I saw a recent picture of a happy angler with a, well, ugly ass fish. This poor baby. I wonder what its survival story is. Was it born like that? I don't think so. Was is the result of being tempted and falling for a single hook barbless Beast Fleye? Um no. Possibly a bunker chunk that bounced along the bottom on a 8/0 circle hook? Probably not. Maybe it was a livie on a
snagging hook when snag and drop was legal? Maybe. Could, and I say could, it have been when it fell for a big double treble hooked metal lip tossed along the outside of a bunker pod in 2021? Maybe.
Now, to be square. I am an angler just like all of the above. I do do my best to reduce stress and mortality when it comes to striped bass. Do I do things perfectly, absolutely not. Do I make sure I have all the barbs pushed down on my hooks, yes. Do I still add to mortality, or F as they say, no doubt.
During this spring on one of my PETA-perfect outings I was into some fish that were on herring. Herring are just perfect. Long, slender, and I'm sure tasty. Kind of like an oyster to a human, one slurp, and the whole thing is down the hatch. So I was throwing my Squimpish herring flies on big AHREX 5/0 Clouser hooks, which I prefer over the Popovic's hooks. It was basically swinging flies into the holds and that's when I went tight.
It was a nice 30 inch fish similar to what I was catching. As I turned my rod towards land to bring the fish out of bigger water, I noticed the blood trail coming off it. Let's just say by the time I removed the hook from the gill rakers and gills it had just about exsanquinated, or bled out. I watched it basically seize as it went down the river after it's "Swam away strong" release. It was a fish I should have kept for the table.
It's not like humans are the only ones that like to target striped bass. Birds, other fishes, like catfish early on, sharks later on, and big mammals like seals love to chew on striped bass.
We've all seen the talon and bite marks left from those near misses. Sometimes they heal over nicely, other times you want to hit the fish over the head with a Billy club and put it out of its misery. But rarely do other animals cause those mandible (mouth) injuries like fishermen do.
The striped bass has some interesting mouth structure. It's designed for survival. It's designed to augment the way it eats. That was all in a post a few weeks ago. Its upper lip is fixed, its power to inhale comes from its lower lip, or jaw, or mandible. If you've ever lipped a striped bass is the movable part. in it's coordinated attack on prey the lower mandible works in conjunction with it's outer gill plate to create a vacuum, or suction, which inhales prey. That goes along with its powerful and large caudal fin which gives them their ambush capabilities.
Our fish above has lost half of that ability. It's like trying to down a Guinness after a stroke. But somehow it has managed to heal, and continue to eat, after injury. But like the striped bass that I killed this year the goods are in the back of the mouth. That's the area where the blood rich gills allow the striped bass to breathe. Basically it's their lungs.
While striped bass don't have sharp teeth their mouths have patches of tiny teeth. If you've ever been into one of those numbers days that what's causes that sought after "Bass Thumb". Those help hold the prey and direct it down the gullet. The gill rakers, shown above, are there to help direct food down and protect the oxygen rich gills. If something is too large or a perceived threat to the gills it can be expelled. And then there's the gills.
Damage from fishing hooks, bait holders, plugs, and flies not only comes in through the mouth. It's those errant tail hooks that cause damage to the gill plates and gills them selves from the outside. Have you ever been next to someone trying to unhook their favorite plug through the gills? Yeah, you can bury that fish in the sand. Yes, I'm beating up on those plug throwers again.
So as you sit there in your office checking out social media 100 times a day, or the beach cams, take a look and see where those hooks are in the pics. Besides positioning themselves to alleviate spot burning, anglers are cradling the fish, thank God, and removing the "baits" so they won't get skewered on social media. But that doesn't work for the ones that want to show who's plug they're throwing. It wouldn't help booster their Pro-staff ratings.
And remember, before things heat up this fall, make sure you have a long needle nose pliers, or better hemostats, in your bag to assist with those beach surgeries you might have to perform. Those rusted Klein pliers aren't going to do it. Go knock off the rust and hit them with some WD-40 if you're too cheap to buy a new pair.
Basically, we all have to do better. We're two days away from yet another 'Big Day" for striped bass. The ASMFC meets on Wednesday and it's going to be a nail biter. No- Target or No- Harvest, that's not even the big shit. The question is will it be "Status Quo", that's the threat. Because what we are doing now, as far as commercial and recreational harvesting, along with catch and release mortality isn't working. stay tuned. I'll be on that meeting for sure.
