Spear Fishing Stripers

[scottw]

Originally Posted by numbskull

Toby, as editor of a fishing magazine it would help all of us if you had better information on C&R mortality for striped bass.
Here are some articles.

Striped Bass Catch-and-Release Mortality Study | Careful Catch Maryland

http://www.laterallineco.com/fishing...hards_1996.pdf

http://www.fws.gov/northeast/fishery...rdetal2005.pdf




I believe the average C&R mortality is 8-9%. That includes lots of badly hooked and handled fish. The lower end for lip hooked non-bleeding fish is more like 2-3 % although it rises quickly in warm water.
Gut hooking fish also raises mortality quite a bit, and guys fishing bait with J hooks catching larger fish creates mortality rates closer to 20% (or higher in deep summer when waters are warm).

these were the numbers that I found as well when I did some research last year after becoming a bit dismayed at the circus at some of the spots where schoolies were being hauled in by the hundreds daily and in every sort of manner.....oddly, some of the folks attending the circus and widely reporting and broadcasting the "great fishing" were the same folks that spent the summer bellyaching about the decline of the striper population because they didn't happen to be plentiful in their regular haunts....after seeing and hearing claimed totals of fish for the year in the several hundreds I began to wonder about who was actually doing what damage....you can do the math..

I've seen more spearfishing guys this year than in previous years but I think their numbers are still pretty limited as well as their range and ability to operate in rough conditions or at night when I'd rather be fishing...not sure why they want to make it a commercial endeavour though...when I have encountered them, I've usually been there first and have noticed that they seem to have little regard for the shore fisherman, maybe I need a flag or something