Va catfishermen need your help now

[WVBowhunter]

The guys in Va need our help now, the commercial fishermen are wanting to change the rule on their ability to keep trophy catfish over 32 inches in length. A meeting is being held this Thursday March 25th in Richmond to address this issue and the DGIF and VRMC are wanting public comment on this. So it is very important that you go to this link http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/regulat...tails.asp?id=1and respond to the suggestion of changing this regulation..the respond button is at the bottom of the page

Blue catfish, the only 1 per day longer than 32 inches regulation - public input is wanted concerning this regulation, in response to criticism from commercial fisherman.
Blue catfish are a large, recreationally and commercially important, species native to the Mississippi River drainage, first introduced to Virginia in 1973, with stockings in the tidal James and Rappahannock rivers. Today, blue catfish occur in all of Virginia's major tidal tributaries to the Chesapeake Bay. In the tidal James River, the blue catfish population continues to expand dramatically, 30+ years after first being introduced.

In recent years, Virginia's tidal river catfish populations have sustained over 1.5 million pounds of commercial harvest annually, and could support, and likely benefit from, a substantial increase in that harvest. However, while smaller size blue catfish are very abundant, the number of large blue catfish available for trophy oriented anglers is relatively low; fish over 32 inches account for less than 2% of blue catfish found in the tidal James River. This is a unique resource, with over 98% of the resource available for harvest (including commercial harvest) without restriction, and less than 2% of the resource being regulated to support a recreationally and economically import trophy fishery (recreational trophy fishery is estimated to be $2.5 million per year).

What is the background behind the "32 inch regulation"? Trophy oriented blue catfish anglers wanted to see the trophy potential of tidal river blue catfish fisheries continue to improve. For several years, this group had been seeking harvest restrictions for larger blue catfish. These requests, combined with the importance of the trophy component of the fishery and the biological data, indicated a "trophy" regulation was warranted. Restricted harvest of large-sized fish would allow fish to be recycled - resulting in more fish remaining in the system to achieve even larger sizes, and to be caught again. Therefore, in 2004, the process of implementing a trophy regulation was initiated. Based on the biological data and the Virginia Department of Health's consumption advisory (no human consumption of James River blue catfish over 32 inches), a one fish over 32 inch regulation was deemed appropriate. Prior to proposing the regulation to the DGIF Board, staff coordinated with Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) to determine any potential impacts on the commercial fishery. The VMRC Chief of Fisheries responded that there was no expected impact, as larger-size blue catfish were not targeted commercially. After a public comment period, and further coordination with VMRC (Travelstead and Bowman) to verify that the regulation was understood to apply to all, regardless of the method of harvest, the regulation went into effect on July 1, 2006. Evidently a "new" seasonal consumptive market for larger developed in 2006 and commercial watermen have expressed frustration with the regulation since they can only harvest 1 longer than 32 inches per day.

Staff would like to receive input to see how recreational and commercial fishermen feel about this regulation; essentially do they see a better way to allow the harvest of 98% of the population and still protect the trophy fish (2% of population)?

I have responded to this as the Staff of MasterCatters2 representing over 600 members and the economic impact from our organization -- but we also need imputs from all trophy catters

[jerry9497]

I wrote a paragraph and included my VA fishing license number.

[Vince]

Here is my comment on this I submitted

I am recreational Fisherman who has a wonderfull Blue Cat fishery right in my back yard. Here is my 2 cents.
I mainly fish the Potomac River. I have seen a dramatic reduction over the last 5 years in the number of Big Cats and small Cats alike that I have seen on my fishfinder. I fish 90% of the Blue Cat range on the Potomac River and recently I have seen more and more Commercial fishermen harvesting Cats from the river. I have seen trucks parked at Fort Washington Marina that says farm raised catfish right on the tank. I have seen these Commercial guys with dozens of Blue Cats over the 32" mark. I have been increasingly flusterated with the lack of inforcement by DGIF and other regulatory agencies. This to me is the real problem. Under staffed little to nothing gets done this is the way it is. I have reported trucks with licence plates discriptions of vehicles numbers of illeagle fish harvested only to find out how difficult it is to even get a complaint filed. The local police tell you its not their jurisdiction. I say leave the rule the way they are. The recreational Cat fisherman Practice CPR ( Catch Photograph and release ) it is almost practiced by 100% of them. The Commercial Guys are getting there fair share and then some.

[justlearning]

Thanks Jim...I was getting ready to ask you to post this....

Jerry

[Earl Phillips Jr]

had to go back and edit my comments, ran out of room on the post.
hope it will do some good

[justlearning]

Originally Posted by Earl Phillips Jr

had to go back and edit my comments, ran out of room on the post.
hope it will do some good

Hey Earl....I really think it will....VDGIF needs to know we all stand behind this regulation with all the heat they are getting from the commercial fishermen.

Jerry

[Broadside]

Thanks for posing this Jim! I would hate to see what is happening on the Potomac happen to the James!

[jmcabee1]

Yeah I threw my 2 cents in also...Keep it the same...Thats insane to change it

[Angler Ace]

Give 'em an Inch, they'll take a foot.

[River Lizard]

Originally Posted by Captain jimbo

The commercial guys are only asking for a modest increase in size say 38" to 40".

I was at the meeting and it wasn't 40" they were asking for, it was 48".

By the way, 98% of the catfish fall under their 32" guidelines. Recs and guides are fishing in the 2% area. Plus, they get to tap into the 2% once per day and take one big fish. Hmmm, doesn't seem to me that they need any more of the remaining 2% at all.

I also heard them swear up and down that the blue catfish is wiping out the Blue Crabs and the Herring. LOL Of course there's no data to backup that statement as Bob Greenlee told them. I get the feeling they don't want to look in their own back yard as to why the populations are going down, but rather point the finger at something else causing the issue.

IMO the bottomline is, they want the quickest results for profit..why catch 5 lbers when you can catch a string of 30's and 40's plus and that's the bottomline that drives them. Not happy with 98% of the catfish in the James? Go find another business to be in or be happy with what is being offered to you.

[River Lizard]

Originally Posted by Captain jimbo

We are being told by the VMRC that we can keep the big cats. .

Oh look, right on the VMRC regs page...about the 7th one down...hummm, wonder who's really saying it?
http://www.mrc.virginia.gov/regulati...hingrules.shtm

Ya know something, that was really tough to find on the VMRC site.....took a whole 20 seconds!

[jerry9497]

I dont understand...I hope. about the selling of local fish like this. Badin Lake has warnings about PCBs and other stuff in the water but comercial guys come anyway, The James river fish have alot of worms in them. who buys fish like this? where are the fish going because if I found out my favorite fish house was selling me tainted fish they would here it back from me. Maybe the farm fed catfish farms is a better way to sell fish like this. I'll be looking from now on.
not that I'm against comercial fishing but there has to be a compromise. 98% vs 2%. yet they fight for more.... It's a lie cheat steal politics we live with now, whoever has the most money will buy the needed law.

[madtom]

I would like for them to drop it to 24 inchs. Also how can catfish be hurting a saltwater crab population? The crabs have no business in the freshwater end of the river. If they are here let them get eatn. Also you mean to tell me in April and May when half of what I catch is rockfish that they aren't eating the herring. There is just really one thing to talk about. Do we want to keep the James River as a top river for blue cats or not. If you do. Enforce the laws.

[River Lizard]

Don't get me wrong, I do have a concern about all the small cats in the James; there's way too many and someone needs to get them out of there.

And yet like jerry9497 stated, are they selling these cats they're taking out of the river for human consumption? If so, I think they should be marked as such, a warning label on the package that says "warning this fish could contain levels of PCB" Of course we all know that market would go away completely because who's going to buy catfish with a label like that? Wonder if the "farm fresh" catfish in the market is really farm raised and not James River raised. Do we even know?

So what do we do about all the small catfish? If we don't want them sold, what else can we do with them? Can't put them in the ground for fertilizer because you'll be putting PCB back into the ground. Been thinking about this for a few weeks now and so far I haven't come up with anything. The PCB is the major problem in finding a solution to this problem.

I'd like to see DGIF with the help of Rec. and guides shock sections of the river and collect all the 20 lbers or less and get rid of them. If we did that a number of times per year and with the comms harvesting their 2.4 million pounds per year (that's recorded takes), we might start to make a dent in the population.

[River Lizard]

Just a quick update, at our Fall Cookout event Bob Greenlee some new additional facts related to percentage of catfish over 32 inches and additional mortality rate information also. We will be posting that information on our site shortly.