Are guided trips considered "commercial fishing"?

[smokeater]

I ask this question only because a friend brought in some abalone in for dinner the other night and we got to talking about the legal limits and what not. So here it is, it is not legal to take abalone commercially, like say how wild salmon and other species are harvested. Yet my friend was telling me about how he was out ab-diving and saw a bus load of 40 tourists pull up with a guide and jump into the water. Is this legal?

[David Lee]

Hi Smoke , good to see ya back ... you were MIA for a while there .....

I think it IS legal - for someone to guide for Abs , as long as legal bag limits are followed , and no Abs are sold .

Been gettin' out at all ??

David

[smokeater]

Thanks David, I have been wanting to go but my father inlaw has been in the hospital since July so I've been a bit preoccupied. I definitely feel like I need to get out. I might make it out to the Yuba this week, but who knows......I've been thinking that for about two months. Sounds like some guys have been doing well on the AR.

[Gregg]

I think the "commerical" fishing angle is in regard to resale of the catch. I agree, though, about the frustration your friend feels seeing the tourists pile into the water. My family is from Mendocino and every year thousands come and pick everything that can be streached to legal limit... We used to be able to rock pick off the Caspar bluffs or Albion, but you have to almost go commando to find a decent sized ab anymore. I'm actually in favor of shutting down the abalone fishery from Point Arena north for a few years, to let the populations grow. The only problem is the tourism ab diving brings to the area...

[smokeater]

It kinda sucks when the species gets so much pressure that the locals only have slim pickings. I almost chuckle when I run into people on the AR that they drove 3 or 4 hours to fish for steelhead here. Don't get me wrong, I feel very fortunate to have this fishery in my backyard, but no way would I drive 3 hours to fish here on some random day. I can think of atleast 6 other places I would go to instead.

[Gregg]

I think we maybe just need something scary like grizzly bears or alligators in the AR to keep people on their toes, like white sharks in Northern CA. Wait, Adam's getting pretty good with photoshop...

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Before the big draught in the late '70s the Eel River northwest of us had an unblievable run of fall King Salmon and winter Steelhead.

I heard stories that drift boat guides would have 2 or 3 anglers in their boat pulling plugs where they would catch-n-kill a limit of wild Steelhead for every customer. I heard at one time there was hundreds of drift boats on the river per day too.

This was legal but I still do think it was right.

Today I would say that 99% of the fly fishing guides catch-n-release all their fish.

[steve sullivan]

It kinda sucks when the species gets so much pressure that the locals only have slim pickings. I almost chuckle when I run into people on the AR that they drove 3 or 4 hours to fish for steelhead here. Don't get me wrong, I feel very fortunate to have this fishery in my backyard, but no way would I drive 3 hours to fish here on some random day. I can think of atleast 6 other places I would go to instead.

I am thinking of making a new thread on the american. Fishing on the Feather I see many people from Sacramento, and I ask them about the American, and invariably they say they dont like fishing the AR much, because of : too much litter, too many people, too few riffles. I dont think I have ever meet anyone on the lower feather (which I think is a dump, and too crowded) from the sacto area sing the praises of the AR, and find it weird for them to drive 2 hours to fish the *FEATHER*. I mean taking the drive to fish the klammath, or the lower sac is one thing, but the lower feather??

[smokeater]

Considering that it's only about 20 minutes drive from my doorstep to the river, it is my destination about 95% of the time. And with it being so close it's easy for me to go out for a few hours without wasting the entire day on a whim. Also taking into consideration that it is in the middle of about 3 million people, it's a great fishery. There's definitely more people and more garbage than you will find further north. But seriously, it's not that bad of a place to fish when there's some kind of game fish running all year around (salmon, steelhead, stripers, and shad), and all right here in my backyard. The only time that it gets really bad is when there's a ton of people trying to cash in on the salmon run and when the idiots come out for the summer holiday weekends. Ihave some friends that work in town and fish just about everyday on their lunch break, if you can get on the water every day without leaving town.....that's pretty hard to beat.

[Hairstacker]

All I can say is, I wish I had a river like the American flowing right through the middle of Tracy. Pretty amazing, actually, given that it flows right through the middle of a major city. There's a lot to be said for fishing that's very close by, which is why I spend the vast majority of my time in the Delta. 'Course, the Delta is a place I'd be willing to drive long distances for. 8) Last season, I met up with two guys who had driven from Reno to fish a stretch I was in. :shock:

[smokeater]

I guess that for most out of towners, the AR is a good choice simply because it's easy to get to and there's good access points throughout the entire length.