Fish-A-Thon 2011: Team Save the SC Striped Bass
Michael Frank & Adrian Caciur
Water: The Congaree River and its tributaries
SC
ISSUE: The Santee-Cooper river system in South Carolina is a unique and diverse fishery. With about 11 miles of cold tailwater trout fishing, excellent warmwater smallmouth bass fishing, and a historically significant population of landlocked striped bass, there are few places in the world that rival the quality and variety of fishing opportunities it provides. The three rivers that form the headwaters of this system, the Saluda, Broad, and Congaree, flow right through the heart of Columbia, SC where we will be fishing. Back in the early 1940s striped bass in these rivers were trapped upstream when the Santee River was dammed up to form Lake Marion cutting the fish off from access to the ocean. Fisheries biologists expected the species to die off in the rivers above the lake, but the fish surprised them by managing to reproduce in the 60 or so miles of river between Lake Murray Dam and Lake Marion making this the place where striped bass first reproduced in a landlocked river system. Striped bass from these waters were the first ones stocked in lakes across the country leading to the excellent fisheries we now find west of the Appalachians and even on the Pacific coast. In recent years issues affecting the home waters of these fish have led to a dramatic decline in their numbers and the need to impose a closed season and stricter size and bag limits on recreational fishing for them. These issues include overfishing, pollution, development along the riverbanks, drought, and the introduction of non-native species to the rivers that compete with the striped bass for food.
Solution: Many fishermen here in Columbia seem to be unaware of the updated regulations and season that were put in place for striped bass fishing on the Saluda, Broad, and Congaree Rivers by the state Department of Natural Resources back in 2008.
We hope to draw attention to the new regulations and other issues affecting our fisheries by publicizing our participation in the Recycled Fish Fish a Thon through our web site, the local TV news, and media. We will set up a blog that explains the new regulations and the reasons why we need them and use the blog to update our donors in real-time posting pictures of each fish we catch as we catch them on the day of the fish a thon. We would also like to make the event more of a game for everyone by giving our donors the option of making their donation a per-fish payment based on how many fish we catch and what type of fish we catch - say $1 per bream, $3 per bass, and $5 per trout.
Due to the closed season on the striped bass in the rivers we will also have to only target smallmouth and largemouth bass on the day of the fish a thon. This follows the new regulations on the striped bass that say that no targeted fishing for striped bass is allowed on the rivers.
Since we are much more likely to catch striped bass after dark on the rivers, we will move to Lake Murray for the night fishing portion of the fish a thon where targeted fishing for striped bass IS allowed. Lake Murray is the source of the lower Saluda River - one of the rivers we will fish during daylight hours. This alone will illustrate the different regulations present in our region.
While it sounds like we will be fishing a large area, the truth is that from Lake Murray to the confluence of the Lower Saluda and Broad Rivers there are only about 11 river-miles and we will only be fishing the first two or three miles of the Congaree River - a portion of the river that runs within the Columbia city limits. We'll be fishing from a drift boat and kayaks doing both fly and spin fishing.
We hope that by making our fellow fisherman aware of the new regulations we will expand voluntary compliance and promote the practice of catch and release fishing that will help to restore the striped bass population in our rivers. It is the SC state fish and used to run in large numbers here with fish up to about 50 pounds being caught regularly in our rivers. It would be a shame to see them disappear.
Donate to our team via Paypal
or
Donate to our team by mailing a check to Recycled Fish at:
Recycled Fish
Attn: 24 Hour Fish-A-Thon
3109 Lone Tree Road
Nebraska City, NE 68410
Please put angler’s name or team name in the memo line of your check
