Quote Originally Posted by J Barbosa View Post
JC,

Welcome

Let me start by saying it's great to see a father and son fishing together.

As a young angler myself I'm saddened to see the amount of big bass that you and your son are killing. I wouldn't be so upset if these were fish that you were keeping to feed the family but it seems that this is not the case.

I released a 35lb bass on Monday night that was about the same age as your son. That fish is still out there swimming for all of us to try and catch again. That fish will still make it up the Hudson to drop off a few million eggs this spring.

Best of all that 35lb fish is on its way to quickly becoming a real trophy sized fish.

Let me put it into perspective, that fish took 15 years to grow to 35lbs. It's passed the hardest points in its lifetime and it now has the large mouth to easily inhale a few bunker/sea robins/shad/herring/flounder/blackfish/porgies/sea bass per day without expanding a lot of energy. That fish can pack on the pounds and weigh over 50lbs in just another 5 years.

I think it would be great to see the both of you releasing these fish over 20lbs and catching that on film. It's certainly more impressive than having six dead breeders laying on a dock.
I second what jbarbosa said. Welcome Jcontello and look forward to your posts.
We had a good trip trolling bunker spoons outside sandy hook this weekend. The action was incredible. I can certainly appreciate you fishing with your son and the good times you are having together. Enjoy them while they last as the young ones grow up fast. The thing I have seen in this thread that is most remarkable is that you are not being crucified for eating fish.

I have been a member here for years and no one has ever questioned the fish I take.

I think it is the manner in which you folks deal with the bonus tags. We had great action and caught over 11 bass. We could have each kept 3 fish if we had bonus tags. My question to you, if you don't mind me asking, is why the need for bonus tags? I am perfectly happy to take what I can eat each time. Some of our bass were over 20lbs. If we were to take 3 each that is a lot of meat for the freezer. Filling the freezer on a trip you make only a few times a season is a good goal and I applaud the folks who do so. Some live several hours from the water and cannot get out that often.

This is the way I look at things. When I and my fishing partner can get out, we generally can fish 1-2 times a week. If we were to take our limits with bonus tags every time we would soon run out of space to store the fillets.
There is only so much you can give away. At some point when you keep takng big bass each time just because you can - there will inevitably be wasted bass or bass that has freezer burn. I have no knowledge of your time on the water, Caot, so please excuse my lack of knowledge here. Nor did I read this whole thread so I am at a disadvantage as to the whole dynamics.

I will say that you as a father have a great opportunity to teach your son about thinking about others and how limited the striped bass stocks are. I would think you want the fishing to last for not only your children but grandchildren as well. The folks who fish more often than others and concentrate on filling their limits with bonus tags have a greater degree of responsibility as shepherds of this declining resource.

Those are my thoughts, Welcome aboard and would love to hear your thoughts Capt.