NBS Sportfishing - View Single Post

zyg · 02-20-2007, 08:53 AM

The VAS reporting process is really simple and I use it as part of my personal logs to track where and when I find fish that I?m targeting.

The info that you record for each trip includes:

Date
start time
total time fished
whether you fished from shore or a boat
number of fishermen in your party
how many fishermen caught fish, the area you fished (there?s a map that breaks down LIS, Fishers Island Sound, BIS, RI and NY into different sectors with number assigned to each)
and the species of fish targeted.

Then there?s a place to record each fish caught, it?s species, measured length, and whether it was kept or released.

When the logbook is full you send it back - it?s postage paid. I usually start the year out with two books and request a 3rd later in the season.

Sometime in the winter your logbooks are returned to you along with the results of the years survey. The report contains some pretty good information. You get a glimpse into the state fish stocks in the area, charts showing the smallest to largest fish in the report and what the average size is. Unfortunately, it seems that the number of participants in the study have dropped in the past few years. If I remember correctly, only 73 people were in the program last year.

Hope this helps.