Went to Moultrie for a nice ride around the lake yesterday, saw at least half a dozen fish belly up. I know some are casualties of swallowing a hook, etc., but seemed like a large number floating in a relatively small area. The specific area I saw most of these was around Coon Island. Just wondering if there have been any advisories about conditions of the water…would hate to think something in the water is killing these fish.
they are probably being brought up too fast from too deep. what kind of fish were they?
Proline 201WA
Aloha 24ft pontoon (LooneyToon)
Old Town stern with 7.5 johnson
all stripers…no state records, but good eating sized fish.
Bet some one didn’t know the regs till to late and ditched them when they found out there were illegal!
I catch them as bi-catch while crappie fishing. If stripers start running my poles in the summertime while the water is hot, I stop fishing. It is a year round issue. The lake is absolutely stuffed full of barely underslot stripers.
2013 Ranger Z21 Intracoastal 250 hp Yamaha VMAX SHO
Summer heat tough on them even when not caught and released. Some folks can’t control themselves and continue to fish for them even when they know they can’t keep any. It is illegal, unethical, and whole host of other descriptions. I’m told it’s hard to enforce, but if you keep catching stripers and don’t change what you’re doing, then you are fishing for them…regardless if it is a legitimate bass fishing method. Big shrimp got it right…he just plain stops, even though it is an inconvenience.
Stripers will fight themselves to death. If you hook one, get it to the boat as quickly as possible. Unhook it and resuscitate by holding it in the water while moving. It can take some time before the fish will respond with tail movement. But, that gives it the best chance of survival.