Dear afishinado,
That's for the kind words about me. I was just trying to start some lively conversation more than anything else. Personally, I haven't kept a fish besides a bluefish, flounder, or spanish mackeral in about 4 years so in reality a regulation change would not effect me very much, if at all.
I do think that very restrictive regulations will cause some problems with the general fishing population though. How much is a matter of conjecture, it could cause some people to forego fishing all together, it could cause others to become outlaw neck snappers too, though I suspect most folks would fall somewhere in between?
I do have a question or two about changing the size limit though?
1) Do you think that it would do much more than change the size at which fish are "cropped" from the population?
2) If the 10" limit did come about do you foresee any problems with the care and handling of the sub-legal fish that could eliminate or reduce the potential benefit of the size increase?
3) Do you think that there is a sustainable number of fish a given stream can support and if so how do you determine and maintain that balance across size ranges and year classes?
4) Where are you from in the Coal Region? I'm originally from Schuylkill County.
I don't expect you to have any clear cut answers to these questions, like I said at the beginning of my post my goal is simply to get some conversation going.
Regards,
Tim Murphy