What a wonderful post. I live in Scotland and very much a coastal person, I was brought up fishing, not commercially though!
But oh dear me how things have changed. They have here too, what you are allowed to catch and when etc.
I believe in doing what you love and as often as you can. So if you still love it and are able to, then I would keep going. But pains hurt, as a long term arthritis sufferer I know that!
Welcome to the community, do have a look around and post some more!
@tengolotodo Thank you for your comment, it is hard to give up what you love to do because of pain.
I think the fishing has gotten worse world wide, I am not sure what is going on elsewhere but here it was caused by man trying to change what Mother Nature set in place, our river is a brackish water lagoon, not really a river. The State has stopped most of the freshwater from entering it making it more salty and the fish and seagrass that depend on brackish water have all but vanished. They say the freshwater is polluted, and it might be but it was not hurting the lagoon until they stopped it. My theory is they need this freshwater for their treatment plants to sell back to all of the developments they are putting in. To get public opinion on their side, they would hold back the freshwater until the salinity in the lagoon was very high, then they released it all at once creating algae blooms, and the public could see the brown water and the fish kills. If you ask anyone who does not make their living on the water what is wrong, they say pollution. It was like putting freshwater into a saltwater fish tank.
Sorry about the rant but when they mess with fishermen's livelihood, it hits hard.