I've been reading about the DFG sting in WON, and I am wondering if there are others that feel as I do.

I do not understand how the sportfishing community can expect to be taken as anything other than scofflaws considering the disrespect of limits ie. fishing for the boat, and the subsequent outrage when the actual scofflaws are brought to justice. It only gives the enviros ammunition to argue for closures

I admit that the felony consiracy counts are way heavyhanded, but I also feel that some increased enforcement is neccesary.

I was recently on a very well known boat out of a SoCal landing. The captain's plan was to have everyone using Sabiki rigs for perch. While most were tying on Sabikis they bought in the galley, he sounded some rockfish at greater than 120 fathoms. The captain was very good about informing the boat that the use of more than 2 hooks was illegal at that depth. When some did not untie the sabikis he repeated the warning.

After catching numerous rockfish, we pulled anchor and headed for the perch. The captain got on the horn and told everyone to rerig with sabiki rigs. It is illegal to use more than 2 hooks anytime rockfish are in posession. When I informed the crew of this I was politely told to go to hell.

I'm not claiming that the captains are getting rich, but if you choose to earn your livelyhood in an industry you should make an effort to know and abide by the regulations governing that industry.
The fact that the captain was instructing passengers to violate regulations says to me that this particular captain either did not know the regs or consciously made a decision to encourage mass violation of this reg. I was highly insulted by the crews response. I did not make a report to fish and game, but the thought went through my mind. I will not be surprised if this boat is on the hit list of So Cal operators to be cited, if they treated other regulation abiding passengers the same.

I would agree with those that argue the sportfishing industry is over-regulated while the commercial is under-regulated and enforced. However disregard of current regulations will only bring more regs and worst of all, closures.

Just my 2 cents, and I'll climb off my pulpit now.
NoTrollMotor