Bad news for recreational river herring fishing in VA

But good news for river herring.  

I went to Walker's Dam today on the Chickahominy River.  I heard scuttlebutt from several fisherman that the VMRC will be putting a moratorium on recreational anadromous river herring fishing in 2009, apparently like North Carolina has for 2008.  I could hardly believe it.  So I stopped by the baitshop at Ed Allen's on Chick Lake and sure enough, the Atlantic States Marine Fishery Commission as instructed the VMRC to cut off recreational anadromous river herring fishing in 2009 since it has failed to show that it can sustain a fishery.   There will be a public meeting on this soon.

Bad news since river herring fishing is a spring ritual.  Good news since too many fisherman take far more than they can possibly use.   I saw one boat today with what had to be the equivalent of a 55 gallon drum of blueback herring.