report! Hope all goes well at the festival. Sounds like your "keeper" is the same order as mine. She taught school for 40 years and loves to fish as much or more than me. We both are wonderfully blessed!

Good folks with businesses are all over our area. I do most of my bait buying in Perry. Wilson's can't be beat!

I've never spoken to Mr. Crum in person so I don't really understand his reasoning for this but he is one of the major parties suing the state over the net ban. He won't be getting my support.

Fulford sided with the Wakulla Commercial Fisherman's Association, Panacea bait-and-tackle shop owner Ronald Fred Crum and county mullet fishermen Jonas Porter and Keith Ward, who sued FWC in 2011. They argued during a two-day hearing last year the mesh size of nets the agency forces them to use kills too many baby fish and violates the very constitutional amendment its rules are meant to protect.


Crum expected FWC to appeal, but he wishes the two sides could settle and work together to fix the inconsistencies between the agency’s rules and the constitutional amendment.

Rhettley wrote:I've never spoken to Mr. Crum in person so I don't really understand his reasoning for this but he is one of the major parties suing the state over the net ban. He won't be getting my support.

They are suing to change the wording of the net ban, not to do away with it completely. They are currently being forced to use a mesh size that cannot gil a mullet because it's too small, which is exactly what the law was intended to do. The unintended consequence is that smaller fish, including juvenile trout, reds, grouper, mackerel, etc., along with smaller bait size fish such as pinfish, squirrelfish, lizard fish, ladyfish, etc. are gilling themselves in the smaller mesh. Since there's no commercial market for these fish, they get thrown back into the water (dead). Before the net ban, the mesh size was large enough to allow these fish to swim through un-harmed.
So the law has basically made it more difficult for commercial fisherman to catch mullet, because the mullet don't get gilled and are free to jump out of the net, but has increased the amount of by-catch being killed.
I'm all for limits and regulations on commercial fisherman to protect our natural resources, but the net ban is an example of an environmental law that was not thought all the way through. It needs to be amended.

red_yakker wrote:

Rhettley wrote:I've never spoken to Mr. Crum in person so I don't really understand his reasoning for this but he is one of the major parties suing the state over the net ban. He won't be getting my support.

They are suing to change the wording of the net ban, not to do away with it completely. They are currently being forced to use a mesh size that cannot gil a mullet because it's too small, which is exactly what the law was intended to do. The unintended consequence is that smaller fish, including juvenile trout, reds, grouper, mackerel, etc., along with smaller bait size fish such as pinfish, squirrelfish, lizard fish, ladyfish, etc. are gilling themselves in the smaller mesh. Since there's no commercial market for these fish, they get thrown back into the water (dead). Before the net ban, the mesh size was large enough to allow these fish to swim through un-harmed.
So the law has basically made it more difficult for commercial fisherman to catch mullet, because the mullet don't get gilled and are free to jump out of the net, but has increased the amount of by-catch being killed.
I'm all for limits and regulations on commercial fisherman to protect our natural resources, but the net ban is an example of an environmental law that was not thought all the way through. It needs to be amended.

You hit the nail square on the head red

M apologies Rob, everyone I tend ta get fired up when comes to folks bashing Ronald Fred and the net controversy in general

Bigger mesh will still gill fish, only bigger fish. I'm curious to know from the folks that fished in the 80's and early 90's before the ban. Was the inshore fishing as poor as my buddies tell me it was? They say it was pretty rare to catch a good red and the trout were much less plentiful. Now with the net ban in place for 20 years, the redfish limit has been increased from one to two and now the commercial trout limits have been increased. I can't imagine that is all coincidence. And weavens, it isn't nice to call folks idiots . I spend a ton of money in Crums. Usually 20-30 gal non ethanol fuel, 4 buckets of ice, tackle and whatever I forgot to get in town. I have no problem boycotting a store that helps take fish away from the recreational angler and gives it to commercial fisherman for profit.

And the old nets did not allow game fish to swim free. They were getting large amounts of by catch, that is why the law was written in he first place.

This thread was intended to highlight a good deed done by a local business for a local school. I'm pretty sure there is a net ban thread around here somewhere. If not start one....

robbankston wrote:This thread was intended to highlight a good deed done by a local business for a local school. I'm pretty sure there is a net ban thread around here somewhere. If not start one....

Let me help bring it on back around, Mr. Crum and his whole family do A LOT for Wakulla County. Just this month they outfitted all of the Wounded Warriors that came to Wakulla for some R&R. There are untold numbers of folks that he has helped behind the seens. Glad you got to see the type of man the world needs more of....