Gary Soldati of Big Fish Lures caught a fifty one pound Bass on the same style lures Capt. Al uses for plugging Striped Bass around here, the Giant Pike. For More Info

By MIKE SHEPHERD, For The Press |

Greg Myerson said Tuesday he's sorry to take the world-record striped bass record from Atlantic City, but he is happy to have it in Westbrook, Conn.

Myerson caught an 81.88-pound striped bass last Thursday in the Long Island Sound that beats the existing record of 78 pounds, 8 ounces set by former Atlantic City resident Albert McReynolds on Sept. 21, 1982.

McReynolds, who caught his bass while fishing from an Atlantic City jetty, gave Myerson his congratulations, and some advice.

"I talked to him about five times," Myerson said. "He's been treating me with nothing but respect. He told me to lay low for a couple of days. Just enjoy it." Read More

Fishermen around the area are anxiously awaiting word on whether a striped bass caught in Long Island Sound is a new world-record.

Jack Katzenbach of Jack's Shoreline Bait & Tackle in Westbrook said angler Greg Myerson, 43, of North Branford, brought in a striper that weighed in at 81.88 pounds."He was just trying to enter it into the Striper Cup," Katzenbach said. This fish was reportedly caught off a boat using live eels. Myerson had already headed home, while Katzenbach and others are worked to figure out how to get the fish recorded as the largest striper caught.



Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Striped-bass-catch-may-be-world-record-1751712.php#ixzz1ULSThRSq

If you heard that the new State Record Striped Bass was hauled in over the weekend and weighed at Snug Harbor, you're spot on.

This monster was caught early Sunday morning by Peter Vican, who surpasses the previous Rhode Island record. What's more, its his own record that he's replacing.

The catch was brought to the Snug Harbor Marina to be officially weighed, and came in at a whopping 77.4 pounds.  The fish measures 52 inches long, and has a 35-inch girth. Vican's previous record fish weighed in at 76 pounds, 14 ounces and was 54 inches long.  Vican, who hails from East Greenwich, caught his previous record-holder in 2008.  Read More

As most of you know by now, striped bass poaching and over kills to the south have been so out of hand it appalled many anglers and non-anglers alike.

Trawlers fishing the Outer Banks were culling their catch, dumping tons of stripers overboard so they would stay within their limit, leaving miles of dead fish floating on the surface.

This was followed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) shutting down the February striped bass gill net season after Natural Resources Police (NRP) confiscated more than 10 tons of illegally caught bass in two days. NRP seized the 20,016 pounds of stripers from four illegally anchored gill nets found in Chesapeake Bay.

Maryland's commercial striped bass fishery is managed on a quota system, in cooperation with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The commercial gill net quota for February is 354,318 pounds. When the illegally harvested striped bass confiscated by the NRP were deducted from the quota, DNR was forced to immediately shut down the fishery.

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By Darryl FearsWashington Post Staff Writer 
Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police officers stumbled upon a poacher's net bulging with more than three tons of rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay, the largest haul seized by a single patrol in at least 25 years, police said.

Officers retrieved about 6,000 pounds of rockfish Tuesday near the Bloody Point Lighthouse, between Queen Anne's and Talbot counties. Sgt. Art Windemuth, a DNR Police spokesman, said the 900-yard gill net was probably in freezing waters for several days.

A pair of officers on patrol spotted the net about 2 p.m. Monday and returned to their base for a third officer. The three staked out the net overnight in freezing rain, waiting for someone to retrieve it, but no one came. They started to pull the net early Tuesday but had to call for help when they feared the weight would sink their boat.  Read More

Monica Holland

Arkansas blackbirds falling from the sky; limp turtle doves raining down in Italy; scores of dead spots on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay: Mass animal deaths seem to be the signature events of January, 2011. You didn't think North Carolina would make it out of the month unscathed did you?

Two weekends ago near Oregon Inlet, recreational boaters found themselves floating amid a mass of perished striped bass. The cause of these thousands of striper deaths was not cold water temperatures, an unusual disease or a looming Armageddon. The fish were regulatory discharge from the overloaded nets of a trawler. And on the dozens of recreational boats nearby, digital-age anglers pulled out their cell phones and captured the moment for all to see.

It's easy to pile on the commercial trawler. You see the dead fish. You know they are there because he netted them by the thousand when his trip limit is 50 fish. But here's the thing: His actions were legal. Ethical? Absolutely not, but you don't get fined for ethics.

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