Alright, and we're off. So this year came five days early for me that it did in 2021. River conditions looking good and getting better. Been fishing several times a day after the full moon. Today I scored one fish in the late afternoon that took a large herring fly, one of the many I tied up before the season opened. But here's the cool thing, over the winter I found the group called "Keep Fish Wet", and I thought to myself, " How can I do a better job in protecting the bass that I catch?" I searched
online looking for something that I could make to keep the fish wet wafter it was caught, especially when a pier net is used. I found a guy in Queens, who graduated FIT with my daughter, and he was selling an acrylic "stage" he used for his fashion show. A quick ride on a Sunday and $60 later and I had
what I needed to make 2 fish aquariums, one comes in just over 28 inches and the other 40 inches. I had to cut them down to size and then figure out how to join the together and make them water tight. There's
a product called Weld 4 that literally fuses the acrylic together. I purchased a torch and used that to soften the edges. All in all in wasn't that bad of a project and the finished result is pretty cool.
So how does it work? Well, before I fish I set up the aquarium, take a bucket and fill it with water, fish, catch a fish, use the pier net, and place the fish in the tank, keeping it wet. After a quick photo it gets lowered down into the water and swims away. Sound like too much work? That's fine I'm doing it to help keep the bass healthy and hoping to reduce the 9% recreational mortality, according to the ASMFC. My fish wasn't big, but it didn't matter. It was the first of the spring, of many I hope, and this
set up can be used on both the shore and on a boat. I hope to put into use the larger tank which can hold fish to 40 inches, and in preparation of that I switched over to the 12 weight and the 450 gr line depending on the tide. I think it's on and I am ready, its been a long 22 days.
