Three fightin' SMB on a bluebird day!

[Brooklynite]

Visited Kensico for the first time this year--such a shame that its taken this long to get up there this Spring. Well, got up late and missed the early Lakers but hookedup with 3 SMB around mid-day fishing the flats off Rye Bridge. They were chasing MASSIVE school of shad. Two 14" and one 12". All three put up a great fight with one of them shooting clearup out of the water (kind of a classic moment!)

Felt nice to have a full stringer to take home. But when I was filleting them I found these black dots all over the fins some on the underbelly and then some more in the flesh of the fish. I read they were larval fluke and black dot was pigment the fish released around the intrusion...and pretty much it was all protein, that if the fish was well cooked it would be harmless--but we played it safe. Now I know what to look for when I decide to keep bass out of Kensico.

DEP said lots of folks were pulling up Lakers so I hope everyone had a good day of fishing yesterday!

[pbd]

Can you keep those bass now? I thought 3rd Saturday in June was when you can start keeping them if you want to

[KenH]

Umm...yea, Bass season is lure only and catch & release right now.
After the third Sat in June they can become fish frys.
I saw DEP was under the bridge yesterday checking boats and stuff,
surprised you didn't get in trouble. Usually they check the shore fishermen
as well. Anyway, now you know. 35 more days.

Ken H

[VinnyH]

Nice fish, I'm guessing you just didn't know the regulations. We should all remind each other for a few reasons. One is for the conservation efforts to keep the reservoirs the great fishing lakes they are. The second is the steep price of a ticket and possible lose of your license.

Best Always,
Vinny

[canoejon]

You just got lucky the DEC wasn't out there or you would have gotten popped for sure. I don't think the DEP ever checks for size or creel limits. They just look for watershed permits and sometimes licenses. I wonder if many of them could tell a crappie from a laker. But the DEC agents are another story all together.

Regarding the black dots, I spoke with the new biologist who took over from Ron Pierce who retired as the DEC biologist for this region (4?). I forget his name but he's a nice young guy who was generous with his time on the phone with me. He enjoys fishing himself but I don't know how familiar he is with our reservoirs. He did say the black dots I was finding on the yellows I was taking through the ice were harmless. If I remember correctly, he said they're called black grub, but I could be wrong. But he did say it presented no threat to humans and cooking the fish well wasn't even an issue for it.

But why eat any bass when the perch taste so much better and allegedly have less mercury.

[andreipou]

The ones on a perch are different from the ones on SMB. It was an article about this somewhere.
The perch ones are nastier.

[KenH]

Both the yellow grub and the more comonly seen black spot (black dot) are clam larvae that travel from
fish eating birds to snails to fish. The black spots are actually the fish's own pigment surrounding the larvae on the skin and in the flesh. I fear that the ever increasing number of cormorants we see in the reservoirs may be contributing to the increase in infection. As posted above, they are harmless to humans
and more of an eye-sore than any threat. They can be found on LMB, SB, yellow perch, bluegills, all warm
water fish.   

[Brooklynite]

Thanks fellas! I didn't see that regulation and know now. I ran into DEP earlier in the day before the SMB hit. Funny thing is I reviewed the regs on trout the night before I went out and really wasn't expecting to pick up any bass so didn't pay attention to it. 

And its true, Perch taste sooo much better than Bass.