Virginia Herring

[Smoothkip]

Moratorium on River Herring Fishing Now in Effect
On January 1, 2012, a moratorium on River Herring fishing went into effect. The VA Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) states that the purposes of the moratorium are to rebuild the Virginia stocks of River Herring and to comply with the requirements of the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Shad and River Herring. It is unlawful for any person to possess any river herring in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Fishermen that traditionally fish for river herring with hook and line, dip nets, cast nets, gill nets or any other gear should be aware of this fishing closure and not purchase a gear license if they were only interested in fishing for river herring.

For more info on the regulation establishing the moratorium visit the VMRC website.

[Seanstone]

Glad to see some more fishing regulations going into effect. I've never heard of a moratorium before. Does that mean that the herring can't even be targeted even for c/r? Kinda like spoonbill, and sturgeon in Ohio?

[bobbybobber]

this law sorta ticks me off to no end herring are awesome bait,and no you can fish for them period,commercail fishing at it finest pluse the guys dip nets taking them by the truck load really did a number

[Seanstone]

Man that sucks Bobby. Sorry to hear that. Atleast theres a regulation in place now. Wonder if it gets enforced on sportfisherman? We have a few laws in Ohio that get overlooked by wardens and rangers a lot.

[Smoothkip]

It says by no methods at all, that includes sport fishing and catch and release.

[Catfishrollo]

I can see the purpose of the moratorium, what get me though is alot of times they just up and place a closure such as this. Why can't there just be a change in restrictions instead? rollo

[bobbybobber]

what stinks is alot of us catfisherman use gillnets out here and when the herring, american,and hickorys shad run all at the same time when they get in a gillnet they die 99.9% of the time and that a waste of a fish that could of been used for bait or ate

[Catfishrollo]

Jan 26, 2012 15:00:50 GMT -5 bobbybobber said:

what stinks is alot of us catfisherman use gillnets out here and when the herring, american,and hickorys shad run all at the same time when they get in a gillnet they die 99.9% of the time and that a waste of a fish that could of been used for bait or ate

I can def. relate to what your saying. By no means do I have the experience with a gill net like alot of others that use them year round, but now that you mention it, thats a very valid point! Alot of the time they are wrapped up badly,,,, and wouldn't survive after getting them out of the net. rollo