Crying Time is HERE

[duckcrazed]

Don't really want to get into this fight...cause I really don't have the time that I need to dedicate to it, besides we went down this road last year...Stripa and Trad both know my feelings on the subject....I'd love to get with you Trad and sway you a bit...but you see what you see....I just recently got appointed to the ACCSP Bycatch committee (try figuring that one out)...and gillnets aren't the top offenders....there's much worse commercial fisheries out there....and Southern Shrimp is one of them...I use at least 5 different styles of gillnets and can selectively target different species by changing mesh size, location, drifting...setting etc....and in all cases bycatch is minimal....except gar...you can't keep a f#%king gar out of a gillnet.....
Anywhoo, these are all manned gillnets, I will agree there are issues with set gillnets....but I ain't going in to it...And studies have been done, however they were focusing on the bycatch of sturgeon.

And I agree with you Claimer....Shad nets aren't the problem....especially drift nets...I pulled drift nets for 5 years with out catching a single striper. Stripers have their own set of problems...bycatch alone isn't enough to severly depress their population.....Striper populations are depleted in rivers that have no gillnet activity.
Oh, and Claimer...those boats are specifically designed for running trammel nets, a highly adapted dual mesh gill net....Much different than standard gill nets....

Stripa, did you ever talk to Wally?

[duckcrazed]

Oh, and Palmetto....there are folks that LOVE shad roe....and then there's the rest of us....

[Claimer]

A trammel is 2 gilnets. Those boats were developed in the gulf of mexico to strike mullet reds and trout. They were built specifically for gilnets. A trammel is just another type of gilnet. i'm glad we agree on the rockfish bycatch.

[duckcrazed]

Actually 3 gill nets.....But hey who's nitpicking....And yeah...thats why they were developed, but in SC they're soley used for trammeling. We use different boats for gillnetting.

[Stripa Swipa]

Just curious....

Claimer and DC, how many overnight set nets are put out in our coastal rivers each spring? I don't know. Also, who checks them besides the owners and how often? Does anybody record the bycatch and compile the data? Again, I don't know.

[duckcrazed]

Don't know...and don't know....Effort is monitored by the statistics folks...I've never had anything to do with that....Either way, I don't think anyone is checking the nets besides the owner...I believe that if you were to try, it would thoroughly piss them off, and a lot of those folks ain't real friendly to start. I'm pretty sure that no one (besides law enforcement) is monitoring bycatch. Bycatch studies were done (with an emphasis on sturgeon), I don't think (unless it's freshwater division) that anyone is looking at it right now.

[Stripa Swipa]

So at this point, it looks like Trad is our best unbiased perspective on bycatch of stripers in shad nets in Santee River. The impact is only speculation, BUT, they are going to stock stripers in the tidal zone this year and I think that might change things a bit. I could be wrong.

[duckcrazed]

I wouldn't say unbiased.......but certaintly an opinion...