I will start this thread with my opinion. As a NEWBIE (still hunting a keepah') these are my thoughts on Conservation. Also - I am keeping my first keepah' regardless.

- A big cow well into her adult years is a breeding machine. A smaller fish while may have matured is not producing the Eggs of a cow. That said - I am more likely to keep a 28 1/2 inch fish than huge Cow, if given the choice.

- Fish status - any fish with a low likely-hood of survival is going in the box.

Using that Criertia, my choice to harvest fish would be
1. Any keeper sized fish that was gut/gill hooked or an extremely long fight. Anything that would suggest the fish had a low chance of survival.

2. After 1 - I would keep a 28 1/2 in fish over a big fish

3. After 2 - A real trophy, although against my goals towards Conservation, I do think I would keep a 50# for both food and bragging rights.

4. Last item - Once I have 2 fish in my box - I have every intention to go home. I would not want to kill a fish for my own fun and let it die when you toss it back out to sea. This is going to be the hardest. I am sure, if I was surrounded by rolling fish that were hitting everything I threw - I doubt I would pack up and go home.


Again - only a newbie's opinion. I welcome input from more experienced members on the board.

-IWK

i only keep one fish no matter what thats plenty

im not sure of alll the fancy fish terms for breading and all that, but i talked to my g/f about the breeding of large older females. she said that at a certain age the efficiency of the breeding decreases. she is majoring in fisheries management and worked at woods hole for the summer so she kinda knows her business. im not sure if that is the case with stripers but i would imagine it is. i kinda believe her but its hard to believe that a 32 incher is making more babies than a real cow. as for keeping them. i usually only take one home, i dont freeze much fish. i probably take maybe a dozen stripahs a year, i feel a bit bad for a second once i put her on the rocks, thats one reason i keep more blues than bass, how bad can ya feel for killing a blue when you know its relatives have stolen a few nice plugs and shreaded more shad bodies than you can count and make cigar butts outta your eels like its a game.

blues are good grilled or fryed just bleed and gut when caught

I have been wearing the skunk. I can't even get my hands on a blue lately.

-IWK

And thanks for the post.

Since I haven't caught a keepah' yet, I probably overstated the chance of taking two home. I would only take 2 if there were 2 damaged fish, or if I had harvested a fish and then landed a damaged fish.

-IWK

ive been thinkin bout this a bit more. besides the fact that a real cow is gunna make a lot of babies during a particular spawn, how many more seasons will this fish be alive. A 28incher will probably be about 6 years old or so. A 50"is probably closer to 15 years old or so. You would be looking at about 10 years of breeding the marginal keeper would have before reaching COW status, and when it reaches cow size it probably wont be bredding for 10 more years. just my .02 again.