THREE SNAPPERS A DAY - RIDICULOUS!
by
Dick Alley
While my last blog about NO FISHING signs at Burying Hill Beach made mention of it as a prime location for fishing for snapper blues, it barely touched on an even sadder side of the fishing picture regarding these late summer and early fall favorites.
SNAPPERS are baby bluefish, spawned in the spring season and now in the 3 to 4-inch size. Before they leave in late September, many will measure half a foot in length.
I discovered snappers in the late 50's, early 60's, when I first began fishing the waters of Long Island Sound. I started with stripers, thanks to the late Ed Boland, first owner of the Westport Tackle Shop. The summer time striper picture slows considerably, but snappers are fun, fantastic in the frying pan and available in every cove, creek and current flow.
They are relatively easy to catch, feed on live or frozen fish baits and attack artificial lures with hard-hitting strikes that put a bend in a fishing rod and a smile on faces of kids from six to sixty and beyond.
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| At PAL snapper derby's the bamboo rods were ideal for starting kids snapper fishing. |
In the good old days, the easiest method was the bamboo pole, line and bobber, baited with a frozen shiner. Weekends in August and September found dozens of anglers lining the Post Road Bridge on the dropping tide and everyone catching fish. They were mostly families--Moms, Dads and youngsters all sharing in the fun.
More sophisticated and/or more experienced anglers utilized a favorite trout rod loaded with 4 to six pound test line, a heavier leader and a choice of a variety of shiny silver lures. Early favorites were the Thomas Eel, the Kastmaster, the small Hopkins, anything that was shiny and flashy. Then came the Snappa-Popper and variations that combined the splash of a panicked baitfish with plastic or rubber-based small lures. Many of us simply hooked up a bobber and baited with frozen shiners.
There were dozens of great spots along the river. Almost any dock was fair game for finding snappers. Fire-fighters fished behind the Firehouse in Saugatuck. Anglers lined the river bank next to the Black Duck. The waters under the I-95 bridge and boat ramp was a popular spot. The most popular locations for locals were always Burying Hill and the tidal gates at Sherwood Mill Pond.
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| A family fishes for snappers at Sherwood Mill Pond. |
A day's fishing consisted of filling a bucket to take home, clean and either feast or freeze for feasting during the winter months. Anglers could keep their catch. There was no limit and for decades, there was never a problem. Snappers came back in droves, year after year, no matter how good or bad the season was for the bigger of the species.
Now the biologists are telling us there is a shortage of bluefish and this year limited the daily catch to 3 blues, irregardless of size. Not in terms of "science" but in terms of common sense, this is ridiculous.
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| An older photo of the creek and bridges at Old Mill. |
Snappers are food fish for many ocean predators. They are a favorite fluke bait. Stripers, sharks, sea bass and probably even bigger bluefish all feed on snappers, along with seagulls, cormorants and likely lots of other critters found in the waters of Long Island Sound.
If the bluefish population wasn't harmed back in the days when few recreational fishermen paid attention to conservation, how can it be a problem now when there are far fewer anglers on the waters and most are aware of and practice conservation.
I doubt whether any of our so-called scientists could come up with any real numbers showing increased bluefish populations due to a 3-fish limit on snappers. I'm sure that there are real numbers of small tackle businesses that have shut down because of over-regulation of the recreational fishing community.
How many thousands of bait boxes full of frozen shiners won't be sold this summer? How many lures, rods and reels, bamboo poles won't be put in the hands of kids with nothing to do? Kids who could be safely enjoying the sport of fishing in a time when most other sports are deemed unsafe in these times of COVID-19.
How do we get a kid excited by letting him or her catch 3 fish in five minutes and then telling them it's time to go home? How do we produce a meal for a family with 3 fish measuring under 6-inches in length? A 3-fish limit is worse than ridiculous. It is obviously the product of a bunch of politicians, probably none of whom ever caught a fish in their life.
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