Monday on my ride from the Dam area around Goat to horseshoe, and around Susie into the malfunction junction, between Lighthouse and Lake Murray, I counted 7 stripers belly up. All looked to be about 19” to 20”.
Is this a sign of things to come, due to the heat, or just a problem with poor fish handling over the weekend?
I think the DNR should allow you to keep a limited number of short fish year around to stop this waste. Seems that in a put and take lake system, this should not be a problem.
What does everyone else think?
I agree. Keep say 2 fish under 21". We have several fishing guides in the area that stay on the fish everyday. I have talked with them on occassions at the ramp, and they say they caught around 50 fish to only keep only a few over 21" fish for thier customers. You know a significant amount were hooked way down in the throat. Its happened to me. You cant keep that fish, even knowing it will die. I’ve watched them just float away (it might have been 20"). Its sad. Most of the time when people say they are only catching shorties, I dont even go out, or I’ll just go for large mouth. I see your point and its a good topic.
They need to make it the first five fish regardless of size when the water gets too warm. With the surface temp up at 90, the survival rate is pretty low for released fish. The two fish under worked good when the majority of the fish were keeper sized.
i agree with all of you. with the big tourny on fri/sat night could have caused some floaters due to the higher volume of fisherman on lake.
Any suggestions on how to get this in front of the powers that be and maybe get some official ■■■■■■■■???
I’m willing to work at it.
Even though the dead fish you saw probably died after being caught,it is troubling to me to see these consistant hot temps so early in the summer. I hope that doesn’t mean the fish will go deep early and increase the chances of a fish kill later this summer. We’ve had a few years since the last big summer kill and I’d sure hate to see one now that the keeper/short ratio seems to finally be improving.
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Coming down from NJ, I’m used to catching big cows in the 20 to 50lb range on adult menhaden, circle hooks only. I don’t know much about the fresh water striper fishery down here or how you fish 'em. I kinda miss the big ocean blitzes of 30lb fish on a feed.
I’ve done both…fishing for them with jumbo manhaden (we called them bunker) and live eels growing up and then fishing for them in fresh water since moving south…yea, the average fish are much smaller here, but most people use much lighter tackle (10-12 lb test)and I enjoy targeting them on the lake as much as I did when fishing on the coast up north…and you don’t have to deal with bluefish! 
'07 198 DLX Carolina Skiff
FS90 Suzuki
I’m not a major striper fisherman, but the regs I read, you can keep two under 21" in July and Aug. Am I reading this wrong? Last time out, we kept the ones deep hooked and tried to release ones that had the best chances.
Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo.
Had the best day out so far this year, with a limit of over 21 inch keepers befor 10, one over 7 lbs.
BUT
Seeing more and more floating stripers every trip out, even when you are able to keep the shorts, and I sorry to say I may have added one more.
Wish it was easier to know if the shorts would servive.
Catch and release obviously doesn’t work in the heat of the summer. Don’t wait on the DNR, just don’t catch and release more than you would normally keep or minimize your summer time fishing. If you have to catch 50 fish in order to keep five, you are effectively harvesting 2/3 of the fish you release, so lets see…5 fish limit plus 33 that were killed during catch and release…38 fish taken that day. Something to be real proud of. It shouldn’t take a law to keep us from acting irresponsibly. Even with a no size limit during the summer, would folks stop fishing after boating 5?
The DNR is currently involved in a rewrite of the freshwater fisheries laws. Most of the changes involve consolidation and rewording that doesn’t change anything. However, there are some proposed changes that have come from the biologists and from public participation in the process. One of those changes involves a 3 month no size limit for Lake Murray stripers. If you think this is a good idea (or not), let your legislators know. All the changes will be voted on during the next legilative session (2011).
Thanks for the info - rasputensc. Wish I had a good suggestion. For me it’s hard to stop catching at 5 when the 5th is only 12" long, out of less than 40’ of water and not deeply hooked. Should be OK, but turns ove when returned to the lake. Hope to do better next time. I want to see Murray as a GREAT fishing lake, next year and years after.
For those of you that live in the midlands and are concerned about the striper fishery, I’d like to invite you to the Midlands Striper Club meeting Tuesday evening, 8/10/2010, at the Flight Deck restaurant in Lexington. The business meeting commences at 7PM, but if you’d like to get supper come a bit earlier and enjoy some good food and fellowship with dedicated striper anglers. The club makes a direct impact on the quality of the fishery through fund raising raffles at our meetings and our annual open tournament. This past year we were able to equip the hatchery delivery trucks with oxygen monitoring systems to deliver much more healthy fry to our lakes. We are a family oriented club and kids are more than welcome. I look forward to seein’ y’all there.
Take care,
Jim Gibbs
edited to add: www.midlandsstriperclub.org
Sorry i mssed the meeting last night, sounds like a good club. Please keep posting upcoming events, tournaments, and fund raisers. Does anyone know how many stripers are released every year in Murray? I heard they only release males, because they are cheap, is that true?
CB
Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo.
Was out yesterday and saw 20 plus 18-20" floaters just short of Bomber Isl. but also found 3 or 4 24-26" fish. I would have kept those!
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quote:
Originally posted by Cbrods…I heard they only release males, because they are cheap, is that true?
Not true. I caught plenty of stripers this past spring that were full of eggs
quote:
Originally posted by crabjackquote:
Originally posted by Cbrods…I heard they only release males, because they are cheap, is that true?
Not true. I caught plenty of stripers this past spring that were full of eggs
I agree and from what I have caught and seen; I would say 90% or better of the “bigger” keeper fish are female. they get bigger than the males. just my observation.
edit not all fish floating have been caught and released. some of the “larger” fish floating just died because of lack of oxygen. they go deeper to get away from the heat but just like up top that water down deep doesn’t have much oxygen too. seen this one floating back during the first week in july. easily a 10-12lb fish. pic doesn’t really show how big this fish was.
quote:CB, Glad you're interested in the club. Monthly tourny tomorrow out of Jake's, weigh-in around 1PM (lines out at noon and burgers before weighing fish). Monthly tournys are on the third Saturday. We hold three special tournys each year: Youth, ladies and ride-along. Youth and ladies are free to participants and ride-along is a shared cost event where less experienced member anglers can ride with a veteran to pick up tips. All of these have a lunch after fishing. Our largest fund raiser is the HydroGlow / DNR benefit open. It is a tourny within a tourny where our regular club event is held in conjunction with the open. I will try to find the stocking numbers, I believe that it's near 1 million fry released at different locations around the lake. There is not a selective gender program.
Originally posted by CbrodsSorry i mssed the meeting last night, sounds like a good club. Please keep posting upcoming events, tournaments, and fund raisers. Does anyone know how many stripers are released every year in Murray? I heard they only release males, because they are cheap, is that true?
CB
Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo.
Jim,
The msc tournament is actually the 21st.
Oh, crap. You’re right. I’m fishing anyway. A tournament of one. Prolly still come in second. Niece and her hubby commin up from St. Matthews so we’ll just make it a practice day. Anybody else goin?