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repsilon
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Posted: Thu Aug 7th, 2008 10:55 pm |
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I would think that most people would support a change in the tournament rules. We all want to win and some of us can always use some extra change, but let's not have to put our morales on the line to make a decision. There are a lot of big females out there and I think that their release should be promoted with changing the rules to weighable bull dorado only.
Now, I'd probably also smoke a sail for a coule thousand bucks, and to feed the orphans of course (the purse seiners are out there grabbing thousands). The minimum weight for a weighable sailfish of 70# is a little too close to the average weight of sailfish caught here. 85# sounds a little more reasonable if you wanted to risk losing the points. Only one sail and marlin were brought in, so I'd have to say that the tournament has come a long way from the old days of hanging every fish to pass out the ten plus sailfish trophies and top three marlin caught. Ray Buchanan would be proud (that's the photographer I believe, but I think I have the last name right for the release trophy).
So can we change the rules for the next two tournaments this year to bulls only?
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ezmony
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Posted: Thu Aug 7th, 2008 11:24 pm |
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I would agree that the release of these fish is a noble thought----but.
In reality, by the time you attempt to release a female 20/30 # Dorado she'll be dead. Either because she's beat herself to death in the boat or the angler had done more damage in an attempt to get the hook out. My 2cts.
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taoswheat
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Posted: Fri Aug 8th, 2008 12:57 am |
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Consider cutting the line near the hook with the female still in the water.
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repsilon
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Posted: Fri Aug 8th, 2008 03:55 am |
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Shoots. I've been releasing a lot of good meat this year then. I'll keep releasing them in the hopes that a few make it to release thousands of possible eggs. I have no problem with people keeping them if they want though, and I'm sure that some release mortalities are low when they're hooked on big J-hooks
It is critical to keep the boat in gear and their head in the water (very tough on high gunnels). It definitely isn't easy. I always release them in the water but I guess that you could bounce them in and quickly try to calm them down with a wet burlap sack over their head. I think they're pretty tough fish and I sleep better at night.
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Matt Blair
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Posted: Fri Aug 8th, 2008 05:55 pm |
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Brian, your request is noble and I side with you in personal beliefs. However, I can only imagine that many would disagree...especially in tournament fishing. The other consideration is that a dorado grows to maturity very fast and they have a short life span. That allows them to be prolific even under heavy pressure from commercial fisheries.
If the difference between winning and taking second place in the Cantina Cup was a weighable female, I would imagine most would harvest the female to win the Cup....typically $14,000.00 to $15,000.00. (as you noted, you would hang a sailfish for a couple $G's). The same thing goes for daily jackpots that were $9,600.00 each day.
We changed the rules to require circle hook usage on all live and dead bait last year. I can't say that was a welcome change by the anglers in San Carlos. That decision was based on the vast amount of studies done that show circle hooks notably decrease the mortality of released billfish.
I do my best to fish conservatively and will continue to do so. With that said, I do harvest females on occasion. My nephew caught his first game fish in early Summer. It was a 22 lb female. He was so excited, and loved taking the meat to the Fiesta and enjoying a big feast with all the family and "his" fish. I'm headed down this weekend with a couple of buddies who have never caught a big game fish. If we hook up a good sized female, we'll probably keep her.
I agree we need to keep as many females in the water as possible. I don't forsee us changing the rules but certainly do listen to public opinion and take it into consideration. Sorry for the long message. Happy Fishing! Matt
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Vince Radice
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Posted: Fri Aug 8th, 2008 06:57 pm |
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Equally as important, as all the good posts on this thread, would be to start to lobby the government to regulate the amount of Dorado that is being caught commercially here and no longer close their eyes to the issue. Also I would say it is time to make all the resturants in town stop serving Dorado. As many of you may or may not no it is illegal to serve dorado in a resturant. Now if you caught the fish yourself as a sport fisherman with a current fishing permit then you have every right to take the catch to the local eatery and have them prepare it. This would go a long way on the path to a sustainable dorado fishery.
It is time that us sport fisherman come together to start to move these issues forward. As just about every, where it is the squeaky wheel that gets greased and it is time to start squeaking here.
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fishingnut
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Posted: Fri Aug 8th, 2008 07:52 pm |
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From what I have read a dorado is mature at about 2 months of age and spawns about every 6 weeks. It appears they also grow at the rate of about a pound a week and are short lived, like 2 years max or so. Realistically, sport fisherman are not going to wipe out the dorado. Worldwide human overpopulation along with other protein eaters like dogs and cats are having an effect on all animals that we like to eat. The fish that are really affected are the ones with long maturity times, like blue fin tuna, swordfish and that type. Sometimes in the future we will probably wipe them out if things keep going...we seem to just keep on increasing our numbers. Each will make their own decision, of course, but from what I have read most dorado are an excellent choice for a fisherman to eat. One of the lower impact fish.
Just one opinion. fishingnut
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repsilon
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Posted: Sat Aug 9th, 2008 03:03 am |
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Every six weeks! Thank God that we can't do that. No worries on keeping a female and a big one on that. Every six weeks!!! I didn't know that. I guess that it would be more relevant on a smaller $2K International 61st tournament jackpot and not a Cantina Cup. But hey, if it was a rule you wouldn't have to think about it, and no one is stopping you from keeping a fish and not weighing it.
The wind had them biting today and releasing the females was not an issue. Mucho pescado. The big boys are still biting. Maybe the longliners stayed home for a few days.
When is the top secret video and info coming out Vince? I can only imagine what kind of pilage the motherships and some ingenious or moderm thinking the longliners are practicing.
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jonjen
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Posted: Sat Aug 9th, 2008 03:04 pm |
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The average age for juveniles is three months and 22 in. fork length, with a ave weights of 3.9 lbs, they are sexually active then with a avg spawn of 550,000 eggs ea month at the ripe age of 6 months... There is a mortality rate of 99% so figure it out each female we release and let spawn we are getting 5500 fish per month to catch, its a no brainer guys table fare or not...thats my two cents worth..I will continue to release all females personally...thats just me...Also the Billfish Blowout next year will be have Dorado BULLS ONLY....along with Tuna, Wahoo..
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Vince Radice
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Posted: Sat Aug 9th, 2008 04:29 pm |
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A Dorado can live up to 5 years from the research that I have done. And as most of you already know it has been a pretty bad season for Dorado fishing. Let me be as clear on this as I can since I have probably spent more time than anyone on this issue here in san carlos over the last 10 years. Dorado like any other species can be overexploited by commercial fishing. I can state factually that there is a huge commericail dorado fishery here in Guaymas and it is with out doubt effecting the fish populations for dorado. If the trend continues as it has over the last 7 years you will all see a lot less fish swiming on the end of your lines.
As far as eating Dorado, we all know how good they are to eat but check the post I made on Mercury levels in fish for how often you should eat the various game fish out there. The report is partially funded from the Monterray Aquarium and an excellent resourse on which fish should be eaten based on the sustainablility of the fishery as well as mercury levels. They don't recommend eating dorado in Mexico beacause of the huge turtle by catch issue. Dorado captured from the commerical fishery in Florida and Hawaii is recommended because of the care taken to avoid incidental by catch of turtles and other species.
Dorado really needs to be banned from San Carlos resturants. Go down to Cabo San Lucas and you will not see many resturants serving bill fish or dorado. For one thing it is actually against the law, for another the level of consicousness in Cabo is far higher and a great deal of the economy runs off of sport fishing. The bill fish fund will come out with a socioeconomic study very soon that will show that the sport fishing industry in Cabo is worth around 400 hundred millon dollars a year, just for sport fishing.
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