as i said before, without some kind of yearly limit on halibut statewide, what kind of impact would an earlier opening in the strait have for the neah bay season? let's say the inside opens in the feb-april timeframe, what would keep people from catching fish inside and then just moving to the ocean when we open in may.

also, all this talk of big halibut is interesting. why should we set seasons that specifically target large halibut? aren't most of the big halibut large females? wouldn't it be better to protect to the best of our ability the larger halibut? i'm not in favor of maximum size limits and i have kept some large halibut out in the ocean, but the eating quality of those halibut just don't measure up and we really should lay off the big ones by not specifically targeting fisheries at them.

just some thoughts.

chris bellows
http://www.halibut.fishingneahbay.com