I spend a lot of time talking about how important it is to collect data regarding recreational angling. Far too much time. I spent a week this past month in Washington DC talking to multiple representatives and senators and committees about the lack of recreational angling data and was amazed at how little they actually have. It's one of the reasons regulations get tighter, seasons get shorter and catch shares (where they exist) go down for the everyday fisherman.
That's why I was so happy to see this striper tagging project in the Hudson River. It may only be two fish, but it 's two fish in the right area at the right time and it's two fish more than there were last week. Hopefully, these fish can relay enough information that next year they can tag 5 or 10. Then 20. Then 50. All the decisions regarding recreational angling are made by people looking at data. If there is no data showing what recreational guys are catching (or not catching) and where they're catching (or not catching), those decisions are going to not fall the right way for us. Here's a link to the striper story: http://www.thefisherman.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=feature.display&feature_ID=2332&ParentCat=9
Have fun!