If you’ve been paying attention to what’s happening with the fisheries management in North Carolina, you might be scratching your head wondering just what happened.
Joe brought on special guest Steve Brewster to share everything he’s uncovered in this unfortunate mismanagement of our public resources.
Fasten your seatbelt… and be sure to subscribe to @FishingwithBrewski!
If you like our videos, you’ll LOVE being a Salt Strong Member!
Click here to sign up for our FREE 90/10 Zone newsletter
➡️ https://secure.saltstrong.com/90-10-zone
Want to try a FREE pack of our #1 inshore fishing lures?
➡️ https://www.saltstrong.com/slamshady-v2/2.0.php
Visit our FREE Smart Fishing Tides page and be better informed without all the annoying ads
➡️ https://www.smartfishingtides.com
Membership has its privileges!
➡️ https://www.saltstrong.com/pricing
Select the Membership tier that works best for the way you fish and get access* to these game-changing features:
Smart Fishing Spots App (mobile and web)
Fishing School
Big tackle Discounts
Inshore Cheat Sheets
Friendly, Positive Private Community Feed
Tackle Tester Opportunities
Free Slam Shady for Life Program
Weekly Smart Fishing Game Plans
Mini-Courses
Mastery Courses
Live Coach Q&A
* Feature access is dependent on Membership level
43 Comments
There is no truth in this video. The notion that there are no flounder is a lie. All I catch is flouder! Nice job, not blaming commercials, and then blaming commercial 🙄 I caught 41 flouder in one day this past weekend, and everyone I know is catching them like this.
This sounds just like a CCA talking points. There's more red drum than mullets and we still have a one fish limit. All because of groups like CCA! I talked to marine fisheries and their is no such thing as a 30$ fine and he said that this was B.S .
i am for banning inshore shrimp trawlers.. they need to go .. thats the first step to recovering the NC fishery.. our sounds and estuaries are fish nurseries and those trawlers kill 10s of millions of pounds of nursery fish, they need to go back out into the atlantic ocean and stay there.
I live in Virginia by the Chesapeake Bay and I have been catching a lot of small flounder. In July I probably caught over 50, maybe 60. Only 2 were big enough to keep. The minimum size is 17 and 1/2", so a legal fish is a nice one. They raised the limit from 16 on the first of July. There are tons of babies around, it's easy to catch 10 or 12 in a morning. But keepers are pretty rare. At least we can keep them if they're big enough. My friends here usually go to the Outer Banks every summer to fish for flounder. They're not going this year in protest of the flounder regulations.
Can the people of NC do a net ban like we did in 92 in FL? I helped get petitions signed for the amendment. Within a couple years it definitely made a huge difference. Once the gill nets quit taking all the mullet and killing snook, redfish and whatever else, we started catching a lot more fish in Sarasota. I was 18 that year and super happy to vote to ban commercial netting in the state waters. I'd love to see other states do the same thing.
The correct word is extirpate. Extinction means wiped out completely. The fluke species you're talking about still exist. Their numbers are low in NC but they do exist.
The sad truth, at least in Florida, is that after the 1995 Net Ban, the judges felt sorry for the commercial fisherman. Were they in the judges pockets over time, what do you think? Anyway, I have heard way too many stories about $100 fines for the Florida poachers, and again, it's just pennies regarding the cost of doing business.
Also, after 31 years as an inshore fishing guide, what's left in and around Tampa Bay are remnants of a fishery, a true fucking if there ever was one. And what's the bottom line; $$ and greed, as usual.
Citizen United
1:36
I have caught Flounder all year in the Wilmington to Little River area. Tons of flounder. But commercial fishing is king.. Money hungry politicians.
I live in NC and can't believe that the majority of fine people in NC allow this BS to continue.
Thank you, Both for bringing light to this subject. I love Flounder fishing. I know were voting (NC) for a new Governor this NOV. Josh Stein and Mark Robinson. Maybe just maybe we could get Mark Robinson in there and He knows about this whole issue. I would love for him just to disband the DMF…
Democrats and open borders killed it
We need to get rid of gill nets and most of all intercoastal trawling. Its depleting our juvenile fish. No reason why we are still allowing this to continue.
Thank you for bringing awareness to the complete mismanagement of the NC fisheries. As a NC resident all I want is for my kids to grow up catching these fish like I used to. Again, we need to ban gill nets and inshore trawling.
YES YES YES It's abt time we discussed this!
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but NC is the only state on the East Coast and Gulf that still allows inshore trawling. Marine fisheries are trying to start a harvest count for recreational fishermen. I am all for this, but it would take everyone to join and submit their harvest . It will help show that recreational fishermen are not depleting the flounder or trout for that matter. How do you close flounder season, but leave it open for commercial???? Then you open to inland, and not coastal. Money filling pockets. They need to clean the house on both sides. Thanks, Salt Strong! As a member, I appreciate what y'all do, as well as Mr. Brewster. Also, it will definitely help once our current governor is out!!!!!!!! Tight Lines!
Recently visited Fayetteville and Wilmington. Didn't even bother given the regulations and limits and rigmarole for an out-of-stater to get licensed. I did order a fish sandwich in Wilmington one day…
I live at NC coast and on local fishing forums where issues are discussed, and recreational fishermen are upset with the laws.
I saw photos a few years ago along the NC coast that were sickening. Netters culling their catch and couldn't keep stripers because of the season, but hundreds of dead striper floating behind the boat. Just ridiculous!
So spot on, thank you Steve and Joe!! Can't thank you guys enough for putting this out for the world to see!! (Herbie Nelson-North Carolina SS Insider)
Appreciate Salt Strong covering this issue. Feels like we’re on our own in NC… maybe someone can make compromise to satisfy both parties one day
Just a reflection of the downfall of our country today… corruption and individual greed even at the lowest level. End lobbying and you fix everything today. 🇺🇸〰️🦅
I was just fishing the pamlico this weeekend and the wildlife patrol stopped me… smh no more flounder fishing for a while.
Bout time this movement gets going. If we don't keep it up nothing will change. Until they change the allocations for commercial vs rec (sad as hell), there won't be any change. Follow fishing with brewski
For those of you in NC, please call your representatives. I spoke with Senator Norm Sanderson's aide the other day and she was very willing to listen to what is going on in our fisheries. They won't know if we don't contact them.
Can anyone set a gill net or only commercial
If anyone eats shrimp and complains about a trawler, you're a hypocrite.
How about the commercial draggers coming from North Carolina, South Carolina and even Alabama into the continental shelf regions off of NJ, NY and CT during the winter months and sweeping the ocean floors of spawning flounder?
Flounder are like cockroaches in the wrightsville beach area
I live on the Albermarle Sound. Our water was waist high and clear as tap water until about ten years ago. Now it up to your neck and so full of sediment it will stain your clothes. Crabbing and fishing is DEAD. You tell me what these "government" buttheads have done to cause the total destruction of our once beautiful Sound? We don't swim in it anymore, we don't fish in it anymore either. The pier is now just a visual effect, there is no more need to have it. Thanks Government, you incompetent P.O.S.
ALL of North Carolina's little river towns, are now empty hull's of an America built by the WW2 Generation. Milked dry and ran down by their Baby-Boomer children, now there is NOTHING of value, prosperity or a future left for anyone else at all. They not only consumed the inheritance received from their parents but they also "Spent Their Children's Inheritance" just as the bumper sticker said. This world will not survive the Baby-Boomers.
We native NClinans have known this for decades…most of us have been up in arms and writing to our law makers with no reply…I’m 56 and can remember hundred plus flounder days….sadly most were put in the box…
It's crazy how the intersection of government and big business destroys everything it touches
The chevron doctrine just got over turned these 3 letter agency’s don’t have power to do this anymore only legislators can do this file civil suit now
This really sounds like a commercial fisherman caused problem. You're mincing words saying it isn't. Commercial fisherman have destroyed almost every fishery from Cod, swordfish, grouper, red snapper, etc.
With ffs, commercial fisherman are no doubt catching more than they used to while the surf fisherman aren't allowed to keep flounder. Total bs
I tell you exactly POUND NETS that extend all the way across the Palmico! Shrimp boats that catch everything! Regulators who are bought off thru politics!
Commercial fishing destorys the fisheries
Extremely interesting episode. I found interesting that the Federal Regulations are better for the Red Fish than State Regulations are for everything else. 🤔
I have been a NC surf fisherman for close ro 60 years. Now it has become almost a waste of time. There are no fish. The only thing you can catch are small sharks. Everything else is all but gone. I am 70 and my annual fishing license is not cheap. In VA I no longer pay for a fishing license at my age. All we in NC need look no further than what happened to oyster fishing in the Chesapeake Bay to see what stupidity and rampant corruption of all the states bordering that body of water did and failed to do to preserve that lucrative fishery. I grieve for what my children and grandchildren will never enjoy like I did when I was young fishing on NC beaches. Our state fishing authorities are simply corrupt and beyond understanding! I commend you for the attention you have created about these very serious problems. Thank you!
N C dpt of fishiers board of directers is appointed by our govener which is totaly ppolitical . all directers all are the big wigs that own that own bucoos of trawlers , fish houses ,wholesale and retail up and down the east coast . this is a tottaly corupt industry. turn all jurisdiction over to Wilidlife commision then problem solved .
Here’s my question: Who is responsible for issuing regulations to commercial fishing? Why are commercial fisherman allowed to fish inshore up to 3 miles off the coast?I answered my own question. Nc marine fisheries are in control of salt water species. Marine fisheries are a sub unit of environmental quality. The governor appoints the secretary to the environmental quality division and the secretary appoints the director for marine fisheries. The governor appoints the the commission members (3 from commercial (3) from recreational (1) scientist(2) at large appointist (whatever that is) I suppose these members vote on changes to the system.
The problem is thre big companies, the big boats. What they do to the sound and off shore during the winter is brutal. I watch it happen every year. The bycatch is stupid. They kill them all. Smaller commercial fisherman in winter kill twice the limit of speckled trout all winter long. That’s not cool at all.