Re: Febuary Bass! Are we on schedule?
 

And in two weeks it will be legal to target bass in those waters....just sayin

Re: Febuary Bass! Are we on schedule?
 

Nice fish Urban. Thats what fishing is all about. Headin out and giving it a shot even though you know you have a good chance of going home skunked this time of year. Its all about just tryin to relax have a good time and appreciate the experience.

Austin - Seriously going to try and rain on this guys parade? I am not sure of the legal stipulations of C&R but it is just that. Catch and Release. No harm done to the fish and now we all have a better idea of where the fish are and what they are doing. IMO the people who make up the rules and regulations for us know a fraction of what most experienced anglers know. If i knew I could go out and have some C&R the fear of a game wardon would never stop me.

Re: Febuary Bass! Are we on schedule?
 

Theres also a good chance that in two weeks from now you wont catch fish where he was.

Re: Febuary Bass! Are we on schedule?
 

Yes you are... No one was attempting to take because you catch and dehook and release the fish.

Your understanding of the wording is way off.

If someone is attempting to take he catches it, and attempts to put it somewhere or in something and is caught in the act of doing such thing.

I have 3 friends who work for NY and NJ, 2 are NY DEC and one is NJ Fish and game. ;)

Re: Febuary Bass! Are we on schedule?
 

Hey Tom this is going down just like it did in the 80's. All the commercial guys were saying look at all these big stripers the stock is fine and collapse went the stock.

The red flags are up, you can either heed it's warning and start throwing back big females 30lb + to keep breeding or see the stock collapse.

I remember only a few people even targeting bass when the limit was 36" or better and one a man and even a year of 38" and ov er one a man.

The minute they lowered the size limit to 28" and the charter boats and internet started catching steam that ultimately started the demise of the stripers all over again.

Where were all these charter and private boats when the stripers needed to be 36"+ to be kept?

Re: Febuary Bass! Are we on schedule?
 

The answer I got from a warden when I called on this issue was different so I guess each warden is reading from a different book

Re: Febuary Bass! Are we on schedule?
 

Just a point of correction on your post - when the minimum size was lowered to 28" (I believe in 90, 91, or 92) we still had a very limited stock of stripers.

It was when the SLOT limit was created in the late 90's that the charter boats/party boats started targeting the bass with regularity since most bass that were caught were under the minimum of 28". Even then, taking 1 bass home that was a "slot" fish plus the occasional over 28" er was what got the people on the boats since there was a better chance of going home with a couple of fillets.

And most of the people that were fishing in the mid-80's when the 36" size limit was in place were on the railed headboats targeting whiting/ling in November/December and in the spring. That fishery was a real conservational success eh??!?! :rolleyes:

Re: Febuary Bass! Are we on schedule?
 

Regardless what the wardens say about fishing for bass in the winter, that law was brought into place when people were snagging dormant fish out of their wintering holes, thats not legit so they outlawed it. Nowadays, residing fish habits are different and if you're snagging fish out of a hole then you're breaking the law, but if you're fair-hooking fish for catch and release, then who really cares? If you have the drive to fish this time of year and you're doing it fairly then the law really shouldn't matter, maybe you'll get a ticket one day for this, but if you know those are the potential consequences and you're willing to take the risk then more power to ya, TIA this is america I have had great backbay bites in january and kept it to myself and never ran into a warden. Tell em you're fishing for bluefish. or redfish.

Re: Febuary Bass! Are we on schedule?
 

That really isn't a slot limit really, more like a hybrid slot.

As for the over harvest or local whiting stocks well you can blame NJ and the US government, US and Foreign commercial trawlers For the local collapse.

Now since you are in the know you should also add that the Whiting stock is fine the only problem is that they can not over flow and migrate inshore like they used to from the Hudson Canyon because as you know thats the stock that used to frequent our waters through the winter.

Now the mid-water trawlers that are Corporate Commercial fishing fleets are netting them before they can make their way inshore.

End the Mid -water boats and gain the epic whiting fishery there was once in our local waters.

Blackfish demise was not caused by hook and line but by roller gear and fish pots. Stop these two things and we will have again blackfishing like it once was.

Re: Febuary Bass! Are we on schedule?
 

agree 100% well said :) I like how you mentioned "overflow" with the whiting that's why we had them for 100 years +!!

Fish pots haven't helped the tog either!!