Gator
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Posts: 1,534
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Post by Gator on Jul 25, 2014 8:19:26 GMT -5
Was on the water from 6 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. Spent too much time in the wrong place as I was only marking scattered fish with no takers. We decided to troll u-rigs in a stretch of water that I had not been fishing and boy was there fish. Guess it pays to think out of the box once in awhile. Caught six and they were all 24" or less but at least it kept the skunk out of the boat. Fish are all hitting white swim baits and mostly the trailer. Sure do hope the smaller fish that are released are surviving. I have been getting them to the boat as fast as possible and releasing them quickly(not even taking pics). After releasing six, I just couldn't bring myself to continue fishing, I headed to the homestead.
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Post by wharfrat on Jul 25, 2014 12:34:41 GMT -5
What is the general consensus on releasing these fish? I would think the smaller fish (5lbs or so), would have a pretty good chance of survival if they were caught from the top 20' of water and brought to the boat and released pretty quickly. What do you think?
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Post by mwardncsu on Jul 25, 2014 14:01:03 GMT -5
What is the general consensus on releasing these fish? I would think the smaller fish (5lbs or so), would have a pretty good chance of survival if they were caught from the top 20' of water and brought to the boat and released pretty quickly. What do you think? Lots of reading on the board on this topic... here are a couple of threads..... ones in which we've generally all stayed pretty civil in discussing  smlfishingforums.proboards.com/thread/2240/summer-fishingsmlfishingforums.proboards.com/thread/1110/summertime-fishingrelated.... smlfishingforums.proboards.com/thread/2351/why-stripers-caught-deep-waterThe below is probably stated and restated in those other threads, but.... The net/net is that stripers do not tolerate warm water as well, and when stressed through the fight of being caught their chances of survival through release are lower - the bigger fish will be less tolerant than the larger fish. I don't think anyone can give you a specific size where it is "ok" or not - depends on how the fish is caught/fought, how deep it's caught at, how it is handled, how it is released, etc. I'll say it has been my experience than when catching them on downlines in 20'-30' of water, ones in the 3-4 lb range - up to 20" or so generally release in a fierce way - and I feel like the majority of those fish make it. The fish in the 8 lb and up size - less likely to survive - I have experienced where I and some other boats were fishing in an area late July on the edge of where the Thermocline was setting up and released some fish that were in the 8-13 lb range and they released and swam off, only to come back to that area a few hours later and see a number of fish floating on the surface  That changed my perspective on the topic a lot. That said, I also know that one put into the cooler won't survive  As has been said before - it's a tough thing and you have to decide what is right & ethical based on an educated understanding of the issues. I'm not going to sit here and say I will always go out, catch my 2 and go home - but I'm also not going to go out and catch 4 or 5X my limit.... This time of year I do cut back on my striper fishing some (in terms of # of trips and/or time on the water for each trip), I use tactics which generally are less likely to catch bigger fish, I use sufficiently heavy tackle to minimize the fight, I do the harvesting I'm going to do during the July/Aug/Sept timeframe (I rarely keep a fish outside this time of year), and generally limit my release to the smaller fish. I struggle with the decision on what to do with the occasional big one (>15 lbs) caught this time of year - but personally, I typically attempt to release and I consider that in my decision to keep fishing or what my my "effective" creel limit that day is (I assume some appropriate percentage of what is released will die and account for that in what I catch and keep or release and when I quit). Clearly the most protective thing is to not fish for striper in the summer, or to catch your personal limit to the point that you can use the fish in a timely manner and quit. But, that is also not totally realistic given the time and energy it takes to prepare for a trip - it's why I also like to fish with several friends so that we can enjoy catching several if we get in a school and make the decision to harvest or not - and manage our #s that way. But, it would be false to assume all the fish you release make it, so you have to consider that. |
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Gator
New Member
Posts: 1,534
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Post by Gator on Jul 28, 2014 7:48:48 GMT -5
Clearly the most protective thing is to not fish for striper in the summer, or to catch your personal limit to the point that you can use the fish in a timely manner and quit. But, that is also not totally realistic given the time and energy it takes to prepare for a trip - it's why I also like to fish with several friends so that we can enjoy catching several if we get in a school and make the decision to harvest or not - and manage our #s that way. But, it would be false to assume all the fish you release make it, so you have to consider that. I have to say it is difficult to pick up and leave after catching 2 right out of the chute. But, it can be done. I've done it twice this summer. Gives me more time to clean the boat. Next thing to work on is making friends but it's hard to find folks that like to fish as hard as I do and practice conservation at the same time.  |
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That changed my perspective on the topic a lot. That said, I also know that one put into the cooler won't survive 
