# Sandy point report 4/9/04



## Guest (Apr 10, 2004)

Fished Sandy Point today from 3:00 to 6:00pm for a nice windy day and I caught 3 stripers, 1 dink and 2 at 31 inches. There were plenty of fish caught there today. One guy at the point was nailing them left and right and he caught a 37 incher, nice fish. See some of the pics people caught there.

All fish were caught on bloodworms and released unharmed. Warden was out checking license. That was the second time I've ever been checked. It's good to see a good warden out keeping people honest.

Water temp was 53 degrees.

I have a question if anyone wouldn't mind answering: In the picture immediately below is the point that apparently produces a lot of stripers. As you see, that little cove is where I was set up which is between that point in the picture and another point. Is this little cove any good to fish at? I've heard there are a few snags there and I found that out because I lost 3 rigs in this spot. Is it good for fish? Any info is helpful. Thanks.











A 34 incher:









The 37 incher:


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## sand flea (Oct 24, 1999)

Some nice fat fish there. I'm headed to Sandy Pt. today to try my luck.


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## Big Rad (May 19, 2003)

*You can catchem there.....but*

The monster lives there!! You have to reel it in really fast to get over it. Thet is my fav spot! I catch quite a few rigs there besides fish. During the Roundup I caught two nice rigs....Does that still mean the skunk ambushed me?

Yeah I thought so.............


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## oldsalt (May 6, 2003)

Maybe we should get that nice c/r rock out of the sand and back in the water. Don't need to play with them!!


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## catman (May 28, 2001)

Ditto Oldsalt. That protective layer of slime is what keeps out infection. 

Catman.


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## Steamfisher (May 21, 2002)

*Nice fish*

I was the guy fishing the point. Caught two bookend 37"inchers that day a 29" and lost count of the 24" to 15" fish. Would have posted a report earlier but my computer was down all weekend due to cable problems.(bummer)! Thanks for comming down to give me a hand- can't believe we didn't introduce ourselves. I hit a few snags where i was also and lost 2 rigs. But that point has produced real nice fish for me two weeks in a row. Many thanks to GreenCart and Blue herron for helping me land the big girls taking pictures and getting them back into the water as fast as we could. Saw you C/R those nice fish and get them back into the water safe and no worse for the wear. Good fishing. Funny I never saw you playing around and twirling the fish like a baton. Quess somebody must have seen that from thier house. C/R season is for pictures and quick releases and all that was done. The Ranger was right there had anybody not done the right things i'm sure there would have been something said. Like the poachers that up the beach that got written up. Sorry for the book just couldn't see you getting slammed for following the rules.


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## HuskyMD (May 19, 2000)

*People are pretty pretective of the fish*

Some believe sand is very bad for the striped bass as the slimy protective layer it has is taken off by the sand. I'm sure most would agree its better to take a picture of the fish holding it in the air than in the sand.


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## FL FISHERMAN (Sep 30, 2002)

Yes that is true, holding the fish in the air horizontally with two hands is better but a quick pic on the ground I feel does no worse. Now if you are dragging the fish all over the place other than landing them, than that may cause problems but a little sand on a healthy fish will do it no harm. Some people have nothing nice to say. At least catman said why it is not good for the fish to be on the sand! Hey how about this:

Did you know that fish can't breath regular air?? So lets not ever take the fish out of the water, EVER.

Did you know that fish have feelings? So lets not use hooks to catch fish anymore.

Did you know that its cruel to trick a fish to bite your hook by using fresh bait?? So lets never go fishing again!! What ya say??


*STUPID F#%^#%## PETA Mo#%@% F^#@%@'s * 

MY .02 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I got that off my chest we all should make sure to land these fish quickly take our pics and get them back into the water quickly. That's it. Too easy. I know 99% of us do that but just remind people how important these spring spawners are to the livelyhood of our future fishing. DON'T DEGRADE PEOPLE.

BTW Nice Fish!


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## Anthony (Jul 3, 2002)

When you land a big fish that you plan on releasing, it is hard not to drag the fish into the sand. With smaller fish I try to lift the fish without touching the sand but with the bigger ones it's nearly impossible. Unless you have waders on, it's impossible to remove the hook unless you beach the fish unless you cut your line, and even then you don't want a striper dragging around all that hardware.


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## Skeeter (Apr 22, 2003)

I have found the best way to land and release fish is to pull them close into the wash, stick your face in the water and gently bite them on the lips. This way you can lift them out of the water with your teeth and still have both hands free to get the hook out, hold a drink, take a picture, etc.

You might need someone to hang onto your legs if you try this off a pier.


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## reddog1 (May 3, 2003)

The one thing you have to be careful with during catch and release is not to pick the fish up by its gills. They need there gills to breath and it is very easy to damage them by holding the fish up.


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## FL FISHERMAN (Sep 30, 2002)

Skeeter said:


> *I have found the best way to land and release fish is to pull them close into the wash, stick your face in the water and gently bite them on the lips. This way you can lift them out of the water with your teeth and still have both hands free to get the hook out, hold a drink, take a picture, etc.
> 
> You might need someone to hang onto your legs if you try this off a pier.
> 
> *


LMAO Good one Skeeter!


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## Guest (Apr 12, 2004)

oldsalt said:


> *Maybe we should get that nice c/r rock out of the sand and back in the water. Don't need to play with them!!  *


I assure you; the people who caught those fish in those pictures quickly released the fish back into the water unharmed. If anything, the fish were initially a little lethargic from the fight than the sand. Actually, most of the fish I see landed there at SPSP are beached on the sand bank. That just might be better for the fish because you have more control over the fish than trying to unhook it in the water, provided you have waders. Have you tried getting a snelled hook out of a striper's lip lately? It's kind of tuff. 

I'm not sure if I'd worry much about the protective layer on the fish (my opinion of course). That fish secretes more slime for protection and those scales are pretty tuff too. Some fish such as Coho Salmon should be handled carefully since they easily lose their scales.

The one thing that I'd worry about when beaching a striper onto the sand is its eye contact with the sand/gravel. I don't know if that's harmful or not, but it does make me wonder. Another caution that should be taken into consideration: When holding the fish up with two hands to take a picture, try not to handle the fish with your hand under its gill plate. This is where serious, life threatening damage can occur to the fish. Hold the tail with one hand and the other underneath the belly near the head. It provides proper and safe control of the fish. 

From my observations of the stripers caught this past weekend, most were responsible anglers who handled the fish with care and returned them to the water quickly. 

On a more inspiring note: This weekend we all get to keep one striper for the table!


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## sand flea (Oct 24, 1999)

*Let's put this one to bed once and for all...*

I try to stay out of these kinds of arguments, but I've about heard enough on this one.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the issue, several anglers on another site started griping that laying these fish on the sand would harm them and that us poor ignorant ******** needed to properly educated by our betters. That lecturing has spilled over onto here a couple of times by people parroting that "wisdom" from those original anglers.

Me, I don't like to lecture people unless I'm positive I'm right. I do believe that the most important thing is avoiding gut hooks with circle hooks and getting the fish back in the water quickly. I'm not saying you should be dragging the fish all over the beach, but I don't believe the fish laying on the sand for a little while will hurt them.

So I went to someone who would know: a DNR fisheries biologist. I asked an employee of the DNR's Striped Bass Stock Assessment Program to answer the question. His response follows:

_Sand, if ground into the side of a striped bass when landed on a beach, could harm the fish because of the loss of the "slime coat" that you mentioned. 

However, a little bit of sand that has stuck to the side of a striper, will simply wash away when the fish is released back into the water. Just releasing the fish is better than trying to "clean off" the striper, then releasing it.

Remember, if your objective is catch-and-release fishing, the goal is to put the striper back with the minimum amount of handling and subsequent stress. 

So many times, fishermen are convinced that just because they released a fish, (and they observed that fish swim away), that the fish must have survived. It doesn't always work that way. Stress related deaths can take up to three days. The less stress the better.
_ 

I wrote back with a followup question:

_I wrote because there has been an ongoing dispute
between some anglers about whether or not sand on the side of the fish would harm it. I held that while it wasn't good to drag it around all over the place, allowing it to lay on the sand briefly before its release would do no more harm than being pulled up in a net. Would you say that's a fair statement?_

He responded:

_You are also right about the sand on the fish. A little bit isn't too bad, especially if the fish is put back into the water ASAP._

So there it is. Quick fight, quick release and the fish are fine. If they want to lecture and condescend at other sites that's fine by me, but make sure what you're repeating is true. I'm not jumping on the posters here, but be careful about repeating the "wisdom" of know-it-alls. Sometimes they know a lot less than they think.


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