RI Beaches today

[jkjnp]

Did anyone get out?
Birds and thousands and thousands of small bass on every beach from Point Judith to Charlestown. I think the biggest fish I got was 18" (yep inches). Most were in the 12-15" range. Still fun to have fish blitzing at your feet.

[Clammer]

thanks ;

I,ll be there tomorow for the 2nd shift / oooooops I gotta check on a DEM meeting time

[ivanputski]

what was the bait?

[RI Plugger]

I tell my wife, honey it's over, I put all my fishing stuff away.

Not.... I have to work Thursday, but Friday morning it's go time.

[Islander77]

Originally Posted by ivanputski

what was the bait?

Peanuts I believe I been seeing along beach... hhhhmmmmm

[ilovetwofish]

Thousands of bass ha? I was out on charlestown beach from 6:30 am till 10:30 am,then went to east beach then westerly from watch hill to the boardwalk,I caught 4 little rats.I didn't see thousands of bass being caught I talked to a few guys they said the same thing I did every once in awhile a school of small bass coming in close enough to hook 1 then back out.I'M ALWAYS EARLY OR LATE
Oh tons of ganets diving though.

[jkjnp]

Originally Posted by ilovetwofish

Thousands of bass ha? I was out on charlestown beach from 6:30 am till 10:30 am,then went to east beach then westerly from watch hill to the boardwalk,I caught 4 little rats.I didn't see thousands of bass being caught I talked to a few guys they said the same thing I did every once in awhile a school of small bass coming in close enough to hook 1 then back out.I'M ALWAYS EARLY OR LATE
Oh tons of ganets diving though.

If you were on Charlestown in the morning you MUST have seen all of the birds off the beach. There were thousands of bass out there! I mean they covered the entire length of the beach (I fished there from 7-8:30 and didn't catch anything either). Sure it was frustrating, but you had to wait it out man. Low tide was at like 9:30am so you fished the bottom 1/4 of the tide. I went and got some food a waited until 11:30 when they started to move up. from 12:00-1:30pm I had a fish every other cast and they were swimming around my feet. This wasn't on Chalestown beach...a little more towards point judith, but I'd be willing to bet they were there too. I also caught 3 large hickory shad, a fish I had never caught before. Good to see so many healthy young bass.

[RIJIMMY]

I havent done dink-fest in a while, maybe I'll take a ride with the kiddies this weekend and show them what a striper master Dad is. Its usually entertaining to watch guys wade in the surf in jeans and sneakers.

[slow eddie]

if your thinking of fishing dinks, do use all a favor and leave your treble hooks home. single hooks, crushed barbs. tyvm.
saw 3 dead dinks tue. on the beach. we can't have this.
all the fish are very healthy. color and pot bellies.

[jkjnp]

Originally Posted by slow eddie

if your thinking of fishing dinks, do use all a favor and leave your treble hooks home. single hooks, crushed barbs. tyvm.
saw 3 dead dinks tue. on the beach. we can't have this.
all the fish are very healthy. color and pot bellies.

Good point. You need small stuff. Best lure for me was 1oz crippled herring. Single barbless hook.

[WoodyCT]

If you must fish dinks, please do so responsibly. They are the future of the species.

Single barbless hooks, short fights, no sand beachings or rock bouncing, no 10 minute photo ops, and no spinning flights through the air back into the water will give your dink a good chance to come back to RI next spring.

[RIROCKHOUND]

Originally Posted by WoodyCT

will give your dink a good chance to come back to RI next spring.

It's November.
all the dinks are driving the beach with CT plates

[vanstaal]

it's amazing how much effort is put into catching dinks the chance of them surviving after they are caught is very low

[RIJIMMY]

Originally Posted by vanstaal

it's amazing how much effort is put into catching dinks the chance of them surviving after they are caught is very low

Not to open this old debate, but I disagree. If you had a small area in which people where catching hundreds of 30-40 lb fish, the percentage of fish killed would be the same as when they're catching hundreds of 12-20" fish.

I've inadvertantly gut hooked some beautiful large fish and took them home when I would have rather released them, its a shame. But its fishing, its what I do. Cathing dinks is a blast, been doing since I was a kid and I've never seen any washed up dead. I've taken out a few eyeballs, hated to see it happen, but its fishing, its what I do. I also file my barbs down and use single hooks. Sure some morons will kill some small fish uselessly, but take a look at the Striper Cup website, how many breeders where killed uselessy? Its fishing.

[jkjnp]

Originally Posted by vanstaal

it's amazing how much effort is put into catching dinks the chance of them surviving after they are caught is very low

Do you have any evidence to back up that statement? Is there less chance than bigger fish surviving? I'm not trying to be confrontational at all, I'm just curious. To me it seems like there is much less stress put on the little fish. Yesterday I'd have the small in my hands in under a minute and release it quickly. Every fish I caught swam away vigorously. Reminds me of fresh water bass fishing a bit... Much less stress than the fights for the bigger fish.

[numbskull]

Here is some info. The size of the fish doesn't matter. At this time of year fish hooked on artificials do very well. Warm water and deep hooking with bait and J hooks brings C&R mortality up to near 50%. Which means even in the worst scenario 1/2 of the fish you think will die, don't.


Mortality associated with catch-and-release angling of striped bass in the Hudson River
Titre du document / Document title
Mortality associated with catch-and-release angling of striped bass in the Hudson River
Auteur(s) / Author(s)
MILLARD Michael J. ; MOHLER Jerre W. ; KAHNLE Andrew ; COSMAN Amanda ;
Résumé / Abstract
Catch-and-release fishing commonly occurs in recreational fisheries, including those for the striped bass Morone saxatilis of the Atlantic coast. The contribution of catch-and-release practices to overall fishing mortality is often not estimated. We estimated the catch-and-release mortality for the Hudson River spawning stock of striped bass in 2001. Volunteer anglers caught striped bass between April 30 and May 16, 2001. Fish were transferred to transport boats in live wells and placed in one of nine 15.000-L land-based holding tanks. Control fish were collected by electrofishing and otherwise handled similarly. Treatment and control fish were uniquely tagged and held together for 5 d. Hooking mortality was estimated via conditional rate and additive rates. These two estimation techniques partitioned total observed mortality into hooking mortality and handling mortality, the latter being estimated from control fish. Catch-and-release mortality for striped bass averaged 16% for traditional J hooks and 5% for circle hooks over the entire period. Hook location and the occurrence of bleeding were the most influential variables in determining the probability of death. Mortality rate increased when water temperatures reached 16°C. This mortality rate is significant and should be considered when accounting for Hudson River striped bass removals from their spawning population.
Revue / Journal Title
North American journal of fisheries management ISSN 0275-5947 CODEN NAJMDP
Source / Source

Recreational Catch-and-Release Mortality Research in Maryland
Susquehanna Flats Catch-and-Release Fishery

Over a five week period in April and May 1998, three 2-day trials were conducted on the Flats. Participating anglers were instructed to use single hooked artificial lures. Fish were marked as deep or shallow hooked, transported and held for three days as in the other striped bass studies.
Two size groups of fish were sought for these experiments: less than 24 inches and greater than 24 inches. This size delineation was selected because mortality data for striped bass greater than 24 inches caught at low water temperatures in fresh water did not exist in the scientific literature.
The results showed that water temperature greatly influenced release mortality of striped bass caught on the Flats. Mortality was 0.15% at temperatures of 57-59°F, 4.2% at 61-62°F and 16.4% at 64-71°F. There was no difference in mortality between large (>24") and small (<24") striped bass at these low temperatures. More than 95% of the fish caught on the flats in this study were small males.

Catch and Release Fishing Mortality Study
Two factors predominate when considering the causes of angled fish mortality: the hooking location, and the degree of physiological stress suffered by the fish.

Hooking location - This factor demonstrates the largest source of variation in mortality observed in the studies and experiments reviewed. It is consistently shown that deep-hooking (hooking in the gills or gullet) causes relatively high mortality, up to 35% when accompanied by bleeding, whereas normal hooking (lips or jaw area) consistently causes minimal mortality, which is consistently less than 5% and often less than 1%. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources, in its Recreational Catch and Release Mortality research program concludes that the location of the hook wound is the single most important factor influencing catch and release mortality (4). If the hook wound affects a vital organ, mortality, is high. The location of the wound site has been demonstrated to be a function of hook size, type, the use of natural bait versus artificial lures and additional situational factors. Studies show that when fish are hooked in the lips or jaw area (shallow hooked), mortality is negligible, typically less than 1% (4,5). Conversely, mortality is at its highest when fish are hooked in the esophagus or gills (deep hooked) (5,11). Necropsies performed on gut hooked fish in a study by (5) Grover, et al, found that the majority had sustained major internal damage to the heart, stomach or liver. Grover demonstrates that hooking location effectively correlates to mortality rate.

Physiological Stress - Exercise performed by fish during a catch event, or caused by angler handling methods and air exposure all create measurable physiological responses. Physiological stress in fish has been measured by experimenters using cortisol, lactate and respiratory gas concentrations.

Although the catch and release mortality studies reviewed do not show statistical results directly correlating the degree of physiological stress to mortality, an experiment by Ferguson and Tufts examined the effects of artificially induced stress on rainbow trout. They concluded that various forms of physiological stress contribute to fish mortality (12). It is reasonable to infer that such stress also contributes to mortality in angled fish and therefore, that minimization of stress assists in reduction of catch and release mortality.

[reefman]

I fished Charlestown beach yesterday from 1-4 pm and would guess I caught 40 bass give or take. I don't think I took one over 16" but still fun. Most of this took place without a single bird in the sky, so if you head to SOCO don't let the birds fool you those little guys are there. Single hooks and crushed barbs will get you back in the water faster and make it easier on the fish.

[ivanputski]

If theres no chance at all of a keeper, I mean ZERO chance, and I know all im gonna get is micro bass, I stop after a few... definitely not doing a 10" bass any favors by dragging i out of the ocean... just MY approach...