Man it was a perfect morning on the water today. did any of you guys make it out there? how did it go? warm and calm winds. did manage to burn my arms and nose though.
Me and my mutt went to crawdad cove and launched the canoe. only got a 14 inch largemouth and a 20 inch striper. this striper was long and skinny, the one i got last week was 2 inches shorter but probably a whole pound heavier and fought twice as hard. good morning.
when i got back to where i put in at, there was a film crew shooting a movie or show all over the only launch spot, ended up having to carry the canoe up a hill for a ways. kinda sucked but it was better than dealing with all the non sense of there i guess.
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Nice fish, thanks for the post.
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Good job on the mix bag. I noticed the stripes are looking kinda thin too. Got to wonder why they are not chewing on the shad. Or are the shad elusive to them? Thanks for the report.
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yeah i have noticed some in some of the other guys photos too that the stripers have appeared thin. maybe its just early in the year and they will thicken up over the spring and summer, or maybe the higher water levels are making the shad harder to find and chase down for them. I have not seen a single shad swimming this spring yet, but iam no expert. i dont think the small to average sized stripers can even attempts to eat the gizzards either.
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I noticed the skinniness too, out of my bag of fish from the other day the 22" fish was really thin only weighing 2.9lbs that should have been a 3 1/2 - 4lb fish my 19-20" fish were right at 2lbs. then the 21" striper I caught before that was only 2.3 lbs. and looked emaciated. got very small thin fillets from it too but they tasted good fried up lol we will see if they fatten up soon. [fishon]
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[quote the_agent]I noticed the stripes are looking kinda thin too. Got to wonder why they are not chewing on the shad. Or are the shad elusive to them? Thanks for the report.[/quote]
It's a phenomenon known as "stunting." Basically, there is not enough shad to go around. We end up with lots of smaller fish because there is a finite amount of shad to feed all of the stripers. This is why there is NO LIMIT on striped bass under 20". It is NDOW's way of encouraging the harvest of smaller fish to reduce numbers and combat stunting. If you reduce the number of predators feeding on the limited amount of shad the remaining fish can become larger.
So if you are so inclined, keep all stripers under 20" and release the bigguns. This is one way you can help to improve the Lake Mead fishery.
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I have seen that with trout. The fish have big heads in relation to their body. Usually a sign of overpopulation with not enough biomass to sustain them. One will have to wonder that with all the shad spawning going on right now if in a few weeks the fry will help plump these skinnies up?
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syncity, we need to hit the lake together sometime. when i lived in Iowa i used to catch carp all the time, but its been like 15 years since i even tried. i would love to have a big fat carp pulling my canoe around
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[quote montananinnv]syncity, we need to hit the lake together sometime. i would love to have a big fat carp pulling my canoe around[/quote]
most definitely!!! Ha Ha that would be fun to watch! I would even video record that. pm me your schedule and we will see if we can put something together maybe out at government wash or boulder harbor or something. I will put u on the carp bro![fishon]
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