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Passion and Respect for the Striped Bass

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Fish With Pain

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Well last night, after a long dry spell of a little over 3 weeks without so much as a hit, I finally felt the strike, pull and thrill of landing a striped bass again.  It was not a large fish by any stretch of the imagination.  Just an ample 29 incher.  I do practice C&R about 95% of the time but my kids and I (my wife hates fish - and fisherman for that matter) love to eat fresh striped bass.  So, as soon as I landed it I was very happy that me and the kids would be eating striper for dinner tomorrow night.  Then it occured to me, this bass took over 3 weeks to catch so it deserves a little respect.  With that, I picked it up, held it up close to my face and we looked eye to eye at each other "tonight's your lucky night" I said, "go and grow up and visit me again when you're a 50".  Then, with a peck on the cheek I lowered it to the water and it swam away at first gently then with a brisk brush of its tail darted back into the shallow water.  It was a truly beautiful fish with very dark coloring and a broad tail.  I like to think it was a female.  It was a good feeling walking off the beach, a little earlier than expected being 10:30 but I was content and figured I would get a few extra winks to be fresh at work tomorrow.  There are those fish we sometimes catch that aren't just fish...they are memories. 



 



Thank you to TimS.  Although I've never met you, it is people like you and your team that bring to light the passion and respect the striped bass deserves.


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I release 99% of my fish as well. 



 



Had to kill a 20lber the other day that my old man caught. Tide was running high in the river and it took him a good 20 minutes to land him. Fish was totally played out. I tried for a few minutes to revive him, no dice. Had to take him home otherwise he was crab food. 



 



Nice story :D


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Well last night, after a long dry spell of a little over 3 weeks without so much as a hit, I finally felt the strike, pull and thrill of landing a striped bass again.  It was not a large fish by any stretch of the imagination.  Just an ample 29 incher.  I do practice C&R about 95% of the time but my kids and I (my wife hates fish - and fisherman for that matter) love to eat fresh striped bass.  So, as soon as I landed it I was very happy that me and the kids would be eating striper for dinner tomorrow night.  Then it occured to me, this bass took over 3 weeks to catch so it deserves a little respect.  With that, I picked it up, held it up close to my face and we looked eye to eye at each other "tonight's your lucky night" I said, "go and grow up and visit me again when you're a 50".  Then, with a peck on the cheek I lowered it to the water and it swam away at first gently then with a brisk brush of its tail darted back into the shallow water.  It was a truly beautiful fish with very dark coloring and a broad tail.  I like to think it was a female.  It was a good feeling walking off the beach, a little earlier than expected being 10:30 but I was content and figured I would get a few extra winks to be fresh at work tomorrow.  There are those fish we sometimes catch that aren't just fish...they are memories. 

 

Thank you to TimS.  Although I've never met you, it is people like you and your team that bring to light the passion and respect the striped bass deserves.

 

Well said! I almost never keep a Striper (my wife would say I almost never CATCH one) and when I tell my non-fishing friends that I release these fish, they always ask why because they're such good eating. I give them a similar speech about how cool these fish are and how my I enjoy them. My buddies generally look at me like I have two heads but what the hell.

the only thing I knew how to do was keep on keepin' on
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We release 99.9 % of all the fish we catch..........and with all due respect.

Easier now that we switched to using Circle hooks.

"Law enforcement’ is not something sovereign citizens seize from police officers. It is a societal function that citizens delegate to civil police.

In so doing, we do not abdicate our own sovereignty, nor our duties as citizens. Ultimate responsibility is still ours. When those we hire as our “Protectors” are either unwilling or unable to perform that function at the critical moment, there is no law, nor standard, that says we cannot perform it for ourselves"........ John Farnam.

 

"Gird Your Loins"

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i would have rather ate it at 29" than 50"


-Hey dumbass it's not about a kill or no kill tournament, it's about how much your 2nd favorite club can mug you! That's it...

-the reports thread is the yenta section for NJ..  

-If’n ya cut yer teeth on Ava and teaser fishing please take a seat in the back and keep quite… 

-is monkey see monkey do fishing even fun..?? 
-yes I still fish with mono..  On occasion 

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I love striper fishing too much to waste a nice fish on a meal or two that I'm gonna crap out a day later. If you get a thrill out of fighting a good fish and enjoy the sense of accomplishment when you land it, you're kinda shooting yourself in the foot by killing it. I fish for other reasons besides food. Fish with Pain was a little more eloquent than me lol.

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Thanks for the kind words.  No matter what your % of C&R we all know it is legal to keep legal fish and respect others ethics.  I know this site has a lot of people who actually do respect the striped bass and have ethics.  But we also know that there are others out there that just don't get it.  That is the heart of this thread, respect our striped bass!


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To each his own, but passion and respect go hand in hand for me. Always have, always will. How can you eat something this pretty (last night)

That's why the spring mayhem has turned me off so much.

Tim has the respect as well I think but for sea bass, not so much.

Peace

 

246

"Where is my mind?  Waaaaay out in the water see it swimming?"
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