Back River...and people think Im stupid...
 

I went to the Back River with a college couple to fish there. We used squids, macks, and clams. I plugged too. The girl caught a skate and her boyfriend caught two STRIPERS! One 20 in and another one is 22 in! In 3 Lbs class. They wanted to keep it, but I told them no, the fish must be 28 in or above. So I released the fish. And My mom called me stupid because I didn't keep it. Why do people I know are completely ignorants? I thought about jigging for schoolies and keeprs, but I don't have the right light tackle gear. Bill, I used your rod today. But I haven't got a bass on it yet.:)

Anyway, what was the most important thing today for the couple is that they got the fishes... I got skates. I'm not totally pissed. Oh yeah, there is one thing I'm pissed is the bugs!:af:

Bats is bugs. I eat bugs.

I got so many bites on my body. I'm itching them now

Notaro,
You did the right thing throwing undersized fish back, good for you. This cracked me up:

And also I spoked to my dad this AM. I explained to him abt the last night conversationw / my mom. And I thought that he agreed with me abt releasing the undersized fishes. And I misunderstood him. I wasn't wearing hearing aids. And he said that it was a BS because he thinks that it wasnt a biggie for anyone to take a shorts. A fish means a food scarce to them. Jeezus!:smash:

You did the right thing:happy: :happy:
I don't allow any under size fish on my boat. And I don't allow one that is just 28" they all have to be OVER the 28"

Also Nataro it isn't worth the day in court or the fine if caught.
I see guys with commercial tuna licenses that will keep a small tuna that is illegal hopefully they will get there day in court and lose there boat and get a hefty fine.

Here is an example: A friend of mine gave up his federal license to ground fish out side of the 3 mile limit because you can get 500 lbs.in State waters and only 200 lbs. in federal waters guess what ? Hegot caught outside the 3mile limit and was fined $5000.00

whoa!! well, well, how on earth do i explain this to my parents and the college couple i guided? my dad's friends are commerical fishermen. so he listens to what they pump him info. i wld rather to follow the laws and get respects from the fishing community. i wld stop people from taking shorts, if it's one of my owns...

Notaro, explain to them that first of all, its the law. And that we are sportsmen. And that if you want to eat fish that bad, go to the store and buy it.

There are millions of recreational saltwater anglers. If we all took the attitude that taking shorts is "no big deal" there would be a major problem.

Stripers are an important resource to alot of people. Aside from the monetary investment that alot of us make to chase them (rods/reels/tackle/boats/oversand vehicles/travel), fishing is a huge part of our lives.

There aren't alot of other options in the northeast (saltwater) for inshore anglers so you can see why I think the attitude of "its just a fish" or the claim of ignorance of the laws is inexcuseable.

Notaro,

you talking about the back River on the Weymouth/Hingham line?

Did you go back and how did you do?

I've been there this week and lots of small baitfish (baby herring?)
and bass hitting them, but I couldn't hook into any :(

Bats is Bugs!
I eat Bugs!
Mikey like gay?
Why do you spend so much time in Ptown then?
Please answer the question, sailor?
Love
Rick

cal, thats what i was refering to. i havent gone back there yet. im hoping to hit there with someone for a night fishing. ill let u know or give u a pm if u wanna hook up later or so.

Notaro, sounds good! I've fished there hundreds of times 'cuz it's only like 10 minutes from my house. Where on the river do you go? PM me when you wanna go and I'll see if I can get a sitter for my kids.

no problem. use the email address below my signature, it's like my cell phone because it's a pager. so whereever i go, i always walk around with it. it's a two-way. i prefer weekend.

notaro...nothing stupid about doing the right thing

Notaro - you did do the right thing. One way to explain it to your folks is that these fish, just a decade ago, were hammered very hard, partially due to no regard to the little fish. Ten, fifteen years ago very few people were fishing them because they were not there in the numbers they are today. If a general disregard to these fish, especially the little guys, is done by one or many, it defeats the sacrafice of others.,

By years of stringent management and respecting the rules by all of these anglers, we now have the very good fishing we do with decent representation of year classes.

This is also your first serious year where you are on the long end of the learning curve. So over the next few years as you get more proficient, you will be able to catch more legal sized fish to put on the dinner table. You can tell your folks that you are in training to get to more & bigger fish and that the efforts you put in now, coupled with a responsible regard for these fish, will allow you reap the benefits tomorrow.

You made the right decision.

good job. :happy: :happy: :happy: :happy: :happy: :happy:

Amen, JohnR.. words well spoken....