New Striper Rules Tues Rio Vista (20 a day in hotspot?)

[backseatfishergirl]

Anglers would be allowed to triple their daily striped bass catch in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta under proposed rule changes to be discussed Tuesday in Rio Vista.

Due to extensive public interest in the proposal, the California Department of Fish and Game is moving the meeting to a larger venue. The 7 p.m. meeting will now be held at the Rio Vista & Isleton Club, 295 South 7th Street, Rio Vista.

The California Department of Fish and Game is required by the terms of a lawsuit settlement earlier this year to propose new striper fishing rules. The lawsuit was filed by the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, a group of San Joaquin Valley farm irrigation districts that asserts nonnative stripers are harming native species, including endangered salmon and Delta smelt.

The state's proposed striped bass rule changes include: raising the daily bag limit from two to six fish; raising the possession limit from two to 12 fish; and lowering minimum size from 18 to 12 inches.

The agency also proposes to create a "hot spot" for striper fishing at Clifton Court Forebay, where stripers are known to prey heavily on smelt. Here, the daily bag limit would be 20 fish and the possession limit 40 fish.

For more information on the proposal, visit: http://bit.ly/rICwqw


Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/07/403642 ... z1d61jJGRW

[yjjustforme]

The idiots that have come up with this proposal are full of crap!!!! Striper populations and salmon populations have thrived and flourished on the "east" coast for decade's. The stripers back east get huge and are far more capable of creating an considerable impact on the population of any fish be it salmon or not. Dfg needs to get there heads out of there ***'s and wake up and do something about this. The revenue loss alone to California businesses and guides would be devastating therefore adding to the already failing California economy

[swimbait]

Guys - this has very little to do with fishing and everything to do with water rights. DFG is just being used as a pawn by water interests in the Central Valley.

If the 'Coalition for a Sustainable Delta' (read front for agribusiness desiring water and water rights) can get DFG to pass regulations that imply that striped bass are at some level the cause of native species decline, that becomes a very useful piece of evidence when making separate arguments about how much water should be pumped from the Delta.

Attorneys representing people who want more water can say things like:

"CA DFG Biologists admit stripers are a cause of native species decline, just look at the regulations. Once these regulations take hold, native species will do better, so you should let us have more water."

The most disgusting thing about this is that if these DFG regs go in to effect, they will be used as a lever to get more water out of the Delta. Which is the absolute worst-case scenario for ALL the fish. Native and non-native.

The hand of DFG biologists following the law has been forced. They look at the data and the science and they say yeah - we think stripers are bad for native fish so it makes sense to kill more of them. Don't blame them in this! But the hand of the DFG Commission who decides what the regs should be has not been forced.

They can decide, reasonably I think, and under the law, that because the regs will just be used as a justification to pump more water out of the Delta, that the reasonable potential outcome of changing the regs is far worse and far more damaging than leaving the existing regs in place.

This meeting will have some small value but the real opportunity to influence will be at the DFG Commission meeting in December (or if it gets postponed, whenever it is) where this is discussed. May need to iron my suit

[DeltaBassBuster]

Which ever way DFG decides to go on the new regs the biggest issue will be there law enforcement of the regs. They are so understaffed as a law enforcement agency that poaching of striped bass I see will get more out of hand and honestly I don't think the striper population will be entirely eradicated since it is a migratory species.

[ugly stick]

This meeting will have some small value but the real opportunity to influence will be at the DFG Commission meeting in December (or if it gets postponed, whenever it is) where this is discussed. May need to iron my suit

Please do Rob. Your words are strong.

Also, Thanks for getting the SC back lakes opened back up!

[Kwin]

IMO, the reg change if adopted will change nothing. If anything, it will increase the average size/weight of striped bass in the delta. Poaching is/has been occuring and will continue at the same rate since greedy is greedy.

[Wolfeman]

As if the pumps aren't killing more native and non-native fish than the stripers could come close to.
Like swimbait alluded to; this is the classic 'diversion' technique. Blame something else to divert the attention away from the real problem. Ignore the man behind the curtain.

To Swimbait: Please do iron that suit and go give them your always well thought out analysis of what's what. Hopefully some of them have the courage to 'look behind the curtain'.
- Wolfeman

[swimbait]

I always trip out on how big name tournament fishermen virtually never get involved in these issues.

Maybe the tipping point will come when the limit on largemouth bass at the Delta gets changed to unlimited and two weeks later you run up on your favorite spot the morning of a big Pro/Am only to find a guy with minnows and 39 bass on a stringer?

This is not even a hair away from farfetched. If the striper regs get changed, black bass will follow immediately.

[barse41]

Swimbait for governor

[SKTR 20i]

We all know what is causing the issue, DFG knows what is causing the issue; IT'S WATER!!!!!

I am not a striper fisherman, I am a black bass fisherman. Here is what I took from the meeting last night.

This is the comment DFG made at the meeting:

"If the new striped bass rules are implemented; we will be watching the largemouth bass populations, if they increase due to the decrease of striped bass, we will have to address that as well!!!!!".

We are all doomed; no fish left in the water, no need to have the water!!!

I feel sorry for the young people who will not have this recreational activity to enjoy in the future.

John Hagins.

[fish_food]

A summary of Tuesday's gathering in Rio Vista. Nice to see familiar names showing up to support the sporting/recreational side, especially Peter Moyle from UCD.

http://norcalfishingnews.com/stories/cr ... one?id=442

Crowd of 500 pack Rio Vista hall to tell DFG leave stripers alone

by Tim Goode
NorCal Fishing News Staff

According to California Department of Fish & Game officials, the proposal to expand the bag limit and lower the size on striped bass is just that a proposal – not a done deal.

Making the dramatic changes to striper regulations will take many more steps and possibly more hearings like the one Tuesday night in Rio Vista that attracted an estimated 500 people.

The workshop attracted fishing guides, bait shop owners, recreational anglers and other advocates for striped bass and the Delta - all of whom were against a proposal to expand the striped bass limit to six fish from two and reduce the legal size to 12 inches from 18 inches.

In addition, the proposal would create a South Delta Hot Spot (primarily the Clifton Court Forebay) that would allow anglers 20 fish per day.

The liberalization of striper regulations come as a result of a lawsuit settlement between DFG and Citizens for a Sustainable Delta, a group of Kern County Landowners that want to maximize water exports from the Delta.

The suit claimed the DFG shouldn’t be protecting striped bass because they prey upon endangered salmon, smelt and other imperiled fish. The settlement required the state to come up with a plan and the six fish, 12-inch proposal was decided upon.

The proposal will be heard by the Fish & Game Commission Dec. 14 and 15 in San Diego.

The settlement, however, only compels the DFG to come up with a proposal, not necessarily make changes. If none are adopted the proposal dies. If not, there will be more commission meetings, public workshops and public scoping sessions.

“This is a first step,” said DFG Fisheries Branch Chief Stafford K. Lehr, who with Marty Gingras, a supervising biologist for DFG, weathered the criticisms and tried to answer questions during the nearly three hour meeting.

Of the dozens of speakers who provided input, none were in favor of the changes. Most blamed water pumping as the true culprit in the Delta’s decline and berated DFG for not doing enough to keep more water in the estuary.

“This has nothing to do with striped bass,” said Gene Buchholz, owner of Hook, Line & Sinker in Oakley. “The whole thing is based on people wanting the water.”

“You’re trying to treat a symptom rather than a cause,” said one speaker. “If you get rid of the fish you get rid of the voices of the fishermen.’’

Another speaker pointed out a study by the acknowledged fishery expert in the state, Peter Moyle, Professor of Fish Biology at UC Davis, who wrote, “reducing the striped bass population is quite likely to have a negative, rather than a positive effect on the control program is supposed to protect. By messing with a dominant predator (if indeed it is) the agencies are inadvertently playing roulette with basic ecosystem processes that can change in unexpected ways.”

Moyle added, “Reducing striped bass and other predator populations is unlikely to make a difference in saving endangered fishes and will serve only to distract attention from the real problems.”

Gingras said the DFG acknowledges the work by Moyle. “We are dealing with uncertainties here,” Gingras said. “A lot of information will be compiled together and ecosystem equilibrium must be discussed and vetted.”

Many of the speakers attempted to poke holes in the data presented by the Department of Fish & Game and the practicality of enforcing new laws in the current climate (little budget, lack of enforcement resources).

One speaker asked why expand the take of a fish known to have mercury.

Many urged the December Fish & Game Commission meeting be moved from San Diego to Monterey, Rio Vista or Santa Rosa so those impacted could attend.

Others urged donations to California Sportfishing Protection Alliance so it could hire the legal support needed in the constant battle with Southern California water interests. http://calsport.org/news/

“If the million people who fish, water ski and use the Delta sent CSPA $10 it would help us fight,” said a speaker.

For those who can’t write a check, there’s always writing a letter, urged Sep Hendrickson. He said sending sentiments to the Fish & Game Commission is the least that can be done.

The gathered anglers did their job. Lehr said at the conclusion of the meeting, “We hear you. We hear 100% opposition and we’ll take that back to the director and the commission. We will summarize the numbers in attendance and we’ll summarize the sentiments of the speakers.”

The hope for striped bass anglers is this is just the beginning and not the beginning of the end.

To write to the Fish & Game Commission, use the following contacts:

Department of Fish & Game Director Charlton Bonham: director@dfg.ca.gov

Fish & Game Commission: fgc@fgc.ca.gov

Address emails to commissioners: Jim Kellogg, Richard Rogers, Michael Sutton, Daniel Richards, and Jack Baylis.