"mikhaf" wrote in message
...

----- Original Message -----
From: "SimRacer"
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.fishing.bass
Sent: Tuesday, January 03, 2006 1:06 PM
Subject: New Year's Eve striper trip results in 42lb fish

Well, I understand your sentiment, but we are allowed a creel of 2/per
person here, and are limited to fishing to within 3 miles of the shore
thus
preventing us from chasing the "real big ones" that are farther out.
(And
USCG boats were on hand to enforce the "3 mile line" all day...)

Also, our minimum length on coastal stripers is 28". Anything 28"+ out
there
will likely be thick enough to weigh 12lbs at a minimum IMO, so finding
anything "that small" where we were, would be a challenge, and
obviously,
anything under 28" has to go back in the water to begin with.
snip

Nice fish Sim! Heck, the fish that won the recent 3 day annual striper
derby
out here on the left coast only weighed 38.5#. There's been some local 40+
pounders weighed recently though. Not bad for furiners. d:^)

LOL! That's why I won't go off on folks for saying things like this. I
figured he was coming from an area with smaller keeper limits and maybe even
a smaller stock of fish*. I am a conservationist, but damn, a 42lb striper
is a fish of a lifetime to all of us onboard that day. And is STILL over
20lbs from the current state record fish (which is a pending 62-63 pounder
taken just this past weekend as I hear it.) It doesn't even break our inland
record of 54+ lbs, but is still huge to us. My bud is getting an official
'Citation' from the state (they called today), and we're all going to pitch
in on a repro for him I think. (@ roughly $10 an inch, for 45 inches, is
pricey...)


Btw, the minimum keeper size out here is only 18". I believe Bill is also
a
left coaster. Also, most of the stripers caught out here are in the delta,
not the ocean. For that reason alone many folks do not keep the larger
fish
around here. Water quality issues. I say if you have a license and your
fish
is legal, keep your 2 limit, any size. It's the unlicensed guys keeping
the
under size fish that really chap my hide.

We don't have to have a license for the ocean, yet. January 1, 2007 and a
$10 resident year long "coastal waters" license will be required here in NC
tho. I *think* I may get a pass on it, as I read it if one has a lifetime
sportman's license on or before this past Sunday (01/01/2006), we're waived
the fee and get those coastal licenses free too. I've had a lifetime
hunt/fishing license in NC since I was 16 (roughly 21 years now).

But I'm with ya, it is always a few bad apples (unlicensed fisherpeople)
that make it tougher for the rest of us. I was kind of put off by the amount
of commerical boats out there this weekend with their nets, but I guess they
paid their fees and were within the 3 mile line too...I did see a floating
dolphin though, and we've all heard about Flipper and fishing nets...

And we have our own water quality issues here as well. Most of our inland
waters here in NC are polluted with Dioxins (mercury) and PCBs, and there
are consumption advisories for every body of water in the state, by and
large, including the actual Atlantic Ocean. That's why we usually just catch
a few crappie here to eat. Apparently fish of such "small" size aren't alive
long enough to absorb enough of the pollutants to warrant worrying about
them (so long as you don't eat them day in and day out of course). But we
don't keep large stripers, black bass or anything else that has spent a lot
of time in the inland waters. They're eat up with toxins to hear the
scientists tell it. http://www.epi.state.nc.us/epi/fish/

Oddly enough though, I've never seen Striped Bass on any of the "be careful
how much of this you eat" lists. Go figure.


-phish



*If you ever come across a map of the greater NC/VA border, look along the
state lines for the Roanoke River/basin. It contains Kerr Lake (Buggs
Island), Lake Gaston, and IIRC, the Roanoke Sound. This river from top to
bottom is a Striped Bass heaven. Limits (and even some slot limits) in the
impoundments, as well as strict dates/seasons for fishing the river runs are
in place, and are now by and large, adhered to. Well, follow that map out
past the "sounds" and into the ocean, and the area where we were fishing is
ground zero for where this river basin meets the sea. So IMO it is a strong
fishery from foothills to the sea, and as long as everyone plays by the
rules, a few 40+ keepers won't hurt it at all each year.