Trophy fish

[Back Beach]

It’s a legitimate theory known as "fishing down the food chain." Enter the term on google or the like and search it out for a more detailed explanation.
Coming from a plug fisherman I scourged at the thought of clicking on that link, but its good info.
However, people of Numbskull’s ilk are silently destroying the world's forests by driving up demand for rare wood....

[2na]

I used to keep everything large or small that was a keeper, but as I became more proficient putting fish on the sand I started keeping smaller fish and letting larger ones go. As a general rule I want that 28", but my cardinal rule is to never ever put back the first fish 'because there are fish everywhere and I'll get a small one later'.

I keep the small ones because they taste cleaner and the larger ones are the better breeders (up to a certain point).

Correct me if my info is wrong, but from what I have read the mortality rate for the smaller fish, between disease and predators, is higher for smaller fish, which means they aren't going to breed as many times as a prime breeder. I have also read that larger fish, 40 lbrs and up, are not as fecund as the 15-30 lbrs. So this lends to keeping larger fish as trophies (or for competition purposes) and smaller fish for consumption. I have a personally imposed slot that I'm free to break anytime!

But I agree with the thrust of George's thread: Let's allow fish to get large. Freshwater bass fisherman do it, why can't we??

[zimmy]

fisheries decisions based on science... now that is a hoot

[Tagger]

This is the voice of Doom and Gloom .. It's over Johnny.. The golden Franky D days are gone forever.. Nothing Gold can Stay .. Looking at the demise of our beloved Striped Bass is tunnel vision . All the earths resources are being used at an alarming rate. Too many people,,too much pressure. The whole eco system is wack , not just the Bass . The Striped Bass only hope is for some kind of plague to wipe out 2/3's of the worlds population or for gas to go over 4 dollars a gallon ..

[BassDawg]

Originally Posted by Tagger

This is the voice of Doom and Gloom .. It's over Johnny.. The golden Franky D days are gone forever.. Nothing Gold can Stay .. Looking at the demise of our beloved Striped Bass is tunnel vision . All the earths resources are being used at an alarming rate. Too many people,,too much pressure. The whole eco system is wack , not just the Bass . The Striped Bass only hope is for some kind of plague to wipe out 2/3's of the worlds population or for gas to go over 4 dollars a gallon ..

That is some FUNNY sheet, Tagger!


Tis true, the Golden Days are long gone...................
i would only keep the breeders necessary to procure
sum decent schwag, anyways. ONE 50#'er, ONE 60#'er
for a VS and a shot at a Tundra is a no brainer for me!
the rest of my COWS will live to swim, breed, die of old age, and fight
for many many more moons, God Willing and the Good Lord Providing.

[Flaptail]

There are a zillion fish, trouble is they are mostly small. There is, or was, a lack of bait, big bait up around these parts ( Cape Cod) but there are signs that at least maybe, just maybe, the bunker are coming back (adult bunker), jury is still out.

The outer beach has issues. Seals eating bait and bigger seals eating fish we like to catch and occasionally the fish we are hooked up to at the moment. Work ethic was much more inspiring when there was cash to be made without all the red tape, now the fish for sport crowd for the most part doesn't put that extra little push into it, so..... the real picture is somewhat still fuzzy.

Right now the bait is thick off of the beaches (hence finbacks and Humpies close in chowing sandeels). Seals made little seals and are preoccupied with that but not for long and then they will be back patrolling the shore fom Monomoy to P-Town. Fish have a slight touch of intelligence and stay away from the beach and go to where the seals aren't and the bait is. This leaves the shore bound guy s#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g wind while a mile away his boat bound buds are bailing them on Salty's needles.

What we needs to be done ( and I cannot for the life of me believe I am saying this) is a. make it a gamefish and b. install a slot limit. c. ban forever the taking of river herring and menhaden for commercial or sport purposes.

Lastly, and the tree huggers will love me for this one, we need to thin the seal herds by 2/3rds and control them to practical levels. Seal birth control would do. Just lace something in a bunch of treated baits. Don't kill them (though it would make fine sport) just make them infertile.

Lastly practice catch and release whenever your need for food fish has been met and satisfied.

( fixed the damm soapbox don't ya know)

[BassDawg]

Originally Posted by Flaptail

There are a zillion fish, trouble is they are mostly small. There is, or was, a lack of bait, big bait up around these parts ( Cape Cod) but there are signs that at least maybe, just maybe, the bunker are coming back (adult bunker), jury is still out.

The outer beach has issues. Seals eating bait and bigger seals eating fish we like to catch and occasionally the fish we are hooked up to at the moment. Work ethic was much more inspiring when there was cash to be made without all the red tape, now the fish for sport crowd for the most part doesn't put that extra little push into it, so..... the real picture is somewhat still fuzzy.

Right now the bait is thick off of the beaches (hence finbacks and Humpies close in chowing sandeels). Seals made little seals and are preoccupied with that but not for long and then they will be back patrolling the shore fom Monomoy to P-Town. Fish have a slight touch of intelligence and stay away from the beach and go to where the seals aren't and the bait is. This leaves the shore bound guy s#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g wind while a mile away his boat bound buds are bailing them on Salty's needles.

What we needs to be done ( and I cannot for the life of me believe I am saying this) is a. make it a gamefish and b. install a slot limit. c. ban forever the taking of river herring and menhaden for commercial or sport purposes.

Next, and the tree huggers will love me for this one, we need to thin the seal herds by 2/3rds and control them to practical levels. Seal birth control would do. Just lace something in a bunch of treated baits. Don't kill them (though it would make fine sport) just make them infertile.

Lastly, practice catch and release whenever your need for food fish has been met and satisfied.

( fixed the damm soapbox don't ya know)

Well said and rightly so, Flaptail, providing that the slot limit allows for ONE to be kept outside of the slot ~similar to redfish and snook in FL.

i especially agree with the ban on herring and bunker, although 'forever' seems a little extreme. if we return the premium forage of our beloved MoSax to epic numbers, then i believe that we'll see the younger ones getting bigger quicker; thereby increasing the LAHHHGE genepool and decreasing the amounts of racers. imho, there are far toooo many lean and mean Stripers gracing our shores. give them back their forage in ABUNDANCE for 7 to 10 years and then let's see where the biomass yields itself.

i will venture a guess that the COWS would triple with the combination of gamefish status, slot limits, more and plentiful protein laden bunker, and a "sensible" way to slow down the seal population. Lacing meat with chemicals of any kind sounds like a slippery slope with regards to the entirity of the seas and the food chain themselves.

more pogies certainly could not hurt our oceans and estuaries either.
something has to give, before the whole system breaks. and there is science to suggest, that it already has been broken. will our generation have the stones to at least attempt to be proactive rather than reactive? only time and good judgement will tell......................

oh yeah, thanks for trying, Steve!

[Skitterpop]

After about 3 years, at the juvenile stage, the females begin to migrate to the ocean where they mature. The males tend to remain in the estuary longer than the females. After 5 to 7 years, females return to spawn for the first time. It takes several years for spawning females to reach full productivity.

[ **** An average 6 year old female produces half a million eggs while a 15 year old can produce three million. ]

[bart]

Originally Posted by zimmy

fisheries decisions based on science... now that is a hoot

who woulda thunk? seriously though, everyone always cries, "Where's the science. Where's the science?" when it comes to fisheries management. Well here it is folks, right in front of you. now it's in your hands...

[Pete_G]

Originally Posted by ptmike

I have also read that larger fish, 40 lbrs and up, are not as fecund as the 15-30 lbrs.

I read just the opposite, with studies always showing that not only do older fish (of any species) yield more eggs but that those eggs are just as healthy and often more so then their younger counterparts.

Just try and find a article that says old fish produce less or less viable eggs. I dare you. Maybe there's a needle in the haystack out there but I couldn't find it. All I could find was that older = better when it comes to spawning success, fecundity, and egg viability.