260 Fish

[chrisdetweiler]

Yesterday, I had a guy at the sandy point state park boat ramp tell me that he caught 260 fish. I said, "That's great. How many did you keep?" He replied, "260 fish" Perch, Hardhead & Spot. I said, "How long will it take you to EAT 260 fish?" He told me that they will have a big fish fry and walked off smiling. Are Spot and Perch so abundant, that this type of harvest is allowed? I realize that the number of coakers allowed is 25 per person or 75 for the three people on this particular boat. That leaves 185 Perch & Spot. I'm not sure I've kept 260 fish in my entire life!

[Salmo trutta]

You're right. It's a slaughter out there. All those guys live lining are killing 50 spot a day. But it's legal so that's the way it is unfortunately. I've been having a slow time with fishing lately and I even tried to go after spot to live line. Didn't catch a one. I've been having too much fun catching giant perch both with the fly and bottom rigs. All go back to fight another day.

I wonder how long it would take to clean 200+ fish. If it was me behind the knife I would probably go through 4 knives and god knows how many stitches. The reward isn't worth the expended energy to me. Every time I go fishing for a long day, all I can think of doing after fishing is eating. If I had to clean just one fish it would take me 10 to 20 minutes and just not worth it. Especially when fish taste like fish... yuk. There's no better substitute to a fishermen's hunger than a 1 pound burrito from Chipotle smuthered in a half pound of cheeze. Or a rib eye steak cooked over the grill but that takes time, something my stomach normally doesn't have after only been fed granola bars and water all day.

[kiko13]

Salmo,

Nothing wrong with eating a few white perch...they are the best! I can fillet 10 perch in 20 minutes or so!!

But you are right....too many people taking way too many fish out. 260 fish is nuts unless you are feeding an entire block!

Ernie

[Ken Tidy]

You wonder how many of those fish get thrown out after sitting in the freezer all winter, if you take fish only take what you can eat is a day!

[Wild Bill]

There is no way of knowing but I suspect once the guy started filleting and sees how much work it is and how little you get, many of those fish will be tossed.

Using kiko's numbers of 10 fish in 20 minutes or two minutes per fish, it would take 520 minutes to fillet 260 little fish. That would be 8.66 hours cleaning little fish. He may have had help but I still feel a bunch of those fish may have been wasted.

Years ago each week in season I fished charters with local guys who were true fish hogs and we often kept 260 big trout, stripers, blues and flounder. Limits were either non existent or more generous back then. We took six 100 quart Igloos filled with ice in the back of a full sized Chevy Van. One of the guys had access to free ice from a chicken processor. I was the new kid in this bunch of old timers and could not get them to put fish back after a reasonable number were caught. Even the captain wanted us to take every legal fish. I will say no fish were wasted, but they were often sold because one of the guys had a commercial license. That was in the sixties and all those guys are gone now except for 83 year old "Jig Head Sam" who still makes my jig heads. There were a serious number of fish both in Delaware and Chesapeake Bays in the sixties and seventies. Both rec guys and commercial netters took huge numbers of fish.

When I hear guys today say "I got my limit" of stripers, that is just two fish and indicates to me they have no idea what fishing in the bay once was. For a number of years now I have kept no fish at all and only have one bud who keeps them. Usually if we fish on my boat, he does not keep them either. It is good that we have limits in both size and numbers of most important species today or "fish hogs" would fish them down to nothing.

When talking about the big breeders that congregate in Mass in summer and VA and NC in winter, two big fish over 28" seem like more fish flesh than any family would need.

While on my soap box, I do not think it is a good thing so many guys are live lining spot to catch stripers and blues. Norfolk spot, if allowed to get to full size, are one of the sweetest, tastiest fish in the bay. Killing a good eating fish to catch a fish gives pause. If guys want to catch more fish quicker than they can livelining spot, they should give vertical jigging a serious try. You can usually put fish in the boat much faster vertical jigging and not kill another fish to do it.

I am not a tree hugger or a PETA advocate. I just think we have to give reasonable thought to what we are doing. Our children and grandchildren may want to catch a fish someday.

[kiko13]

Well said Wild Bill.....even if they cleaned the fish by gutting them, it would take them over 3-4 hours....that's insane!

Ernie