Now That We Know TAC, What Should 2014 Limits Be?

[searun]

BANG on confused!!!!!!!! the extended season benefits the people living on the coast NOT the rest of Canadians, YES i have the luxury of living "on the grounds" and can tell you ill have fish in the freezer soon enough we are only allowed 6 if you can get that in 7 months cmon.....REALLY
With the amount that we have allegedly left in the water the slots can definitely be readjusted we had a season that went all the way to dec......


It wasnt that long ago we were allowed 2/3 any size now seems the fisherman are "happy" to get whatever they give us...people you really need to not be happy at ALL about this!!! its really not fair at all. PLEASE no hate mail......

Best post yet. So far a few SFACs agree with that view also. Sure would be nice to get back to 2/3. We need to get more spawning recruitment to bring back biomass before we can get there however.


Couple of observations. Hard to raise that lower slot size as the impact on TAC is large because there are way more small ones than large. Safer to raise the large slot size. Both 1/1 and 2/1 will work with this TAC. So the best approach in reaching a decision as to which is best for me personally is to assess each from the perspective of what each brings that match what you value or want most from the fishery.


My own personal views.....I'm not a supporter of 1/1 with no upper slot for many reasons including those stated by Bang On and Wolf. I support 2/1 and believe with this new TAC we can tweak up the over 83 cm slot to 133 and make it work. If there is an abundance of TAC when we get to September then I would like to see the upper slot moved up to 148 cm for remainder of he season. Again , these are my personal views only and do not represent the views of anyone else.


Key for me would also be to support the Victoria SFAC in a Feb 1 start. I realize there are technical problems breaking away from prior regs and March start, but if DFO really wanted they could work with us by using a Variation Order.


Don't forget that over 50 percent of our TAC is caught from N Island to QCI where the average size of fish caught is larger. The numerical impact of an unrestricted catch size is considerable.

 

[richmake]

Agree 100% well put, thanks for your input

x2
I speak for my company and my clients will mostly not target to the 1/2
The small fish is a waste of fishing time in most of their minds....
Yes, sometimes we take it but it's mostly on the bycatch ....not targeted
with that being said I've released on days over 1000lbs of halibut...some dead to get down to a 126cm and I'm not even targeting them.
The reality is that whatever outcome the DFO decides is that not everybody will be happy and I'd feel a whole lot better if any of this had to do with concervation and not allocation.....
Commercial and FN killing all the big ones if they choose and us being stuck in this **** storm is all wrong...

 

[bigbruce]

I often wonder how many people who buy licenses are the "rest of Canada" I keep hearing about? Is it significant? It might be a question that needs to be answered when determining some of the caveats everyone is offering up?

Ziggy, the "rest of Canada" insofar as Halibut fishing is concerned could be people living in Chilliwack - or anywhere else on the Lower Mainland. It costs them several hundred bucks to bring their boats over to the Island to go, for example, to the WCVI for one fricking fish??? I don't think so. I sure as hell wouldn't make that trip.
As far as I'm concerned, the people who live close to the fishing grounds pushing for the 1/1 are being more than a little bit selfish.

 

[SerengetiGuide]

Make the upper 148cm all season and most can live with that.

 

[ziggy]

Ziggy, the "rest of Canada" insofar as Halibut fishing is concerned could be people living in Chilliwack - or anywhere else on the Lower Mainland. It costs them several hundred bucks to bring their boats over to the Island to go, for example, to the WCVI for one fricking fish??? I don't think so. I sure as hell wouldn't make that trip.
As far as I'm concerned, the people who live close to the fishing grounds pushing for the 1/1 are being more than a little bit selfish.

I asked that based on how large of an impact it would have on the total and therefore how easy it would to accommodate out of towners. And my definition for the rest of Canada is obviously broader than yours I guess.

 

[SerengetiGuide]

Rather 80lb size

 

[Aces]

We somewhat agree. What do you think of shoulder where 2 all year other than July and aug? At the same time though an extra 83cm fish doesn't make much of a difference. Literally 4lbs of meat...that's it at best

I can see some merit in that shoulder as a way to stretch the guiding season but most of my best clients come for 3 days at a time and would shorten their trips without that 2nd Halibut.

I personally would prefer they increase that 83 to about 96 cm on that 2nd one, up the max size slightly, start the season early for the SWVI guys and close it Oct 1. Not sure how that would work for the quota.

 

[Aces]

I often wonder how many people who buy licenses are the "rest of Canada" I keep hearing about? Is it significant? It might be a question that needs to be answered when determining some of the caveats everyone is offering up?

How about all the people that go on charters?

 

[Purple Hazer]

Fishtofino, maybe I am reading your last two posts from a different angle but they sure sound self serving, my clients/charters, 3 days down to 2, close it Oct1st.... I thought it was supposed to be about ALL Canadians, isn't that the guides mantra?? So I work in the patch and can't get time off till freeze up want to come hally fishing in mid Oct., no can do as my guide is in Mexico spending our Canadian dollars in a foreign land! As for the second fish, you think that it makes that much of a deal as Serengiti has stated and I total agree, second fish equates to about 5 lbs of meat, whoopy. Why should we as a user group be the only ones to not be able to catch and keep a large fish if we are lucky enough to hook one. I do not see how 1/1 any size changes anything for out of towners either. As for increasing the minimum size that would eat a huge amount of TAC, think about it kinda hard to catch a 14 lber to fit the small size slot but up it so you can keep say a 24 lb fish, lots of those out there and 10 lbs more quota used for each under kept.

 

[SophiaB]

I will go out on a limb here and say, VERY FEW people are making decisions on how long their trip with a charter company is going to be, based on a second 83cm fish. Is there any outfits that had people mad you cause couldn't catch them there second 83cm slab? With these new regs, people aren't coming to fish halibut only I don't think much anymore. An Ideal guided trip now a days in BC (for me anyway) is catch as many salmon as possible and put in enough effort to try and catch one hali as close to 126cm as possible. I think the shoulder is the best option.

 

[Aces]

Seriously, other than people that live where there are Halibut fish for them past the end of September, Hazer?

 

[GDW]

People who live close to halibut are important too my family visits in winter months and I love taking them out there. It uses very little TAC to extend the season so really not much reason not to. cutting it oct 1 won't mean its back to the glory days of no slots.

It's FUNNY guys post we need a higher spawner index to increase TAC then in the same post say I want to kill spawners again??? Who gives a crap what the commercial and FN are doing we need to lead by example here and the ever decreasing TAC is ABSOLUTELY a conservation issue. The sooner all sectors realize this the better guys gotta stop hiding behind the "it isn't a conservation issue" mantra because under all of this it IS. If conservation was of no concern it would be a free for all with no TAC and guess what - there would hardly any fish left.

I won't complain when the regs are announced but I sure hope they remember their goals from last year.

Guys wanting it closed oct 1 - April 1 who fish in the winter for salmon - how would you feel if winter springs were closed until April? Your basically asking for the same thing to me.

 

[fish4all]

Ziggy, the "rest of Canada" insofar as Halibut fishing is concerned could be people living in Chilliwack - or anywhere else on the Lower Mainland. It costs them several hundred bucks to bring their boats over to the Island to go, for example, to the WCVI for one fricking fish??? I don't think so. I sure as hell wouldn't make that trip.
As far as I'm concerned, the people who live close to the fishing grounds pushing for the 1/1 are being more than a little bit selfish.

Thats one halibut including:

4 salmon
4-6 crab
200 prawn/shrimp
1-3 lingcod
5 rockfish

Not to mention the experience and pleasure of being on the water.

 

[Karma-Kazi]

how about 1/2 no slot and yearly limit of 4? I did think 1/1 was good a few days ago but have been thinking since reading Wolfs post.

 

[SerengetiGuide]

Raising the lower limit is literally the dumbest thing we could do. It's been proven the lower limit does nothing to poundage caught yet if we raise it dfo says we catch more...but we don't. So that's just stupid.

As no one has really addressed sophiab about fact people aren't going to be like, oh we can catch a 10lb halibut on top of another one, well that's the deal breaker for us, lets go there. Get real boys. For that reason plus how it would benefit the coast more and our chances of more tac shoulder is really best option. But if you must put upper siZe make it 80 not 70 and definitely not 60. We have enough quota for that

 

[searun]

Wow did I just hear David actually agrees with Pat on something. OMG. Mark that down as a milestone. Welcome to the dark side Bud.

 

[SerengetiGuide]

Lets not get too excited. I still think shoulder is way to go for numerous reasons haha. But yes if for some crazy reason the board who does love slots (**relatively speaking) and making packaging hell wants to keep slots, upper limit should be raised...I believe we can raise it to 138cm though (80lbs). They are still good eats too

 

[Derby]

Lets not get too excited. I still think shoulder is way to go for numerous reasons haha. But yes if for some crazy reason the board who does love slots and making packaging hell wants to keep slots, upper limit should be raised...I believe we can raise it to 138cm though (80lbs). They are still good eats too

No one on any of boards loves anything about the slots

 

[salmonkiller01]

I like the idea of 1/2 for possession , annual limit of 4 and no slot, but have a minimum size of say 15 pound whatever that works out to in length. Season length feb 15 to oct 15 or if we are under our quota longer

 

[Cuba Libre]

annual limit of 4

Really??? Guess your family does not eat many halibut or has no problem buying some from Superstore?