Preserve our resources

[ronaultmtd]

With "Roctober" coming next week, we usually experience some days of excellent catches of legal striped bass...I personally have not taken a single Striper home for food in almost three years- I release every Striped Bass I am lucky enough to catch...in my opinion they are much too valuable to only catch once. I have swapped out all my treble hooks for single, in-line hooks. I do not fault anyone who takes a legal catch, but if you are a weekly fisherman, who fishes frequently, consider catch and release to preserve our fish resource for next year and the years after...Striped Bass are a troubled fishery in decline due to over fishing. The chances of anyone catching a "fish of a lifetime" Striper today is about the same as winning the Powerball lottery...the big cow breeders have just about been wiped out...Today a forty inch fish gets your picture in the newspaper...back in the day, it had to be a fifty inch fish or even a sixty inch fish...my all time personal best rockfish caught at the Chesapeake Bay bridge tunnel fourth island in December of 1978 weighed 43 pounds...it was one strong tasting fish... we baked it using the Virginian Pilot award winning Rockfish seafood recipe...it was strong, fishy taste...edible but nothing I would eat unless I was starving...Those "good old days" I remember Commercial netters dropping gill nets surrounding fishermen causing wars in the Bay...The nets were full of sixty pound breeders...

[Memory Maker]

I totally agree. Kudos on the single hook ........ I would suggest making them barbless too.

[thedutchtouch]

i changed most of my trebles to singes this year as well, it hasn't affected my catch rates because those are limited by time o get out and ability/know-how more than the hook at the end of the line for me. I'm trying to learn archery/hunting as deer are plentiful and delicious. learning curve there too.

[jjflash68]

I totally agree with the the barbless suggestion by Memory Maker. I went barbless (and replaced my trebles) after I started in this sport a few years ago. My first rockfish landed in a kayak was on a standard x-rap and it was a blood bath. The barbless hooks make it more of a challenge to get the fish to the kayak. Any relaxation in tension will often mean a lost fish but also once they are at the boat I release them without them coming out of the water. I typically grab the leader near the fish and then relax the tension and 8 out 10 times the fish does the rest. If not, I grab the jig head, turn and off they go.

Tight lines,

Jack

[Mark]

Single hooks and single in-line hooks on the plugs and crankbaits are the way to go. I'm surprised lure makers and tournament directors have not broadly responded to that trend.

However, I need to be more diligent about crushing barbs. It's amazing how difficult a barbed hook can be to remove. I'm reminded after the catch. That's a good time to crush the barb, but sometimes too late for that particular fish. I should crush the barbs right out of the mold or the vise.

I practice C&R for everything I pursue. That includes white perch and even snakeheads. Of course, most of the snakeheads release themselves, even on barbed hooks. Hooking them is one thing. Getting them into the kayak is another.

That said, I realize I some of my releases have likely died due to the stress of being caught or on those rare times where they inhale a lure or fly. I carry forceps for those occasions. They help greatly for hook removal. Deep hooking a fish is one of those dilemmas of a hobby I otherwise enjoy.

[ronaultmtd]

Mark, you would be surprised...I had a big speckled trout that had taken a swimbait deep- hooked in the gills, bleeding in the water...I carefully removed the single hook and then gently towed it beside the kayak flushing water over its gills, holding it with fish grips as I tried to revive it...after a tow of a few minutes it vigorously started fighting against the fish grip..As soon as I opened the grips it swam away as if it had never been hooked...and it had left a good bit of blood inside my cockpit...

[Mark]

Good job reviving the speck, Ron.

Let's hope it survived.

Yesterday, I was on the Patapsco. Fish were plentiful but small. A 12 inch striper sucked down my fly rod popper -- took it deep. None of the popper was visible beyond its lips. It was bleeding even before I used forceps to remove it. The fish swam quickly away but I had my doubts it would survive.

The good news, is that deep hooksets are unusual with lures and flies -- even with bigger fish than 12 inchers. Most of the time, they're lip-hooked.

[J.A. Veil]

Single hooks and single in-line hooks on the plugs and crankbaits are the way to go. I'm surprised lure makers and tournament directors have not broadly responded to that trend.

I visited the MirrOlure factory in a Tampa suburb a few years ago. The owner gave me tour. I asked him why they only sell lures with treble hooks. He told me that this was what their customers wanted. I think your suggestion of getting tournament directors to mandate single hooks would help to change that opinion.

[Mark]

I visited the MirrOlure factory in a Tampa suburb a few years ago. The owner gave me tour. I asked him why they only sell lures with treble hooks. He told me that this was what their customers wanted. I think your suggestion of getting tournament directors to mandate single hooks would help to change that opinion.

I was with you on that tour or perhaps another one. As I recall the company rep also said that the bass pros they sponsor want trebles on their lures.

[clm]

Of course they do...have you seen the way they haul the bass out of the water.....and if they drop them, it's a penalty. I like the new way some work it though...official is on the boat...weighed and released immediately...no more live well storage....The trebles help assure a substantial hook up and less droppages....$ always talks...

[john from md]

Treble hooks get tangled and also catch your fingers easily. I really don't see too much to like about them.