Crying Time is HERE

[mudflat]

I accidently gigged one in Murrells Inlet last year. First one I had ever seen there and been a many of times.

[Calibogue]

If there were any migratory (northern) fish in SC it would be common for fisherman to catch them offshore blitzing in the fall and early winter...Never heard of such in the Palmetto State!

[Stripa Swipa]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Hooked on Quack:
[qb] Don't wanna ruin any conversation but does ANYONE know what the HELL is going on in the LAKES???? They are a state fish because they are land locked into Santee Cooper!!!!! No, they were not stocked and yes they survived but what now????? Can anyone answer this damn question?

go here for DNR's latest...

http://www.dnr.sc.gov/wildlife/publi...eriesfacts.pdf

[ROCKFISHER]

This is great news for the struggling striper population here. Anglers wanting it fixed!!! writing or calling/emailing our representatives and supporting financially or physically the programs and ideas our State DNR and other conservation groups have will eventually fix the problem(s). There are very good sources of knowledge about the stripers right here in front of us..Swipa, Trad, The Pack Boys, and of course our tax paid fisheries manangers. But, Like Jody Pack tried to say earlier, the stripers have been migrating up the river systems for hundreds of years, and according to my late grandfather, there were hundreds of thousands of stripers in the rivers, so many you could walk across the river on the backs of thirty pounders. What has changed..rediversion canal, Santee Dams, Water quality (a big one, mostly overlooked)shad netters,etc. But, too be sure, all those stripers did not live year around in the river systems back then??? They would have cleaned out every species of bream, catfish, bass, shad everything if they stayed in the rivers year-around. The first sign was the white bass disappearing, now it is the stripers, what is next? If our state boys looked a little harder at the amount of (toxic??) discharge from large companies and cities into the river system during peak spawning times (when the rivers are usually down)and setting a minimum fresh flow releases from the major dams, like the Roanoke program did, this could be fixed in a few years. Maybe..
Please feel free to shoot-up this post, it has no effect on my wellbeing.

[Catdaddy]

Did somebody tell me that they were trying to ban night fishing for stripers from May-Sept?


.....or did I just dream that?

[ROCKFISHER]

That is one of the options from SCDNR. TO reduce mortality, stop catching all stripers during the hottest months.

[Stripa Swipa]

[img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

You guys can't get over the "ocean run" stuff can you? There's a book written by George Reiger called "The Striper Chronicles" I believe. Get yourself a copy. It may may give you a starting point for seeing the forest for the trees.

Again, if you can show ANY evidence beyond some old timer that said such and such, I'm absolutely open minded enough to give it an appropriate weight in my attempt better understand these fish.

Catdaddy, do you know anything about water temp changes on the lakes during summer nights? I don't but it could make for an interesting point to consider.

[JP111]

yes sir. DOCTOR

[DUCKMAN]

Stripa - I am with you!
Do me a favor though....quote a source with some credibility - Brother George goes to the highest bidder and loves to shoot tammies! Continue to quote him and you will loose yours very fast!

[Stripa Swipa]

That's hilarious Duckman! You are dead nutz on and that is one reason I hadn't mentioned that as a source to this point! However, that book gives a good overview of striped bass history. It also gives a lot of sources for more detail about specific fisheries. That's why I called it a starting point. Good catch, though.

[Catdaddy]

Originally posted by ROCKFISHER:
That is one of the options from SCDNR. TO reduce mortality, stop catching all stripers during the hottest months.

Well I heard one option was to stop night fishing during that period.

Why would you not stop day fishing during that same time?


Or is this a strike against the Lower Lake Guides and recreational fisherman for catching/killing too many?

[ROCKFISHER]

I understood it to be all rock fishing ceased during that time period from the coast to Lake Murray dam and lake Wateree dam.

Stripa, I'm still on your side of helping the cause, but I do not see the trees for the forest..and it doesn't matter..a rock is a rock whether at the jetties or in Packs flats. And they look and fight the same way b/c I have caught them both places. I love all of them..delicious! What about those damn shad netters that our resident SCducks GW has told us on here several times they kill ass loads of stripers...I doubt all fishers have that kind of negative impact.

[Catdaddy]

Maybe so RF. I don't have a clue.

How would they enforce it?

Can I bass fish during that time?

Can I throw a jig up river in the rocks and if I catch a rockfish,just simply release him?

Can I fish with Blueback herring?


How do you tell somebody they can't rockfish?


What about circle hooks?

[ROCKFISHER]

Cat, I'm with ya on that one. I guess they are going to pass a self-governing requirement that if you catch yourself striper fishing, you must write yourself up and send the $ to the "Save a Shad-netter" foundation. Sad thought of not being able to work all day and striper fish all night 'til you drop. Roanoke Rapids has figured out their problems and has a great success story to show for it with their renewed striper fishery.

[Claimer]

I think the shad netters are getting blamed for a much bigger problem. First of all nets can only be set in the santee river. There is a disfunctional fish lift that doesn't allow the fish in the lakes. They also can only set a few days a week. This is on one river only in the state. How can this be affecting the entire santee cooper system? I know about this fish lift because I worked there and you could count the number of rockfish on one hand and still smoke a cig. Also when the herring that come through the pinopolis lock go back to the ocean they run the locks constantly. Where do you think these rocks are going to go. After the main food source. I doubt many of you have ever seen a shad net much less fished one.

[Claimer]

Since some people will be mad anyway here's something to think about. The dnr uses gillnets for tagging and sampling. These are the same nets they outlawed because they were indescriminate killers. They have 2 birddog boats at fort johnson they use all the time. A birddog boat is a custom gillnet boat.

[Stripa Swipa]

Claimer, shad netting is also allowed in some lowcountry rivers. I absolutely agree that nobody knows how much of an impact the set shad nets have. Studies need to be done and I think that once recreational fishermen have to make sacrifices, they will start to get more interested in learning more about all the potential contributing factors. I think the fish passage issue may be changing. Anadromous species and relicensing has shown a bright light on that topic. I don't think the DNR would be proposing the lower Santee River as a release site if they didn't think a good portion of those fish could pass to the lake system.

[Claimer]

Stripa you make good points. If they looked back at the decline of the rocks it all came about when the rediversion opened. If there was a constant flow down the cooper and the locks were regulated in the spring I think it would be incredible how quickly we would see them again. How many fish do you think die on the lowerlake during the summer night fishing. I know of guides who will stay for a limit of keepers all the while catching shorts. How many of you have cruised the dike wall between atkins and shortstay in july or august. I have seen hundreds and if checked most would have line from thier mouth where they were "released"

[Stripa Swipa]

As I look at what DNR has most recently proposed, I think recreational fishing for stripers on the lakes and upper rivers is doing the most harm. That is a theory and I COULD be way off. However, set nets shouldn't be allowed in our coastal rivers. If they kill one striped bass or any other game fish as bycatch, it's too many in my book. If I were king, I'd require manned drift nets and some reasonable monitoring to see what kind of bycatch that would produce.

[Palmetto Pride]

Set netting is the biggest issue and one we openly debated last year to the conclusion that no one wants to step up to fight it. Shad roe isn't worth th bycatch issues, but few inidividuals realize the longterm affect.

Stripa is dead on. I've had a guide on Hilton Head say he saw a striper near Pinkney Island looking for reds on the low tide last winter. NC has both, as the Roanoke River fish can be caught all the way to the Pamlico Sound, and the ocean fish can be caught as far south as Southport I hear.