IB Hooked - April 4, 2007
The odyssey that Turk’s memorial service has become has finally ended I think, the celebration of his life and times is gonna be held at his ol’ shack at the Saida this Wednesday at five and a half in the pm. Parkin’s gonna be a bitch but what the hay, come one come all even the Monteraliens are gonna show.
Snapper, snapper snapper the fishin’ be good but the news be bad. The recreational season will open on April 21st with a four fish bag limit in Federal waters. At midnight on May Day it will close for a moment and reopen with a two fish bag limit in federal waters but the four fish bag will remain in State waters. This has been brought to ya’ll by the junk science advocates at the Coastal Conservation Association, Environmental Defense, Ocean Conservancy et. al. and a Federal Judge in Houston by the name of Melinda Harmon whose rulin’ last month will have ramifications the likes of which we ain’t ever seen. She bought into the argument by the enviros that red snapper populations are at three percent of their historical abundance and us recreational fisherman are the cause along with the shrimpers and the chupecabra and probably the bottlenose dolphin. What this means for the future of snaps as table fare is that your probably gonna have to buy the critters off the commercials cuz they can still fish. It looks bad now but wait for next year and the year after that, the probability is that a moratorium will be imposed on recreational snaps in Federal waters to save the critters. As Al Gore knows, you spew a lie often enough and vociferously enough it becomes the truth and the truth is that we be one step closer to the Gulf becomin’ a pettin’ zoo. To be continued next week with some good news.
Cut line- Sweet Veronica, the bar maid from hell at the Coral Reef Lounge with a Texas red snapper. She fished with Captain Dave aboard Not at Work, they got a boat limit and a mako shark that was also depleting the snapper stock.
