Late Post Murray 7/13

Left the house at 5 and headed towards the dam. Weatherman completely botched the wind forecast. 4-6mph turned out to be 11-13. And with my little center console we banged out to 88FOW in the chop. Drifted downlines early with no luck. Moved into 60ish FOW and had better marks. Caught 2 pretty quick after we anchored up, but then the bite shut down. Off the water by 11 when the party barges started rolling through.
I'll be back down again on Saturday and Sunday while we have our Open House this weekend!!! Attachment 349991

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Pulled two out that's not all bad.I wish I had a job like the weatherman, you can be wrong 99% of the time and still have a job
Thanks for the report

Yep, i was there Sunday and caught 9. They dont seem to be in that deeper water just yet. Ill be going again this Sunday too.

Thanks for the pictures and the report

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Originally Posted by KHNC

Yep, i was there Sunday and caught 9. They dont seem to be in that deeper water just yet. Ill be going again this Sunday too.

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We had the best marks within 200 yards of the ramp in 45FOW. But was just too stubborn to stop bc; "There's no way stripers are this shallow and this close to the ramp"!!!

At least you hooked up on a couple. Next time go against the gut feeling just for a few minutes and see what can you can get. Thanks for the pic's and report. :cheers2

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Originally Posted by Fullthrottle

We had the best marks within 200 yards of the ramp in 45FOW. But was just too stubborn to stop bc; "There's no way stripers are this shallow and this close to the ramp"!!!

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Hopefully nobody reads this. :biggrin

Just talked to mama striper..... she sent me this and said papa striper is right here with his girlfriends in about 40 feet. Go get em!

Chris Attachment 350047

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Originally Posted by NCkenner

Just talked to mama striper..... she sent me this and said papa striper is right here with his girlfriends in about 40 feet. Go get em!

Chris Attachment 350047

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Well that certainly narrows it down. :Rofl

Yea, go out there and bang boats with everybody now.:dono:Rofl:Rofl:Rofl

Well if you see a yellow 218 Sailfish out there tomorrow, come on over and say hi.

Just remember they're under that first 5 that you catch rule

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I came over the dam yesterday around noon and I've never seen that many boats there before. I counted 20 within 50 yards of the towers. My buddy went and had his 5 at 7 AM. Me?? I decided to hit the WP at Monticello, only they didn't want to be hit. I jigged every underwater island I could find from 30 to 50 feet deep and caught one scrawny throwback.
Then I see that at Murray and I live 5 minutes from the ramp there.
I'm going with my buddy Monday to see if there are any Stripers left.

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Originally Posted by Eatmorecrappie

Just remember they're under that first 5 that you catch rule

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Just like before, this rule is debatable by definition. SUPER LONG post about it last year too. Article 50 definitions state "the definition of TAKE does NOT include catch and release"

So, fish can be released if you choose to. We release all healthy fish we catch. Once we get to 5 in the box we stop, otherwise we keep catching and releasing.

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Originally Posted by KHNC

Just like before, this rule is debatable by definition. SUPER LONG post about it last year too. Article 50 definitions state "the definition of TAKE does NOT include catch and release"

So, fish can be released if you choose to. We release all healthy fish we catch. Once we get to 5 in the box we stop, otherwise we keep catching and releasing.

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I know you don't agree with it but that is in violation of the law. It's 5 and done whether you keep them or not. Hate to see you get fined for this. The whole intent of this "summer rule" was to reduce fish mortality when fish are brought up from deep water and will not survive being released.

I'm with SeaRay on this Kenny. The law states "unlawful to take, attempt to take, or possess more than 5"

I too would hate to see you get fined for this and I can assure you the game warden would write a ticket. You can release fish, but you can only catch 5. Whether those 5 go home with you or you choose to release them is up to the angler.

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Originally Posted by Crappie Buster

I'm with SeaRay on this Kenny. The law states "unlawful to take, attempt to take, or possess more than 5"

I too would hate to see you get fined for this and I can assure you the game warden would write a ticket. You can release fish, but you can only catch 5. Whether those 5 go home with you or you choose to release them is up to the angler.

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Hey Derek, I totally understand you and SeaRay both on this. But , how do you explain the definition of "take". Seems if you are going to use "unlawful to take, attempt to take, or possess more than 5" , then "the definition of TAKE does NOT include catch and release" has to come into play as well.

I would like to hear your unbiased thoughts? If you reference one rule, you have to take the second in consideration too.

I personally think the law was written with too much gray area in it. The verbage "attempt to take" is too vague in terms of catch and release. For me, I know that the law's intent is to decrease the fish mortality rate, which drastically increases in the summer compared to the other seasons. I go off of the intent of "you catch 5 and you're done." I'm surprised with the amount of debate around the law, they haven't rewritten it to clean up the language and make it more cut and dry.

Agreed, it just seems nobody wants to acknowledge or address the articles of definitions around this law. If they took the time to define "take" in the regulations, it is something that can not be ignored when defining the laws surrounding it. I fully understand the intent as well.

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Originally Posted by KHNC

Hey Derek, I totally understand you and SeaRay both on this. But , how do you explain the definition of "take". Seems if you are going to use "unlawful to take, attempt to take, or possess more than 5" , then "the definition of TAKE does NOT include catch and release" has to come into play as well.

I would like to hear your unbiased thoughts? If you reference one rule, you have to take the second in consideration too.

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I don't disagree that there is gray area with the law. It comes down to the intent of the law vs. the letter of the law. Although the letter of the law may contradict itself through the definition of take, the contradiction goes completely against the intent of the law. Do you have an argument? Yes. Will a game warden on the water hear you out on that argument? Probably not. But, I see your point.

Keep in mind in SC that legislators, not DNR, write the fish and game laws, so like anything else that involves politics, they find a way to make it confusing at best.
I teach classes for the Aquatics Education department of DNR and one of the things I cover is fishing rules and regulations. When this law went into effect they made sure they covered us verse and scripture on the intent of the law and what they would enforce. I wan't trying to defend or argue the wording I was simply making the point that they made very clear to us. If they see you catch more than 5 fish they will ticket you irrespective of whether you kept them or not. Like Derek said there is no debate with the DNR officer, he has his marching orders so if it gets overturned it will be by a judge.
I don't have this years number of violations available but since it went into effect they have written dozens of tickets and I'm not aware of any being forgiven.
I guess that was my point. There's no question they will ticket you and only a judge can overturn it. I just felt like everyone should be aware and I personally don't feel like it is worth the hassle but that's up to each to make that decision.

Did they give any input why this rule was only made for Lake Murray? Why not Hartwell or Clark Hill? Are those Striper lives less important than Murray striper lives? rotfl

Interesting question. I don't know if the die offs were not as bad there or what. I'll ask next chance I get. I can guess that a shared border lake like Clark Hill would take unprecedented cooperation from both states to implement a universal law.
They can't even agree to honor each other's license at Wylie.
I have a friend that lives at the back of a cove across from Jake's Landing. He said the smell from all the stripers that were washed or blown ashore in his cove would take your breath. According to him, there has been a significant improvement since they passed the summer rule.
Even with the rule there is still some mortality. I counted about 12-15 floating between the dam and Wessinger Island on Monday. Don't see near as many during the week when there's less pressure. There's always going to be some loss, just part of nature.
Ospreys enjoy the buffet though.

I will be down this weekend again. Interesting that you are seeing so many dead fish. I have been 6-7 times in that area and have only found 1 so far. I saw that full throttle mentioned seeing some as well. Not sure why i havent seen any floating. I will try to keep a better eye out this weekend i guess.

I've only seen them when I fished on Monday morning. Friday, Saturday and Sunday get hit pretty hard so that kind of makes sense. There's probably one floating with my spoon in his mouth from a break off last week. :banghead

Yeah those Ben Parker spoons aint cheap! Actually none that i have found are.

The 7" BPS Flutter Jack spoons are $5.99. Not exactly cheap but better than $20. I picked up a few at BPS when we went to Braves game last Saturday.

Is the house you are buying on Buffalo Creek? Seems I remember you saying something to that effect but trusting my memory is a real leap of faith.