Stripers and the F-n-F

[redneckshadrap]

I posted this question over on the Creek Bank for APB, but will also ask it here for the other Striper fishermen as well.

I've heard of folks catching Stripers on the fly, but I"ve also heard about the long battles. They've had to chase them.

How does that effect the fish when it's released?

Billy


Redneckshadrap
www.thecreekbank.com
[email protected]

[mhall]

Fellow out of Grider told some people he hooked a striper on the f-n-f and it took him over one hour of chasing to land the fish. He considered just cutting line after about 45 minutes but decided he had come that far better finish the deal. It was the better part of 20lb, and was so out of gas when they landed it it died very soon after. Morale of the story, long fights and stripers are not good they almost always die.

[striperfishin]

I have been fishing for stripers for 10 years now on Cumberland. I dont know what happens to a fish when it dies (I am not a fish expert)- but I will tell you that I have NEVER seen a striper floating on the lake. I am not debating any of the above comments, because you guys probably know more than me - BUT how do we really know the fight takes the LIFE out of a fish.

I have heard that you cant release a striper after bringing him up from deep waters (50-100 ft) and have had trouble releasing that fish. It floated for a while and then i ended up chasing the floating fish and putting that fish in the livelwell. A guy told me to poke the stomach with a knife and those fish from deep waters would swim right back down to the deep waters from which it came from. well when i did this, the fish did exactly what i was told. it took off aggressively after releasing the pressure by poking the belly.

I just have a hard time thinking the fish fights so much that he dies of "exhaustion".

[fishincreek]

It is my understanding that stripers do not have air bladders like black bass, so that sticking a hole in their stomach does not help the ability to survive.

[Team9nine]

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Feb-17-06 AT 10:22AM (EST)[/font][p][font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Feb-17-06 AT 10:18*AM (EST)[/font]

Wrong and right...

Stripers have the same type air bladder system as bass, that being a sealed system that relies on gas exchange to equalize.

However, puncturing the belly or stomach will do nothing but kill the fish as you are not actually puncturing the swim bladder. The swim bladder actually lies in the middle to upper half of a fish, so any puncturing from below will just be doing damage to internal organs. To properly deflate you need a hypodermic needle and have to go in from the side beneath the scales near the lateral line. Do a search for the term "fizzing" online and you should be able to track down some good examples.

On the fighting to exhaustion part, there have been plenty of studies done on this. In most studies, mortality has been linked to hoooking location/bait used and water temperature, not length of fight duration. That said, they probably didn't test the extreme examples of playing a fish for 30-45 minutes at a time. As such, the extreme cases probably would result in mortality much of the time. Think in terms of how long would you survive if someone forced you to run until exhaustion, and then kept forcing you to run until you literally collapsed. You probably would die, too.

On the water temp relation, mortality is usually in the 5-15% range during the cold water periods (Nov.-Dec.) for stripers ,but quickly rises to near 70% once the water warms up in the summer. As such, the recommendation to stop fishing after catching your limit during the warm water periods is a good one because even if you release the fish, odds are it will die anyway.

-T9

[Chubminnow]

Striperfishin - I remember now about what you said...back in the day I remember using the down riggers and was also lead to believe the bigger fish caught from deep water had much less of a chance of surviving than those caught shallow...perhaps I was wrong in my earlier messgae I posted here. The thing is I never released them anyway...Considering what I was told, I didn't figure they would survive plus I was told they did not reproduce in fresh water anyway, does anyone know if this is true or not?

[apb]

Maryland DNR did a study on post mortality release of stripers that is online somewhere. I have also talked with fisheries people from KY and TN. Warm water (mid 70's) and/or deep water catches stand a real good chance of dying after being released. Has to do with the build up of latic acid, though I do not know the details. Both the TN and KY fisheries people say to catch your limit and quit fishing for stripers in warm water. Same thing for deep water (over 40 feet). The high post release mortality makes it unlikely that they will survive. The larger the striper, the more likely it is that it will die.

Many lakes with stripers have to be stocked as there is little to no natural reproduction. Stripers spawn and the eggs need to free float in current for 48 hours before they hatch. If there is not enough current, the eggs fall to the bottom of the lake, get covered with silt, and the embroys die. There is some debate as to whether we have any natural reproduction of stripers in Cumberland. There is evidence that, during some years, there is some reproduction. Does not happen every year and there is certainly not enough to sustain the striper population at Cumberland.

Andrew

[mhall]

Andrew,apb, is the man on stripers, listen to what he's saying, he won't give you bad info on the stripers.

[Chubminnow]

I have fished for stripers although never with the f-n-f method...Anyways, back when (late 80's/early 90's) I was into the striper scene, using down riggers, pulling planer boards, etc...I had heard of guys catching them on a white doll fly jig but not a f-n-f...Also, when I was into it real heavy and reading up on striper fishing all I could, it was always my understanding that the big stripers put up such a fight that the likely hood of them surviving being on the hook was much less than that of any other fish...a fight till their death so to speak...

Good post Redneck, I look forward to seeing what others have to say about this...

[apb]

Probably dead within 24 hours. Long battles can be hard on stripers because of the build up of latic acid.

Andrew