I assume they were not commercial fishermen? I am a sport fisher and believe there is a limit even if I am catching quite a bit... especially in fresh water. Not because the government says so, but as a courtesy to fellow anglers. Salt water is a different story...
Not really. Striped bass had been overfished. There's a lot of pressure on the stocks, even from rod & reel sportfishermen. That's why there is a daily limit of 2 per person and a minimum (typical) size of 2. Rules vary by state, though.
Back in the 70s my boys and I did a lot of party boat rock cod fishing off the SoCal coast. Dunno what the limits are now but in those days it was 15. The normal rig was a 5-hook shrimp fly rig but we took the "bigger lure = bigger fish" route and and routinely used only one lure/jig. We still consistently caught more than the limit but what we did on the way home was to dump the bag, pick out the 15 biggest fish, and let those who didn't limit out fill theirs. The skippers loved it as the overall catch made them look like they limited out all the time. There never was any waste as there was always people who didn't catch many. Never felt like we were wiping out the stock - coming up from deep water (200-300 feet) caused the fish's air bladders to swell, so they could never get back down.
On the flip side, we fished the shallow Chesapeake Bay and caught nothing but babies. We threw them back over the cries of distress of many on board who couldn't see that small fish grew bigger if given a chance.