BigBendFishing.Net

Hi All, I'm copying this from another site. An excellent read, I say.

Conservation Ethic – It’ll grow on you!

We should be careful to never confuse age for maturity as they are and will always be mutually exclusive. Evidence of this can be found in almost all newcomers to outdoor sport. We’ve all watched plenty 50-year-old newbies behave like a bunch of teenagers.
I think we come by it naturally though. Being descended of hunter-gatherers and products of competitive society, we tend to be aggressive harvesters in our early stages… no matter when they begin.
I got started young and I fit that mold perfectly; I felt like I had an awful lot to prove. Deer hunting has been a lifelong passion inherited from my father, and I can remember wanting to kill them all. Eventually I lost some of the zeal for the kill and learned to enjoy the chase. Lately I shoot more video than bullets.
The same has happened in my fishing. In the beginning I gave every one I was allowed to keep a life sentence - didn’t matter if I already had a freezer full, the law said I could keep ‘em and I did. It took a pretty good while but I outgrew the “limit outâ€

... as I note that my Avitar boasts a limit of trout.

I'd like to catch limit, someday, maybe. I agree with everything said in the article, but what bums me is the guy who netted around 50 trout on 2/6/05 with his cast net, while 10 shore anglers were tossing back some damned good looking trout. After that guy was done, there was nothing left to catch. It was really depressing and rather disgusting.

Drayno aka Jeff

Where did that happen? And, I gotta ask, did anybody say anything? I'm not one to seek confrontation but that scene just isn't an option. He might have caught 50 but still can't keep more than 5, legally. At the very least somebody could be on a cell calling FMP.

This was out off of 98 at the FSU Marine Lab facilities right at the outlet to the creek. He was out in the middle of the mini-bay and we didn't have the "guts" to say anything because it would have had to be a yell, and who knows what else he had in his hull, I like my body without hulls. What we did do was contact FWC on my buddies cell. To us it was completely unacceptable because the limit this month is 0. I caught and released 2 incredible trout and my buddy caught 5, all keepers so to speak. There was a family there that pulled up 10, we all released all of the fish. So when this guy motored and depleted the area I was furious. We contacted FWC. The Officer said he "knew the guy" which to me meant that it wasn't a casual friendship and that they guy had gotten busted before.
I don't know what the commercial rules are while the rec's are required to release, but it just didn't look good and if nothing else was rude. At first I thought he might be getting Mullet, but I only saw 2 mullet jump the whole morning, and he was right on top of the hole my buddy had been fishing on top of earlier where he caught his 5. At the distance I would say I was 70% + sure he was bagging trout, he threw back some small reds, but all the spec's he kept. If what he was doing was legal because of a commercial license then I'm a little sorry he got bothered by FWC, but I don't think it was legal.

Drayno aka Jeff

I hope they burn his assssssss Try to get a hull number or anything to positivly id him next time Doing it legally is up to the person doing it, but doing it illegally is up to all of us to stop

http://myfwc.com/codebook/68b_37.pdf
68B-37.005 Commercial Season and
Daily Harvest Limit.
(1) Commercial Season — The harvest
of spotted seatrout for commercial purposes
shall be limited each year to the
period beginning June 1 and continuing
through August 31. Such harvest is limited
to persons possessing a valid saltwater
products license with a restricted
species endorsement.