I’m bored at work so ask anything you want and I’ll try to answer it with as much of a fisherman’s viewpoint and twist as I can.
Keep in mind, I’m from Southern California so I probably won’t be able to tell you the best place to go fishing in Iraq.
What advice do you have for someone who could not catch fish in a bucket with a net? I am being mildly facetious but I truly suck at fishing. :mad: I used to go all the time with my uncle but one day he confessed to liking to take me along just so he knew he could catch double one person’s limit. I love the outdoors and going out for the walk along the water be it a lake, a stream or river but I would starve if all I had was a fishing pole.
Well there are a few things you can do.
Practice is very important. Repetition builds muscle memory and skill. Once you get comfortable with the whole thing, you’ll spend more time fishing rather than figuring out how to tie knots or fixing tangles. You’ll also find yourself casting a lot more accurately.
Think like a fish. Try to figure out where the fish will be hanging around. Fish choose certain spots so they can hide from predators and ambush pray. Also, the water’s surface really magnifies the sunlight, which hurts their eyes. So spots with shade, lily pads, under boulders and around weeds are good for protecting them against the sun. Those all happen to be good ambush spots as well. Other things to consider are transitions where the bottom changes. For example, hard bottom turns into soft bottom or the cobblestones turn into pebbles. Fish seem to like quick access to deep water as well. So cast to where the fish are. On one hand you should expect to lose a weight or two (you’re probably not fishing in the right spot if you don’t) but don’t deposit too many of them at the lake’s bottom either.
For streams, presentation is even more critical since the fish usually hunker down at a spot and weight for food to drift to them. Fish will usually hold in slow water right next to some current the will drift the food right in front of them. Trout are able to find chironomid larvae in fast flowing water using this technique.
Quality fishing equipment helps too but isn’t really necessary.
Always pay attention. If you wait too long the fish might swallow the hook, making release impossible, or he might spit the bait out and leave. In California, by law you can’t leave a rod unattended for that very reason. Having the rod in your hand will help with this too.
Do you believe that the world’s supply of fish is running out, or do you believe that the oceans are essentially limitless and that the whole we’re-running-out-of-fish thing is alarmism?
It depends. According to the fish stories I’ve been told of fishing locally decades ago (1960s and older I guess) the fishing has declined. Some old timers reported catching yellowtails inside Redondo Harbor and Tuna very close to shore and off of piers. I’ve never heard of those happening in recent years but I don’t know if it’s because of a fishery decline, pollution, or just a change in current or water temperature or a combination of those. Occasionally though, we will get a few Yellowfin Tuna within a short distance from Long Beach. But that happens only once every few years and the fish aren’t here in big numbers.
Tuna numbers, in general, are probably low, or will be sometime in the future. They’re highly sought after both by the recreational and commercial anglers. I can’t imagine that their numbers aren’t dwindling actually. During tuna season, SoCal anglers go down to San Diego and get on the sportfishing boats. These trips usually last anywhere from overnight to two days and the boats travel south into Mexico in search of the tuna. Every time I’ve been out, there have been plenty of seinersaround us. The boat I linked to can hold 1300 tons of fish. They use helicopters to help spot the fish then drop a net around the whole school. Commercial boats definitely do some damage to that whole fishery. The sport fleet, on the otherhand, probably doesn’t even put a dent in it. 86897
I really don’t have a good cite for any of this and I can’t find any numbers for the amount of fish the commercial fleet takes but I’ll do the best I can I guess. Feel free to link to a site with that info if any of you know of one.
Here are some counts from the landings out of San Diego (I took the numbers from the years the fish were most plentiful)
Albacore
24071
14896
23449
24481
Keep in mind, those numbers are of individual fish. The albacore average around 30 pounds (might even be a liberal estimate on their weight). With those numbers, all the sport boats in San Diego caught a combined total of 2600 tons of albacore.
There are a lot of tuna though and they grow and reproduce fast. Fish populations seem to be pretty quick to bounce back.
White Sea Bass numbers were low but thanks to hatchery programthat they have going in our harbors, the numbers are on the rise again.
We also have Giant Sea Bass (Although we call it Black Sea Bass) that are endangered. However, they seem to be making a comeback, I’ve heard of about 5 of them being caught in the last two years. In fact, I was lucky enough to catch one on my kayak a few weeks ago. Fortunately, it was successfully released.
Salmon and Steelhead fisheries, as far as I know are really hurting. I don’t think we even had a Salmon season last year.
Overall, lots of fish are prone to over fishing but the odds of anymore fish becoming endangered due to the fishing is slim to none in the United States. When I become King Of The World, I will ban all commercial fishing and put some strict regulations on sport fishing. 
Are you a commercial fisherman or is it a hobby? If the former, do you trawl, long-line, or what?
Is the fishing industry a classic case of the tragedy of the commons?
It’s a hobby. My friend also owns a fishing website/forum that I help moderate and run. We actually ran a tournament that aired on a fishing show on ESPN.
I’m going to ignore lakes and streams for this one and just focus on the Pacific Ocean.
If you include the commercial fishing industry, then yes. If it’s people just fishing for their own dinner, then no.
I think if people fish for themselves with current recreational fishing methods, the Pacific Ocean’s fisheries can pretty much sustain themselves. Of course, some anglers are completely reckless and you’ll have people killing fish just to use for fertilizer and a stroll on any of our piers will reveal poachers snagging lobsters and other fish. But even taking that into account, I don’t think much harm would be done to the fisheries if commercial fishing didn’t exist.
When you’re selling fish to sushi restaurants in a non-coastal state is when the problems start happening. Recreational anglers catch only a small fraction of what the commercial guys do.
Obviously though, banning commercial fishing will never happen and I think the agencies do a pretty good job of setting regulations for that type of stuff.