Santee Proposal

[Stripa Swipa]

Went to the meeting tonight. They made a great case for tighter regulations. I support their proposal of...
1 fish limit on Lower Saluda
2 fish 26" limit in rest of Santee system
Closed season on rest of system during warmer months due to high catch and release mortatility.

I'll be letting my reps know of my support and hope many of you will do the same. Sounds like the fish managers are going to submit to DNR board for approval in Feb with hopes of summer time legislative approval.

[mirroman]

2 fish 26" limit.
I LIKE IT!!!!!!
SS, Did they say what months they considered "warm"?

[Stripa Swipa]

They listed a couple of options on the survey but I think Oct to April would be "open" for fishing is their best thinking. Water temps during the warmer months create an 80% release mortality according to their data. Even though the fish swims away, they are going to die. Saluda would remain open year round because colder water temps make release mortality a non issue.

[mirroman]

I am going to go to the meeting in Manning.
I would hate to see it closed during May, it seems that April would be a bit early and it surely isn't too hot in May. Now closing it from June (I have caught lots of Rocks in June though) through the end of Sept. I could deal with.
Now tell me this, how can they "close" striper season? I mean what determines whether you are striper fishing or catfishing? Now certainly if you have rocks in the cooler during the closed months then you are illegal, but you can't tell them not to bite your hook. That situation brings back up the release mortality during the warm months.
I am of course not arguing with what you are reporting, just curious if this was brought up...

[Stripa Swipa]

It would be hard to enforce but most folks that striper fish know what conditions will maximize striper catching opportunities. While that is secondary at this point, I would ask the question, though, for the benefit of the others at the meeting to give it some thought.

I would encourage you to rethink what you would be willing to go along with. I'm rethinking a lot of things now that I have more information to work with. Here is a bit more from the meeting...

50% of the fish in the Santee system are non hatchery fish....THIS WAS THE BIGGY FOR ME!

20% of the fish in the entire Santee system are harvested on the Lower Saluda.

50% of the fish that are old enough to contribute to the spawn use the lower Saluda for summer refuge.

The Sav River recently ended their moratorium on stripers. In one year, average size of fish caught went from 3lbs to 15lbs. Short term sacrifice on Santee MAY yeild results that you can't yet imagine.

80% of the fish stocked last year died within one year.

They are spreading the release sites out a bit to help released fish not have to compete for prey. They also are releasing fish in the lower Santee tidal zone because of the abundance of forage available for young fish. This is interesting on many levels that can be discussed later.

I came away with the conclusion that the Santee system has more opportunity if managed for natural reproduction. This is not what I previously thought. When you look at the data presented, all striper fishing at this time really does set us back. I personally will not fish the lakes until things get turned around. I guess I'll have to learn more about the Lower Saluda. I don't mind catch and release although I love eating stripers.

I also see a need for organization around educating people on striped bass. From Columbia to Georgetown to Charleston to Walterboro to Beaufort....all anglers have a vested interest in understanding the issues around self sustained striper populations and their local fisheries. Self sustaining populations are the future for the state fish in the lower half of the state. I will no longer discount Santee Cooper as a put grow and take fishery with different needs.

[mirroman]

Interesting #'s...
Is this an open forum meeting Stripa? Will I be able to ask questions?

[Stripa Swipa]

It is an open forum. After Scott gives the slide presentation, he'll open it up for questions. I got one question in before he lost control. The blue hairs don't seem to remember the class rules about raising your hand and waiting to get called on by the teacher. They seem to just want to start shouting above every one. The dnr guys will stay afterwords and you can talk to them directly. I'd encourage you to talk to them. Since I got to know who was who years ago, they've gone out of their way to provide me with current information as I've requested it.

[DUCKMAN]

Thanks for sharing this Stripa! Very interesting!

[Stripa Swipa]

If any of my stuff isn't accurate, please let me know what you hear at the meeting. I'm going on memory here.

More tidbits...

The white perch populations seem to be leveling off and white bass are being seen again in very small numbers. This is very encouraging to most of us that remember the joy they provide.

The question was asked about stocking white bass and the answer was that the same hatchery resources would be used for white bass. Therefore, the striper stocking efforts would have to be reduced to accomodate white bass stocking.

So here's an idea....I would like to see a "pay to play" funding source set up to maintain/expand hatchery operations and fund studies that give us more current/accurate data from which to manage. The development that is proposed for Santee will increase pressure on this fishery. People that can afford $65 worth of blue backs to feed to garfish shouldn't balk at a hatchery stamp (or something along those lines.)

[mirroman]

If the $ went towards that, I would have no problem buying a stamp or whatever.