New Regs

[ecce38]

A troubling problem I'm noticing up here on the Beaver tailwater with regards to the slot limit is that slot fish (13-16 inches)are being released alright, but they are basically "dead fish swimming" if you get my drift (pardon the pun). The bait fishermen are, for the most part, putting these fish back but only after they took 5 minutes digging out the hook (bait fishing hooks up here are to be barbless, but most are ignorant of that aspect of the rule changes. I know, they tell me so). Case in point, one guy just up from where I was fishing a few weeks back had a nice brown hooked deep, and since he didn't have the proper tools, worked several minutes on getting the hook out. With blood streaming from the gills, he asked me to measure it. I could clearly tell it was a slot fish, but lied and told him it wasn't. The fish wasn't breathing and was motionless. My rationale: Rather count it as part of his limit than to put a dead fish back in the river only to have him turn around and take out another. Minimize your losses I thought. His intentions were in good faith, but the fact remains: A dead fish on a stringer or in the water still equals a dead fish at the end of the day. With the summer rush upon us, fishing at JFK park will dramatically increase and many scenarios, like the one mentioned here, may become common place unfortunately. But I take this to be the price of slot limits and if they do produce larger fish in better numbers, then so be it I guess.

ecce out...