"SimRacer" wrote in message
. ..

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*.

Well placed asterick. d:^) Generally speaking, yes, smaller stock of fish,
but the inland world record was set not far from the delta...

http://www.stripers247.com/landlockedrecordstriper.htm

San Luis reservoir and the ONeil Forebay have gone downhill lately. They
were both outstanding striper fisheries in the past. They are part of the
aquaduct system and are subject to severe water level changes not to mention
severe wind speed changes (0-45+ mph in 5 mins). Amazing place.


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...)

No doubt a fish of a lifetime. I would've kept it too. At the end of the day
we all have to even things up in our own minds. I fished (c&r) for stripers
this fall using jumbo minnows and wondered why I didn't feel like I was
'cheating'. I'll occasionaly fish with jumbo minnows for LM, but unless I
have a kid in the boat, I feel like I'm cheating. As long as it's all legal
and I don't lose any sleep at night, I figure it's all good.


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).

$34.90 a year out here. And the bay/ delta enhancement (formerly striper)
tag adds on another $5.50. No license needed for pier fishing, but if you're
in a boat on the bay or ocean with fishing poles, you better have a license.
We are blessed with some amazing places to fish and plenty of species to
fish for. Had my first river king on this fall after much paying of dues. It
lost it after maybe 15 seconds passing the rod around the bimini poles in
the rain. But man what a 15 seconds! I just got laid off by HP and they're
going to have to drag me kicking and screaming (not to mention broke!) out
of this state. d:^)

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...

I got tired of it a few years ago at a local reservoir and called the F&G
800 hotline. Two wardens were out the next day packing heat and taking
names. These folks were trashing the shoreline, fishing without licenses and
keeping undersized fish. To make things even worse, this reservoir probably
has more mercury contamination than just about any other body of water in
the US, and they would keep everything they caught to eat. More on this
below...

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/

My favorite LM bass lake is Calero reservoir. It's 5 minutes from millions
of people in silicon valley and is chock full of big bass for its small
size. It's also very close to what was once the largest quicksilver
(mercury) mine in the world. Millions and millions of pounds of mercury was
extracted from the mines over 100 years. It also occurs naturally. The big
bass are just loaded with it. There are signs in 4 or 5 different languages
around the reservoir to warn people, yet folks still keep and eat fish from
the lake. Can't call the wardens if they have a license and their fish are
legal size. All you can do is shake your head.

Any striper fisherman who's done it for any length of time out here (not me)
will tell you to trim the darker meat from the filets. I believe it is done
for both taste and toxins.

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

I thought all fish were on the "be careful how much of this you eat" list
now? At least it seems like that sometimes. Glad I don't have much of a
taste for the stuff. Farmed live LM bass sells for ~$10 a pound out here in
asian stores. Mmmm...mmm...good! d;^)

*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.

Even though stripers aren't indigenous to the left coast, DFG still manages
them. My guess is that they know the stripers aren't going away and the
health of the striper population is directly related to the health of locals
like salmon and sturgeon among others. We have a DFG biologist that hangs
out on all the local fishing boards who seeks input for rule changes and
give us figures for the trapping they do. Pretty cool.

-phish