June 15, 2023 • 12 mins
Is the 9% mortality rate for striped bass caught by recreational fishermen really accurate? In this eye-opening episode of the New York Fishing Podcast, we challenge the outdated studies from the 90s that led to this number, and discuss the need to re-evaluate these figures in light of modern fishing practices and conservation efforts. Learn about a recent Massachusetts study that showed a much lower mortality rate when fish were caught and released using circle hooks, and join us as we advocate for the importance of recognizing the work done by recreational fishermen in preserving the striped bass population.
We also talk about the vital role fishing plays in conservation and urge our listeners to get involved in the movement. By staying informed and questioning the data that drives regulations, we can help ensure a healthier future for our beloved striped bass. So subscribe to the channel, listen in, and be part of making a difference for the fish we all love!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
George Scocca (00:01):
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode
of the New York Fishing Podcast.
This episode is going to lookinto some of the numbers that we
deal with in news in order tomaintain our fisheries
management.
Right now, there's an emergencycoming into play.
(00:23):
For those of you don't knowabout it, there's gonna be like
this rolled a dice slot size ofstriped bass between 20 and 31
inches.
Anything over, that's athrowback.
Anything under, that's athrowback.
And this is all coming out at atime when we're in the we're in
(00:49):
the process of changing thingsand the way we look at data, and
when I start to look at thiswhole thing, it looks like more
of an aberration than anemergency.
So I'd first like to talk abouta number that I have disagreed
(01:10):
with and always had a problemwith, from the first time I ever
heard it, and that was the 9%mortality rate that recreational
fishermen have upon stripedbass.
When you look at this, and youlook at it over the entire
guesstimate of fish that arecaught, we are being blamed for
(01:35):
killing 3 million striped bass ayear when we release them.
I'm not sure how it's possible.
3 million fish?
think about it.
Do you think someone may haveseen some of them somewhere.
Yeah, every now and then we'llsee a floater, but 3 million, i
(01:58):
don't know.
I'm just not buying it.
I never could buy it.
Studies that they base all thison were conducted in the 90s.
This was a different time.
This was when you would laughthat if you released the fish.
This was a time you could use ababy blackfish and, you know
God, hook every single bassthere was.
(02:21):
They loved them.
They were like candy.
It was a different world.
Then we took fish to eat andnow we have this.
We're talking about 1990.
Things was so so much differentthen.
So now here we are.
We're in this, the new century,when we're in the new fisheries
(02:44):
day and age, where we knowevery fish there is.
We could save every single fishthere is and we know exactly
how to do it and whose faultthat it is.
so I'm gonna go back to 9% now,these studies.
So you understand I don't wantto get too deep into the woods
because you'll just get lost.
I'm still getting lost.
(03:04):
I'm doing it for 35 years, so Idon't want to get too deep into
it.
But the majority of thesestudies for catch and release
fishing were done where you knowfish would be caught and then
thrown in pens.
So I want you to think aboutthe difference of how we fish
(03:25):
today and how we fish that.
Forget about everything else.
Forget about the fact thatthere's been 30 years of
educating on how to releasethese fish and save these fish.
There has been a whole newethic brought into the saltwater
(03:46):
fishery to a certain extent, sowhy has that not been taken
into account?
Forget about everything else.
Let's not talk about how youused to be able to use treble
hawks.
You'd be able to snag I mean,you could do whatever you want
with it.
The people would gaff them andrelease them so that they could
(04:10):
catch a bigger fish.
That's the way it was, and thenyou will look at it weirdo.
In fact, i saw a commercial theother day I thought it was
pretty funny with two guystalking about like, what do you
mean?
you're going to let it go so itcould get fat and you could
catch it again, or what are yougoing to tie it up?
right, we're going to eat it?
I mean, that's how peoplethought And you can't blame them
(04:33):
.
I mean, people started fishingto eat fish, so anyway.
So here we are.
Now they're blaming us onkilling 3 million fish last year
.
So how that's possible, ireally don't know.
How they know that, i reallyhave no idea.
But now it's our fault becausebecause of this And so now we
(04:59):
get this I call it the lotteryslot fish You're only allowed to
catch a five year old fish.
Don't worry about that, yourclass doesn't matter.
There's so many of them that wecould.
Just those are the only oneswe're going to catch.
So again, let's go back to tolooking at these numbers Now
(05:24):
last year, last they're facingthese numbers, these emergency
numbers on what happened lastyear, now last year.
We all use circle hooks.
We've used some circle hooksfor bait.
So why don't we look at therecent Massachusetts study which
shows that fish caught andreleased in the spring on circle
(05:50):
hooks Had a 2% mortality rate2%.
Now you take that 2% across theboard And all of a sudden we go
from killing 3 million fish to600,000 fish.
We should be credited for whatwe do.
(06:11):
Because let me tell yousomething Anglers, i know where
we're all of this mindset that,oh, we got to save these big
fish, we're going to save allthe fish.
What's going to happen isyou're going to save all the
fish and you're going to losethem, because remember one thing
the best thing possible everfor striped bass would be nobody
(06:35):
fishing for them No one.
And I'd like to speak to thesaltwater fly fishing crab.
There's a lot of you guys outthere right now and I feel some
of you don't care about this,even though you should, but
don't think you are not next.
I mean, how horrible is it tofight a fish on a fly rod?
(07:00):
Oh, my God, how long would ittake?
Oh, no.
What if you had a 50 pounder ona fly rod?
What do you do?
Do you fight the fish till it'sdead because that's what you
got to do And bring it up to theside of the boat?
Oh no, you fly fishing man.
No, no, no, no, no, yourtrouble.
I think we need to end that.
(07:20):
That's got to save a lot offish up and down the coast.
You see, no one here isthinking.
Everyone is a target, everyoneThe people on the shore, the
people fishing inland you can'tfish offshore or some stupid
three mile rule.
You can't go to here and there.
(07:41):
So don't think that this is nota step towards further
regulation, especially in thosefawny areas, and I'd like to
also mention that all theseemergency regs it was such an
emergency that 50% of the fishin the Chesapeake Bay which we
(08:06):
should be fishing they're allexempt from this.
So, look, folks, just keep ondoing what you're doing, but you
need to stand up for yourself.
You need to get the word outthat you don't like this.
Because, again, i'm going totell you, the best thing for
(08:27):
striped bass is if no one fishesfor them at all.
Is that what you want?
I don't think it's what youwant.
We want a healthy fishery, wewant to take care of these fish,
and that's what we're doing.
There are pictures all over theInternet of everything, and
(08:48):
It's very hard to see Anyonetreat the fish better, not
trying to put that fish back inthe water the same exact way.
So it's time we get creditedfor what we did.
Recreational fishermen are notbeing represented enough.
Yes, yeah, they listen to us onboards, but we're not organized
(09:11):
.
There was a time I can rememberI was trying to make strike
bass a game fish.
I wasn't alone, i had people.
We had 400 people show up atJones Beach.
We ended up on all the news andWe actually put the laws in
place that you're dealing withtoday here in New York, which
you don't even realize the homerun that you had that.
(09:36):
So it's time we wake up.
We need to question this.
Stop thinking that everythingthey're telling you is a hundred
percent gospel.
I'm not saying they're lying,but they're working on Numbers.
That almost impossible.
And he made themselves admitthey could be 50% wrong and then
in some cases I've seen 80%wrong.
(09:58):
So Let's keep our eyes on thing.
I don't believe the 9%.
It's time for us To berepresented correctly where the
people on the beach, where thepeople have cleaning things up.
We're the out there where thepeople bring into the balloons.
(10:23):
It's time that we need to standup.
This regulation coming rightnow.
Everybody's thinking it's nobig deal.
Well, let me tell you, this isjust one step in another
direction.
Now, what if they say next yearOh, my goodness, we caught too
many of that year, so now wecan't catch any.
(10:46):
And That will include catch andrelease, because you are
killing Three million fish ayear just releasing them.
That's what we've been hearing.
It's time we stand up for this,for what we're doing and all the
(11:07):
work we've done, and stop usingall that gear that kills all
those fish.
It's time for us to be creditedfor that, and Those are my
numbers on bass.
I got a lot more coming up.
I mean it's very involved and Idon't want to get you to
Wrapped up in numbers, but weneed to organize and stay behind
(11:32):
this movement.
We need to let people know.
I mean this is happening nomatter what, but we need to set
the stage now to make sure itdoesn't happen again without
everything taken into account.
Okay, yeah, more on this nextweekend.
Thanks for listening.
(11:53):
Please subscribe to the channeland Get out there.
Fishing is great.
Thanks again.
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode
of the New York Fishing Podcast.
This episode is going to lookinto some of the numbers that we
deal with in news in order tomaintain our fisheries
management.
Right now, there's an emergencycoming into play.
(00:23):
For those of you don't knowabout it, there's gonna be like
this rolled a dice slot size ofstriped bass between 20 and 31
inches.
Anything over, that's athrowback.
Anything under, that's athrowback.
And this is all coming out at atime when we're in the we're in
(00:49):
the process of changing thingsand the way we look at data, and
when I start to look at thiswhole thing, it looks like more
of an aberration than anemergency.
So I'd first like to talk abouta number that I have disagreed
(01:10):
with and always had a problemwith, from the first time I ever
heard it, and that was the 9%mortality rate that recreational
fishermen have upon stripedbass.
When you look at this, and youlook at it over the entire
guesstimate of fish that arecaught, we are being blamed for
(01:35):
killing 3 million striped bass ayear when we release them.
I'm not sure how it's possible.
3 million fish?
think about it.
Do you think someone may haveseen some of them somewhere.
Yeah, every now and then we'llsee a floater, but 3 million, i
(01:58):
don't know.
I'm just not buying it.
I never could buy it.
Studies that they base all thison were conducted in the 90s.
This was a different time.
This was when you would laughthat if you released the fish.
This was a time you could use ababy blackfish and, you know
God, hook every single bassthere was.
(02:21):
They loved them.
They were like candy.
It was a different world.
Then we took fish to eat andnow we have this.
We're talking about 1990.
Things was so so much differentthen.
So now here we are.
We're in this, the new century,when we're in the new fisheries
(02:44):
day and age, where we knowevery fish there is.
We could save every single fishthere is and we know exactly
how to do it and whose faultthat it is.
so I'm gonna go back to 9% now,these studies.
So you understand I don't wantto get too deep into the woods
because you'll just get lost.
I'm still getting lost.
(03:04):
I'm doing it for 35 years, so Idon't want to get too deep into
it.
But the majority of thesestudies for catch and release
fishing were done where you knowfish would be caught and then
thrown in pens.
So I want you to think aboutthe difference of how we fish
(03:25):
today and how we fish that.
Forget about everything else.
Forget about the fact thatthere's been 30 years of
educating on how to releasethese fish and save these fish.
There has been a whole newethic brought into the saltwater
(03:46):
fishery to a certain extent, sowhy has that not been taken
into account?
Forget about everything else.
Let's not talk about how youused to be able to use treble
hawks.
You'd be able to snag I mean,you could do whatever you want
with it.
The people would gaff them andrelease them so that they could
(04:10):
catch a bigger fish.
That's the way it was, and thenyou will look at it weirdo.
In fact, i saw a commercial theother day I thought it was
pretty funny with two guystalking about like, what do you
mean?
you're going to let it go so itcould get fat and you could
catch it again, or what are yougoing to tie it up?
right, we're going to eat it?
I mean, that's how peoplethought And you can't blame them
(04:33):
.
I mean, people started fishingto eat fish, so anyway.
So here we are.
Now they're blaming us onkilling 3 million fish last year
.
So how that's possible, ireally don't know.
How they know that, i reallyhave no idea.
But now it's our fault becausebecause of this And so now we
(04:59):
get this I call it the lotteryslot fish You're only allowed to
catch a five year old fish.
Don't worry about that, yourclass doesn't matter.
There's so many of them that wecould.
Just those are the only oneswe're going to catch.
So again, let's go back to tolooking at these numbers Now
(05:24):
last year, last they're facingthese numbers, these emergency
numbers on what happened lastyear, now last year.
We all use circle hooks.
We've used some circle hooksfor bait.
So why don't we look at therecent Massachusetts study which
shows that fish caught andreleased in the spring on circle
(05:50):
hooks Had a 2% mortality rate2%.
Now you take that 2% across theboard And all of a sudden we go
from killing 3 million fish to600,000 fish.
We should be credited for whatwe do.
(06:11):
Because let me tell yousomething Anglers, i know where
we're all of this mindset that,oh, we got to save these big
fish, we're going to save allthe fish.
What's going to happen isyou're going to save all the
fish and you're going to losethem, because remember one thing
the best thing possible everfor striped bass would be nobody
(06:35):
fishing for them No one.
And I'd like to speak to thesaltwater fly fishing crab.
There's a lot of you guys outthere right now and I feel some
of you don't care about this,even though you should, but
don't think you are not next.
I mean, how horrible is it tofight a fish on a fly rod?
(07:00):
Oh, my God, how long would ittake?
Oh, no.
What if you had a 50 pounder ona fly rod?
What do you do?
Do you fight the fish till it'sdead because that's what you
got to do And bring it up to theside of the boat?
Oh no, you fly fishing man.
No, no, no, no, no, yourtrouble.
I think we need to end that.
(07:20):
That's got to save a lot offish up and down the coast.
You see, no one here isthinking.
Everyone is a target, everyoneThe people on the shore, the
people fishing inland you can'tfish offshore or some stupid
three mile rule.
You can't go to here and there.
(07:41):
So don't think that this is nota step towards further
regulation, especially in thosefawny areas, and I'd like to
also mention that all theseemergency regs it was such an
emergency that 50% of the fishin the Chesapeake Bay which we
(08:06):
should be fishing they're allexempt from this.
So, look, folks, just keep ondoing what you're doing, but you
need to stand up for yourself.
You need to get the word outthat you don't like this.
Because, again, i'm going totell you, the best thing for
(08:27):
striped bass is if no one fishesfor them at all.
Is that what you want?
I don't think it's what youwant.
We want a healthy fishery, wewant to take care of these fish,
and that's what we're doing.
There are pictures all over theInternet of everything, and
(08:48):
It's very hard to see Anyonetreat the fish better, not
trying to put that fish back inthe water the same exact way.
So it's time we get creditedfor what we did.
Recreational fishermen are notbeing represented enough.
Yes, yeah, they listen to us onboards, but we're not organized
(09:11):
.
There was a time I can rememberI was trying to make strike
bass a game fish.
I wasn't alone, i had people.
We had 400 people show up atJones Beach.
We ended up on all the news andWe actually put the laws in
place that you're dealing withtoday here in New York, which
you don't even realize the homerun that you had that.
(09:36):
So it's time we wake up.
We need to question this.
Stop thinking that everythingthey're telling you is a hundred
percent gospel.
I'm not saying they're lying,but they're working on Numbers.
That almost impossible.
And he made themselves admitthey could be 50% wrong and then
in some cases I've seen 80%wrong.
(09:58):
So Let's keep our eyes on thing.
I don't believe the 9%.
It's time for us To berepresented correctly where the
people on the beach, where thepeople have cleaning things up.
We're the out there where thepeople bring into the balloons.
(10:23):
It's time that we need to standup.
This regulation coming rightnow.
Everybody's thinking it's nobig deal.
Well, let me tell you, this isjust one step in another
direction.
Now, what if they say next yearOh, my goodness, we caught too
many of that year, so now wecan't catch any.
(10:46):
And That will include catch andrelease, because you are
killing Three million fish ayear just releasing them.
That's what we've been hearing.
It's time we stand up for this,for what we're doing and all the
(11:07):
work we've done, and stop usingall that gear that kills all
those fish.
It's time for us to be creditedfor that, and Those are my
numbers on bass.
I got a lot more coming up.
I mean it's very involved and Idon't want to get you to
Wrapped up in numbers, but weneed to organize and stay behind
(11:32):
this movement.
We need to let people know.
I mean this is happening nomatter what, but we need to set
the stage now to make sure itdoesn't happen again without
everything taken into account.
Okay, yeah, more on this nextweekend.
Thanks for listening.
(11:53):
Please subscribe to the channeland Get out there.
Fishing is great.
Thanks again.
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