How many amberjack did you catch in the Gulf of Mexico Last Year

[Red Tide]

Take a minute and answer this poll. While it will never go anywhere at least it will become part of the internet. Maybe one day someone with a brain will terminate NOAA's authority and make them stick to weather reports. Something they are more accurate at predicting.

[Straz]

2 last year. 2 this year.

[kmoose]

The big question is how many lbs of AJs do you think were taken by recreational anglers last year? Not an easy question to answer. How would you go about it if you had to do it without going over the TAC if you're career was on the line? Many are quick to criticize but short on offering a viable solution.
I feel we could start with a tag program with mandatory reporting of landings and the return of unused tags for several species. But that is just one option.

[Red Tide]

Kenny,
A tag program would just be more unnecessary moving parts. Everybody knows the science is crap. The whole system is crap. An average amberjack caught by recreational anglers is about 30 lbs. This is just a pole to see how many recreational amberjack people on this board claim to have caught in 2017. I caught 7 of them and could have easily caught 3,000 of them if that was my line of work.

[jstiver09]

I killed 4 AJs in 2017. Was followed to the surface by a school of 50 of them every single dive.


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[jstiver09]

What are the commercial seasons/limits for AJ in the GOM?


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[kwyoungspear]

Originally Posted by jstiver09

What are the commercial seasons/limits for AJ in the GOM?


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1,500 pounds gutted per trip, 394,740 pounds total, closed March 1st-May 31st

[kmoose]

Originally Posted by Red Tide

Kenny,
A tag program would just be more unnecessary moving parts. Everybody knows the science is crap. The whole system is crap. An average amberjack caught by recreational anglers is about 30 lbs. This is just a pole to see how many recreational amberjack people on this board claim to have caught in 2017. I caught 7 of them and could have easily caught 3,000 of them if that was my line of work.

I get it and yes the AJ are as healthy as I have ever seen them. Hell there were 90+ AJs in 80' up here two months ago and 50s in 60'. Yes the science is not good but there has to be some method of reliably counting what is coming out to offset the guessing game. Commercials get to harvest all of their tack as there is mandatory reporting but I don't think we even come close to reaching our recreational TAC. It's not the science used on how many jacks or RS that can be taken... It's the science the estimates what they think is taken out that is the problem. We as the user group need to figure that out and offer some solutions.

I understand the complexity of the tag issue but I would of taken 2 RS tags last year over the short season I never got out in. How about those this year who didn't get an AJ before it closed? A couple of tags would sound pretty good right now over the abrupt season change. 2 is way better than zero.

[kmoose]

Originally Posted by kwyoungspear

1,500 pounds gutted per trip, 394,740 pounds total, closed March 1st-May 31st

No open season in May this year. Closed both rec and comm for the duration of 17.

[kmoose]

I did the math on last years rec TAC of 1,255,600/ by 30# avg fish weight= 41,853 total jacks. 41,853/ 2 fish per angler per year = 20,926 anglers. Did 21,000 anglers take two 30lb fish in the entire GOM from Texas to the Keys? Think about it for a second on how many boats going offshore in the entire GOM for a year targeting jacks. Did we exceed that? How does anyone know?

[Marco]

Originally Posted by kwyoungspear

1,500 pounds gutted per trip, 394,740 pounds total, closed March 1st-May 31st

What do they do with commercially harvested AJ? I've read that it is not an appreciated fish in the USA...

[Red Tide]

Originally Posted by kmoose

I did the math on last years rec TAC of 1,255,600/ by 30# avg fish weight= 41,853 total jacks. 41,853/ 2 fish per angler per year = 20,926 anglers. Did 21,000 anglers take two 30lb fish in the entire GOM from Texas to the Keys? Think about it for a second on how many boats going offshore in the entire GOM for a year targeting jacks. Did we exceed that? How does anyone know?

There are not 21,000 anglers going offshore where the amberjack live in the Gulf of Mexico. How many boats have you or anyone else seen on any given day past 60 feet of water? The people at NOAA are as good at counting fish and doing math as they are at their weather forecasts.
Here is a solution:
Move all commercial fishing out past 100 miles from shore. Abolish National Marine Fisheries Service, Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, and remove all of the previous science and data. Have the scientists figure when the spawning season is for each of the species they want to protect. Close the season for both commercial and recreational during those spawning periods. The rest of the time it is open as it always has been and no need for commissions or councils or NOAA. Let FWC enforce the closed seasons and punish the violators to the fullest extent of the law.
It does not have to be complicated or expensive.

[chawk25]

The regs are working! It wasn't that long ago that anclote boat ramp was full on nice friday in april and may. Now just a couple dozen trailers mostly bay boats. Once we get out past 45 or 50ft you rarely see anyone other than head boats. The funniest part of all this is the fact that there are solid AJ's and red snapper in as close as 45ft.

[Marcus]

Moose, I think you've been drinking too much of the kool aide from the masters of deception. Their only worries are about how to keep their jobs. Seriously, how many of those rulers actually participate in the sport. I remember one, that would occasionally.
The deepness and corruption of politics is deeper than you've ever dove...and this is No way any disrespect to your diving/spearing knowledge. I've just seen their eye rolling and ambivalence too many times in the fisheries' meetings. It's quite insulting.
~Peace