Thanks for coming

I'd rather fix my own house before I go take advantage of someone else's, but I can see your point. We actually share the speckled trout stock with VA. We've caught several VA tagged fish down here so what happens here doesn't just hurt us. It's hurts VA as well.

How long is the commercial season though?

@@FishingwithBrewski honestly I don't know 😕

Yea, it's not a good season, but it's not about having a season. It's about actually having a govt institution that's trying to stick up for us.

It certainly is, but it's also necessary.

I agree that trawling has got to go. However, other states have the same issues when it comes to flounder. SC just didn't make the reduction that they should have but I have a document straight from SC DNR in one of the older videos stating that they also needed a 72% reduction.

Thank you, I will

The stocks being in trouble are actually one of the few things that comm, CCA, and recs agree on.

You have to check the maps for inland, joint, and coastal waters. In New River, there's very little area that's inland waters, and we don't have joint waters. You're pretty much looking at French creek as the only viable spot to fish legally, and you'd be illegal as soon as you left the creek. www.arcgis.com/apps/Media/index.html?appid=2c1087bc8355438ba0e01e06f3a74fce

That's just not true man. Go look at the past MFC meetings and watch how the votes play out. CCA doesn't get what they want. We're the most commercial friendly state in the country.

I think just the fact that they're openly opposed to this has raised an awful lot of eyebrows already. Think it's too late for any more witnesses to join. It's supposed to be back in court around April, I think.

Call your reps and stay after them, and we'll get this state turned around. I make videos every Thursday covering different aspects of the fisheries so that by the time we start pushing bills early next year, we should have enough people informed and willing to show up and argue for some positive changes.

As long as everyone else doesn't decide to do the same thing, I think we'll be ok.

The only prominent CCA member I'm aware of on either board is on the MFC.

Those are summer flounder. Cinpletely separate species.

He's done in NC at the end of the year. Robinson or Stein will replace him. So far, it seems like Robinson has been promising the commercial sector a lot of things, and Stein has come out on the side of rec anglers.

Glad it was helpful!

The amount of days is small but it's good to know that not every part of our government is selling us out.

Cooper can't be reelected again actually. He's done no matter what. So far, it seems like Robinson is backing the commercial side with Stein coming forward for the recs. One of them will be the next Governor of NC.

@@FishingwithBrewskiI have no clue why I said hopefully, considering he’s timed out from term limits. That brings up a good point about the candidates though, be nice to get both of their stances on video.

MFC seems to be ignoring them from what I can tell so far.

The short season causes a derby mentality. The ICW near my house looks like an airport landing strip every day of the flounder season in past years. So the impact is bigger than you might think.

I hope so too. Thanks.

Thank you!

Your legislators can be found by going to www.ncleg.gov/findyourlegislators and entering your address. Only call your NC house and NC senate reps with regard to fisheries issues since the federal reps don't deal with state fishing regulations.

You should go watch the southern flounder symposium that the DMF made for us. They did a study of flounder in New River and used acoustic tags to map movements and behaviors. While it's intended purpose is to better understand the flounder to protect them, you might find some of the data interesting. lol.

I honestly never cared much for flounder in the first place but I care an awful lot about a government that doesn't represent it's people. It's a lot more about the principle here than the actual rules themselves.

Thank you.

Much appreciated

Thanks buddy.

The gillnets aren’t even the biggest issue, at least they filter by size. Trawling inshore is a huge problem with all the bycatch.

Even if only means a few days of fishing it's the principle that matters for me. I'm a lot more pissed off that my govt is selling out it's people to line the pockets of a handful of wealthy donors than I am about a short season.

We have several already. The Wildlife Federation has 4 and I think CCA has at least two. We definitely need a PAC to be able to make contributions like the comm industry does. Feel free to get all your buddies together to form voting pools as well. Politicians care about 2 things. Money that they can use to get votes, and the votes themselves. Money might be a tall order, but we have a million votes to throw around this state if we get organized. That's 1 of every 11 people.

Don't re-elect anyone......

Thank you!

Thank you!

Thanks buddy

Thank you kindly

You know we can't trust any of the politicians as far as we can throw them but I've gotten nothing but pushback and commercial rhetoric from Mark Robinson's office so far. I even sent 500$ donation to try and get them to answer me..... Josh Stein issued an official press release taking the side of the recs on this one with no prompting from me. In fairness, Cooper made big promises to help us too and didn't come through but I genuinely think Robinson is pretty firmly in the corner of the comm industry as of now. I'd love to have both candidates in our corner as there is clearly a right and wrong to this that goes beyond political party BS but I honestly think I might cast the first blue vote of my life if this continues to play out the way it has so far. I'm not worried that it will change any major issues (2nd amendment, etc) as the Republicans will still have a super majority in the state or I wouldn't be willing to risk it but as it stands, the Governor has a ton of power in fisheries but little in law making without Republicans behind him so I think I might lean that way. If you've got any way to contact Robinson, please reach out and see if you can get them to issue a press release taking a stance but I've been stonewalled or given commercial sentiment so far by everyone on his team that I have spoken with.

Revenue comes from many places as it relates to fishing. mostly motels, restaurants, boat sales and boat equipment, guides, license, rods, reels and even tackle.

I thought exactly the same thing and some of the pressure most certainly turned to trout but many people have also gone to other states or just stopped going. Lots of people only gig so that shut them down completely. At one of the recent MFC meetings on mullet, a tackle shop owner from OBX said the flounder restrictions caused a 70% loss in revenue in the 3rd quarter.

@@FishingwithBrewski Also good to point out that when the pressure turns to other fish, we see negative affects on those fisheries, too. (anyone paying attention to upcoming trout regulations?)

Or make trades according to upcoming policy legislation (See Nancy and Paul Pelosi)

It's sickens me when I see how much the politicians out perform the best traders on Wall Street. Totally legal, nothing to see here.....

When I fish certain areas I see them a lot.

@@FishingwithBrewski I guess I don’t tend to fish where people are. And since I’ve only got like 2 subscribers it’s pretty hard to run into anyone. You been up around New Bern lately?

Exactly. So dumb. But glad to see it

It's all about the principle for me. I'm not pissed because of no season. I'm pissed because our govt has clearly chosen the profits of a few wealthy people over the best interests of the state and the rights of the people. Having been a Marine, this sort of thing gets me fired up beyond reason. I know people that died in the name of freedom and justice and I don't see that here. The oath reads "all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC".

Make no mistake, there is little or no communication between these groups. It's one of the most ridiculous aspects of all of this.

VA has Omega protein running the pogie boats and just reopened the winter crab trawl fishery that catches roughly 90% female crabs. They definitely have some issues. SC is another story but they are definitely working far better for the interests of the people.

Technically, if you are found in possession of a flounder in NC it will be illegal.

@@FishingwithBrewski not really the world is turn outside down, no human can’t control Father creation.

@@FishingwithBrewski we human are getting so weak about creating. All about money and not worrying about life. Because money all this happen.