It’s time to lift the slot limit on striped bass
By George S. Roof
Dover Post
Dover, Del. -
When my neighbor, Alex Garcia, started this story, I started laughing. He couldn’t understand why, without hearing the completion, I was laughing. Many of you, I’m sure will recognize this before I get to the punch line, much like I did.
Alex related he was standing in his yard talking to another neighbor when this small toad came around the corner. He was simply amazed at the speed of this “frog” as it was burning the grass getting across the yard. Then he related that as the toad was halfway across the yard, he noticed another movement. He related that just like a beagle on a bunny, was a 24-inch garter snake. The snake stopped, lifted the front half of its body, looked around to see if it could see its prey, and then went right to following the scent trail of the toad. Both disappeared into the hedgerow behind his home.
Just another wonder many of us never witness; snakes and toads are intermingled in the story of survival. Since science and biology often take a back seat in today’s education system, I’m sure millions of people had no idea of how that fabled snake tongue works and the intricate system it uses to track its prey. Unless some animal higher in the food chain found the garter snake before it found the toad, the ending of this story is inevitable.
I’m told fishing on the Delaware Bay is at its peak. Some trout are being taken but it’s the flounder and the striped bass that are the excitement. Still, from those sources, I understand finding fish, especially flounder, that fit the slot limits is difficult.
Speaking of the striped bass, this is again a sad story about man’s greed and total lack of forethought.
Sought by many anglers, the striped bass is an eating machine. It gobbles down anything that swims and is often quite picky in targeting specific species. Many game and fish departments will tell you the bass eat mostly menhaden, spot and herring, but they obviously haven’t ever cleaned a striper.
Today the Chesapeake Bay (and to some extent, the Delaware Bay) is suffering from the disappearance of the beloved blue crab. Yet ask any fisherman on that bay what he sees in his fish-finder or in his nets or on his hooks. Spike stripers and those under the slot limits. Simply because they’re protected, they’re decimating the blue crab nurseries. And they can’t figure out why there are no legal crabs to harvest. Amazing.
The Delaware Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association will host a Field Day at Owens Station starting at 8 a.m. Aug. 22. The event is aimed at anyone wanting to better manage their deer herd, from the private lease holder to the person with only a few acres of land. The class is free to the public and will include the four building blocks of QDMA (Habitat Management, Hunter Management, Herd Management, and Herd Monitoring) as well as yours truly giving a seminar on proper field care of your animal when it’s down, meat processing suggestions, and how to insure your trophy buck makes it to your den wall safely.
The friends of Philip Fluhr, a local gun broker who was shot during a robbery attempt, are holding a benefit dinner and auction at the Harrington Fire Hall Saturday Aug. 29. Catered by the fire company’s Ladies Auxiliary, cocktails begin at 5:30 p.m. with the fried chicken and roast beef dinner starting at 7. All proceeds will go to defray the medical and treatment expenses Philip needs for his recovery. Tickets are $25 and can be reserved in advance until Aug. 14. To help out, call either Tim or Susan Welch at 398-0383.
In case you missed the article in the paper, the state Supreme Court has refused to overturn a case involving an individual who claimed to be deer hunting with a rifle when he shot a man as he drove by in his car. What irks me most was the headline stating that the court had refused to overturn a conviction of a “hunter.”
As a hunter, I take exception to being classified with this person. Though centerfire rifles can be used on some varmints, it always has been illegal to use them deer hunting. To compound this, no ethical hunter ever would shoot at anything without validating what was behind the target. Shooting across a road with a BB gun is intrinsically dangerous, but to use a high power rifle is nothing short of criminal. This act was not done by any hunter I know but was the act of a poacher hiding in our ranks. To even portray him as such implies that we’re all guilty of the same greed and thoughtlessness.
By George S. Roof
Dover Post
Dover, Del. -
When my neighbor, Alex Garcia, started this story, I started laughing. He couldn’t understand why, without hearing the completion, I was laughing. Many of you, I’m sure will recognize this before I get to the punch line, much like I did.
Alex related he was standing in his yard talking to another neighbor when this small toad came around the corner. He was simply amazed at the speed of this “frog” as it was burning the grass getting across the yard. Then he related that as the toad was halfway across the yard, he noticed another movement. He related that just like a beagle on a bunny, was a 24-inch garter snake. The snake stopped, lifted the front half of its body, looked around to see if it could see its prey, and then went right to following the scent trail of the toad. Both disappeared into the hedgerow behind his home.
Just another wonder many of us never witness; snakes and toads are intermingled in the story of survival. Since science and biology often take a back seat in today’s education system, I’m sure millions of people had no idea of how that fabled snake tongue works and the intricate system it uses to track its prey. Unless some animal higher in the food chain found the garter snake before it found the toad, the ending of this story is inevitable.
I’m told fishing on the Delaware Bay is at its peak. Some trout are being taken but it’s the flounder and the striped bass that are the excitement. Still, from those sources, I understand finding fish, especially flounder, that fit the slot limits is difficult.
Speaking of the striped bass, this is again a sad story about man’s greed and total lack of forethought.
Sought by many anglers, the striped bass is an eating machine. It gobbles down anything that swims and is often quite picky in targeting specific species. Many game and fish departments will tell you the bass eat mostly menhaden, spot and herring, but they obviously haven’t ever cleaned a striper.
Today the Chesapeake Bay (and to some extent, the Delaware Bay) is suffering from the disappearance of the beloved blue crab. Yet ask any fisherman on that bay what he sees in his fish-finder or in his nets or on his hooks. Spike stripers and those under the slot limits. Simply because they’re protected, they’re decimating the blue crab nurseries. And they can’t figure out why there are no legal crabs to harvest. Amazing.
The Delaware Branch of the Quality Deer Management Association will host a Field Day at Owens Station starting at 8 a.m. Aug. 22. The event is aimed at anyone wanting to better manage their deer herd, from the private lease holder to the person with only a few acres of land. The class is free to the public and will include the four building blocks of QDMA (Habitat Management, Hunter Management, Herd Management, and Herd Monitoring) as well as yours truly giving a seminar on proper field care of your animal when it’s down, meat processing suggestions, and how to insure your trophy buck makes it to your den wall safely.
The friends of Philip Fluhr, a local gun broker who was shot during a robbery attempt, are holding a benefit dinner and auction at the Harrington Fire Hall Saturday Aug. 29. Catered by the fire company’s Ladies Auxiliary, cocktails begin at 5:30 p.m. with the fried chicken and roast beef dinner starting at 7. All proceeds will go to defray the medical and treatment expenses Philip needs for his recovery. Tickets are $25 and can be reserved in advance until Aug. 14. To help out, call either Tim or Susan Welch at 398-0383.
In case you missed the article in the paper, the state Supreme Court has refused to overturn a case involving an individual who claimed to be deer hunting with a rifle when he shot a man as he drove by in his car. What irks me most was the headline stating that the court had refused to overturn a conviction of a “hunter.”
As a hunter, I take exception to being classified with this person. Though centerfire rifles can be used on some varmints, it always has been illegal to use them deer hunting. To compound this, no ethical hunter ever would shoot at anything without validating what was behind the target. Shooting across a road with a BB gun is intrinsically dangerous, but to use a high power rifle is nothing short of criminal. This act was not done by any hunter I know but was the act of a poacher hiding in our ranks. To even portray him as such implies that we’re all guilty of the same greed and thoughtlessness.