Caught my first Keeper 2009
 

I hit the water this morning at the crack of 10:30, and by 11:15, I was sitting on top of a big school of fish, rolling all around the boat (thanks to the advise of one of our local S-B experts) :thanks:.
Caught it on my first cast, a nice 32 incher. I then spent the next hour or so without a hit. It was a great day of fishing, even if it was short. I had to head back in around 12:30 to get the kids from school by 2:00. I think I'll have to head out again tomorrow.

Fired up the grill, salt, pepper, butter & lemon, and some striper fillets, made an excellent dinner tonight. :D Wife is happy and kids are all ready to go with me on Saturday (they were getting tired of not catching).

http://www.mathewyoung.com/keeper.jpg

Beautiful fish CB! Congrats!:cool:

What did you catch it on?

Nice fish, congrats!

I went out today to with my buddy we ran into a big school of fish . bagged 4 keepers all from 29" to 32" Good day all around ,fish for dinner sooooo good ..let the games begin .. Moosh ..

He hit a lil 4" storm shad

That's a good looking dead fish. It looks like it is still alive. Nice fish!!!!!! Did you just ice it on the boat?

Kept it in the $%@@#, I mean on ice.....

don't keep them in the livewell, that's illegal

Congrats! Got to love those quickie trips.

Seriously? Wow!!! I didn't know that. That doesn't make much sense though.
Seems to me it would be common sense to use a livewell. why make it illegal? Keeps it fresh and prevents bacteria growth in a dead/dieing fish

It's like stringing them. Your not supposed to. I wouldn't worry about it. May have opened a can of worms but do what you do. I let more keeper size fish go each year than some catch in 10 years and hardly boat fish. But I am guilty of it myself. If you do run into the green police and act like an adult you shouldn't have a problem with 1 fish in there. There are way more important things to worry about than someone keeping a fish in the livewell. And as far as tourneys go. I'm sure if the limit of 2 fish were caught at 15-40lbs and a 50lb fish was landed a fish would go back dead and replaced by the 50.

Exactly like I do fishing for largemouth bass, when I fished a few tournys in Kansas. Livewell held my first 5 fish, then every larger one replaced the smallest one in there.

Wasn't going for that, with the striper, mainly wantted to keep it alive and fresher longer to give the kids time to get home from school, b4 I filleted it.

Keeper on first cast of the season. Start carrying a lucky charm with you and/or work on your fish dance. btw...Nice fish and wish you a great season...mm

First cast on my 6th trip out.... Got skunked the first 5 tries.. 4 with the kids along, so now that they have actually seen a fish this year, they are ready to go fishing with me this weekend. My son especially was getting tired of fishing and not catching, last 2 times out b4 yesterday was only me and my daughters, so its good to get him back in the mood to fish....

Nice fish. The whole livewell thing is to make sure people aren't catching and keeping only to upgrade in case a bigger fish is caught. I do it too with small blues or bonito, but not bass.

When I was a kid I really got discouraged when we got skunked, but a fish like that is sure to get a young'uns blood flowing. Hope you keep catching.

Lots of good sized fish around now. Gotta get out there!

There ya go Beans! Take the kids squid fishing, right on your doorstep, they'll have a blast getting all inked up

nice fish and congrats!

Congrats on a nice fish! No need to use the livewell to keep it alive. You're better off killing it right away and icing it. By keeping it alive, it bangs around in the livewell and can bruise the flesh. Blues are even worse to keep alive.