Friendly & Happy Striped Bass Pros

Below I will outline the common "baitguy" dilemma. First, let me be real clear that I am on both sides of the fence. I am an avid and fairly well accomplished angler as well as a licensed bait man. I almost don't like to use the word "commercial" because it would be okay with me if they stopped all commercial fishing in the entire United States of America tomorrow!

We are a meat and potato eating country. There are plenty of commercial fish-farms raising fish in controlled conditions doing just fine. I just don't like to group myself in with a net boat that has three thousand feet of twine coming off a net reel or a commercial bunker boat that may have between 250,000 - 1,000,000 pounds of bunker/menhaden in its belly from one (1) day of fishing. Me using a 10-foot cast net, just does not seem to be in the same league of this vast commercial network.

Now here is the age-old argument. You may want to go out for a fish dinner with your wife or girlfriend or a nice shrimp cocktail before your meal at a restaurant. How did the fish get there? Some commercial fishermen somewhere on the planet made that possible.
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Most bait guys have a pretty good understanding of the general marine environment. Not to sound arrogant but most commercial fishermen spend more time on the water then the average fisherman and generally have a more informed grasp of that arena.

Here is the scenario:

I go out on the water early in the morning before the sun is even up. All by myself I locate a school of bunker that may not be so obvious to the average fisherman. "Obvious" is the key word here. There are times that it is blatantly obvious when the bunker are up top and boiling a blind man could almost see them. Believe me I have seen over a thousand times guys LOOKING for bunker drive right by them because their presence is very subtle.

So now I get out my cast net and start netting them. People who know I am a bait guy recognize my boat. If they see me I represent the presence of bait! Now they come over and start throwing bunker snags and fishing in the school that I was all-alone in. They have EVERY right to do this! I don't own the ocean, the bunker, or the environment. I never say a word and just do my thing. Now two or three other boats come over because a crowd draws a crowd. Next the bass may start banging away at these bunker and they start catching fish. Now there are six to ten boats in this scenario on this school of bunker/fish. Now one of the boats wants to yell at me because I am throwing my cast net and they think I am scaring the fish ( NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH ). I get screamed at, cursed at, etc. They have no clue that I was here by myself in the first place. I assure you that it would not even make a difference to them 99 out of 100 times anyway.

Now let us make the show even better and closer to home. I show up at your place of work early tomorrow morning. I keep getting in your way hindering you from doing your job, thus preventing you from doing your job and even making a living. Better yet, I start calling you a jerkoff and other choice names because you were just there minding your own business doing your job at work. IF you do not read any further just go back and read the last two paragraphs and TRULY try and be the guy netting the bait or the person in this hypothetical.

Now I ask that you REALLY try to be me in the aforementioned scenarios. Have this happen ten times a day, seven days a week for years and imagine just how tolerant you would be. I am NOT asking for anyone to feel sorry for me. But I do think in general that a little more empathy and a little less arrogance might make the world a bit more harmonious....

I have been in the various harbors of Staten Island in my boat and personally witnessed many times the three regular guys up there that cast net bunker commercially. They are intimately familiar with the local geography, habits and patterns of the bunker in that area. They are going to "read" the water for signs of bait far better then average Joe, the weekend fisherman. These guys like myself go out early, locate bunker and then they are gang raped with boats around them flinging lead. They don't start screaming at the fisherman saying "what are you doing you are going to scare the bunker".

In closing let us reverse this. SCENE 1 -There are a group of boats fishing in a pod of bunker. I pull up and throw my cast net and I am the BAD guy, the devil and this is not acceptable. - SCENE 2 -Now, I am by myself or with five other boats are we are netting a pod of bunker. You pull up start fishing in between us or throwing bunker snags you are GOD and this is fine. I get it now!! Fair to these fishermen stands for: FAIR - Fuck Anybody I'm Right

Even though the above rant may seem a bit long-winded there is a whole lot more to this. People think that my net hitting the water is going to scare the fish. That is not true but I am not going to prove and justify anything. Ignorance can be a disease all by itself. The baitguy seems to be every "bass pros" enemy until they need bait. When they can't find bait or need it they go right to their local tackle shop and buy it. Boy it this isn't the epitome of hypocrisy I don't know what is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I net mullet and bunker for tackle shops. When you go in there to buy some bait to take yourself, son, daughter or family fishing, please try and remember that the bait did not take a taxi, drive to the local tackle tackle shop and jump out of the cab, clean itself off, and then put itself in a plastic bag for your fishing pleasure. It was some "JERKOFF" like me that made your day fishing a success. I hope you caught a bunch!!!!!!!!!

On a tour of Texas, the Pope took a couple of days off to visit the coast for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the beach in the pope-mobile when there was a frantic commotion just off shore. A helpless man wearing
a Green Bay Packer jersey was struggling frantically to free himself from the jaws of a 25-foot shark.

As the Pope watched, horrified, a speedboat came racing up with three men wearing Minnesota Viking jerseys. One quickly fired a harpoon into the shark's side. The other two reached out and pulled the bleeding, semi-conscious Packer Backer from the water, Then, using long clubs, the three beat the shark to death and hauled it into the boat.

Immediately the Pope shouted and summoned them to the beach. "I give you my blessing for your brave actions," he told them. "I heard that there wasbitter hatred between Green Bay Packers and Vikings fans, but now I have seen with my own eyes that this is not true". As the Pope drove off, the harpooner asked his buddies "who was that"? "It was the Pope," one replied. "He is in direct contact with God and has access to all of God's wisdom".

"Well," the harpooner said, "he may have access to God's wisdom, but he doesn't know anything about shark fishing. Is the bait holding up O.K., or do we need to get another one"?