Game and Fish to Provide Cleaning Service during Paddlefish Season

Lycanthrope

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[h=3]April 28, 2017[/h]
Game and Fish to Provide Cleaning Service during Paddlefish Season
For this year, the North Dakota Game and Fish Department will provide a free cleaning service for snaggers who harvest a paddlefish.​
The cleaning service will operate from 8 a.m. – 10 p.m. on harvest days out of North Star Caviar’s station at the Confluence. A shuttle will not be available to transport fish, therefore snaggers who want their paddlefish cleaned must haul it to the cleaning station.​
Snaggers who clean their own fish are responsible for properly disposing the carcass.
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I gotta say WTF? I want them to start cleaning fish at fox island now also!

 


Gus

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Taking a shot here, that it'll be mid to late August when they get it set up
 


remm

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Good on the g&f for this. I've never been paddlefishing, so never cleaned one but after the bitching on the thread about the cleaning service not being offered this year i can only imagine its not very fun. For all the things that everyone bitches about the ndgf for, i'd take this as a win and a sign that they are trying. ��
 

Lycanthrope

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Good on the g&f for this. I've never been paddlefishing, so never cleaned one but after the bitching on the thread about the cleaning service not being offered this year i can only imagine its not very fun. For all the things that everyone bitches about the ndgf for, i'd take this as a win and a sign that they are trying. ��

Its not hard, easier than gutting a deer for sure. People should learn, maybe instead of doing for fishermen they should have an instructor there to help people do it themselves? (for those who dont know how to use the internet)
 

Brian Renville

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Yea I'm not so sure it's something to get cranky about but, in a away, i'm on board with what you are saying here Lycan. The game and fish cleaning fish for folks might be a bit much. Is the profit on the tags that great that it can pay all the man hours it's going to clean them? Where are the eggs going now? If they go in the garbage, since that's what North Star claims they are worth at this point, that's fine with me I'm just curious if the G&F is able to find an added plus here. If they claim this is for harvest info anybody could tell you that the harvest would have been drastically lower than previous years and the fish caught a break for a year. If it's worthwhile to the taxpayers then have at it I would hope to hear silence though when the G&F says they need more money for something else down the road. Anyone see any adds for cleaners? I bet they pay pretty well.
 

cooter00

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The only reason g&f are offering to clean is to track the numbers that's why it is important and a good thing other wise it would take twice the manpower to manage
 


Paddledogger

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First off, yes, I'm sure G & F wants to have the cleaning to track the quota # for the year. Even in the past years, they try to stop it at 900 at the cleaning station because they believe 10% of the fisherman clean their own, which I believe it is more like 5% or maybe less.

I do have a problem with North star Caviar announcing this 2 to 3 weeks before the season, forcing G & F into this situation. They have a product/resource that they get FREE, process it, put it in a cooler/freezer at 29° and wait for the orders to come in on a plain an generic website that has not been improved much for the past 8-10 years. You just can't tell me that with the average pounds of caviar they would receive out of a moderate female that you can't make some sort of profit. Here's my math:

Say 500 females are caught in North Dakota alone and they process about 8# of good caviar on average. That comes out to 4000 pounds of caviar. I see the price list isn't on their website no more, so now you have to call (I heard they were asking $100/ounce). But let's just say they ask for $85/ounce. 16 ounces X $85=$1360/lb. So then 4000 lbs. of caviar at $1360/lb. = $5,440,000. Now, what I don't know if their true expense during the season, processing cost, utilities, building space and office/sales staffing. So, I am concerned that they will just see part of this resource go into the garbage. If I am really missing something here....can someone please explain it to me.

Time to pack up and make the venture up. Good luck to everyone going up this year. All I ask is that when you go up on catch and keep days that you take your meat and eat it. Many people don't like the taste, but I do suggest that you try to eat it within a couple months. It does get a taste in the freezer in a short period of time.

FISH ON!!!! #$%^&>
 

Lycanthrope

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Id say the GF could do like they do with deer, estimate the average success and sell X amount of tags, maybe make a customer survey mandatory so they can keep track of the real numbers after the season has ended. Just seems like a waste of $$$ that could be used elsewhere to me.
 

Brian Renville

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Id say the GF could do like they do with deer, estimate the average success and sell X amount of tags, maybe make a customer survey mandatory so they can keep track of the real numbers after the season has ended. Just seems like a waste of $$$ that could be used elsewhere to me.

Not a bad idea, that's how other states do things with other fish. If you don't turn in your catch card you don't get another tag.
 

labhunter66

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First off, yes, I'm sure G & F wants to have the cleaning to track the quota # for the year. Even in the past years, they try to stop it at 900 at the cleaning station because they believe 10% of the fisherman clean their own, which I believe it is more like 5% or maybe less.

I do have a problem with North star Caviar announcing this 2 to 3 weeks before the season, forcing G & F into this situation. They have a product/resource that they get FREE, process it, put it in a cooler/freezer at 29° and wait for the orders to come in on a plain an generic website that has not been improved much for the past 8-10 years. You just can't tell me that with the average pounds of caviar they would receive out of a moderate female that you can't make some sort of profit. Here's my math:

Say 500 females are caught in North Dakota alone and they process about 8# of good caviar on average. That comes out to 4000 pounds of caviar. I see the price list isn't on their website no more, so now you have to call (I heard they were asking $100/ounce). But let's just say they ask for $85/ounce. 16 ounces X $85=$1360/lb. So then 4000 lbs. of caviar at $1360/lb. = $5,440,000. Now, what I don't know if their true expense during the season, processing cost, utilities, building space and office/sales staffing. So, I am concerned that they will just see part of this resource go into the garbage. If I am really missing something here....can someone please explain it to me.

Time to pack up and make the venture up. Good luck to everyone going up this year. All I ask is that when you go up on catch and keep days that you take your meat and eat it. Many people don't like the taste, but I do suggest that you try to eat it within a couple months. It does get a taste in the freezer in a short period of time.

FISH ON!!!! #$%^&>

I think your numbers are way off. I don't think they get 4000 lbs and you can find it on the internet for $24/oz. I think they get closer to 2500 lbs on a good year. If it's selling for $24 they're probably being offered $10-12/oz. That comes out to $480,000. I would think they would have the ability to make some money at that level on a short season but if it runs out for the whole month I think they'd have a tough time. Demand is obviously way down so they might not even get $12/oz and the way it sounded they were having a tough time moving their inventory at all but it sucks they waited until so late to say something.
 

Paddledogger

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I think your numbers are way off. I don't think they get 4000 lbs and you can find it on the internet for $24/oz. I think they get closer to 2500 lbs on a good year. If it's selling for $24 they're probably being offered $10-12/oz. That comes out to $480,000. I would think they would have the ability to make some money at that level on a short season but if it runs out for the whole month I think they'd have a tough time. Demand is obviously way down so they might not even get $12/oz and the way it sounded they were having a tough time moving their inventory at all but it sucks they waited until so late to say something.

Back in 2001, my 100+ lbs. fish had 20 pounds of eggs...all of it was good eggs after they tested. Last year they caught many large females that made "Whopper Club". Here is a link that I just found with some pricing.

http://www.caviarexpress.com/products.php?category_id=58
 
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