It will only serve to make you a better fisherman. Also, never, ever ask them where they fish. If someone genuinely seeks information, I am more than willing to provide a little education. I'll even take someone fishing, since it affords me the opportunity to share my philosophies on surf angling. Lastly, we had better find a way to group together in order to better educate or confront the truly ignorant among us.
Few people enjoy direct confrontation, especially if they are out numbered by big, dumb animals.
Very few of us enjoy proselytizing either. There is always strength and reassurance in numbers. To sum it up, we have three options. Either we can throw our rods down in disgust and quit fishing. We can ignore the problem, and then complain when we are slapped with restrictive legislation, or when the stocks of stripers collapse once more, or we can take a proactive approach .