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New spear world record striper: 68.4 pounds

7K views 17 replies 10 participants last post by  The Point 
#1 ·
http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/HotBytes/2008/07/new-spear-world.html
Dave Hochman and his new world record shot in Block Island Sound
Dave Hochman set a new world spear-fishing record on Independence Day when he shot a 68.4-pound striped bass on a reef in Block Island Sound. The fish was 55 inches long with a 32.5-inch girth. The diver was in 54 feet of water.
Hochman has been diving on that reef for years, he said, because it holds big bass. Often, the fish cannot be detected on sonar from the surface. "I know the bottom there better than the charts know the bottom," he says.
Hochman is a chiropractor who lives in Oxford, Conn. He has shot several bass weighing 58 pounds, his previous personal record.
His record bass weighed 3.3 pounds more than the previous record, a 65.1-pound fish, shot last year by Dan O'Neil of East Providence.
 

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#2 ·
Thats one heck of a fish.
I guess the old girl would have died soon enough anyway.

Conrats to the angler - most guys including myself wouldnt have a clue what its like in the dark 54 feet down.
 
#5 ·
The thing that get's my hackles stiff, is that these kill'em all as big as you can, free divers are having their world championships in Newport at the end of the month. What do you think a couple hundred of these guy's are going to do to the population of large fish present right now? Aint no catch and release with these guy's.
I'm planning something right now, just not sure if I can get a protest and boycott off the ground fast enough.
Seems a well known tackle shop manager is taking a bunch of them around for a few days before the "Tournament" for some scouting dives. If I find out that he has done that, I will make sure the sportfishing community knows about it, and will call for an all out boycott of the shop.

"You messed with the wrong Marine"
 
#8 ·
What do you think a couple hundred of these guy's are going to do to the population of large fish present right now? Aint no catch and release with these guy's.
I'm planning something right now, just not sure if I can get a protest and boycott off the ground fast enough.
I'm with you 100% on this Ed. PM me the tackleshop's phone number and the guy's name when you get a chance. I'd like to give em a call.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I joined the 40 lb club in early June in the Northeastern US. I don't want to give out the name of the place where I was fishing. The big sow measured a whopping 46.5 inches. She swam away unharmed.
I am from Canada and I make several trips to the eastern seaboard for striper fishing every year. It is kind of scary to think that a couple hundred of these guys are going to be fishing there soon.
Good work boycotting the gentleman's store who was going to show these guys where the big fish are. Hopefully there are a few sharks mixed in with the stripers. Those big stripers are your breeding fish.
 
#10 ·
I'll go one better Jake, I'm going to put it out through the loop and the groups.
Gentlemen watch your email box.
When you get the info, pass it on to freinds and family. Ask them to call also.
I am also going to find out where and who the official weigh stations are as well. Maybe a little heat going that way may pursuade some of them to rethink the decision to support this fiasco.
Man my blood is friggin boiling!
I know there are some very large Cows here right now, and I know where they are, I can only hope that they don't.
 
#13 ·
This would explain why anglers all along the coast of Maine are calling this the slowest season in a LONG time for stripers. Let me know if there's anything I can do up in my neck of the woods Gunny 'cause if this doesn't stop, and I mean soon, striper fishing as we know it will be non-existent!!!! How far off shore are these chumps gonna be anyway??? Anyone else up for throwing some bait (and by bait, I really just mean 10 oz. weights) off shore/from a boat this weekend????
 
#14 ·
The point of fact is that if i caught a 50 I might not release it either. I might be too excited to. but By rod and reel it would still stand a chance. Spearfishing is difficult, its not like fishing in a barrel but these tournaments are guaranteeing the slaughter of fish over 40 inches and by the hundreds. Most of the participants are very skilled.
I dont have a problem with spear fishing in itself. It's the freekin tournaments I hate.
Including all $$$ non catch and release tournaments but thats a different topic.
 
#16 ·
My problem is there are many skilled rod and reel guys out there that do not have a 68, let alone a 30 pounder to their names. Maybe we/they are on the wrong schools, maybe those fish are there, they just aren't eating at that instant. Who knows why? We never will because we can never physically see the fish.

If you can dive down find some fish, pick out the biggest one and shoot it, I'm sorry that isn't a skill. I'll agree that diving is a skill and free diving is an art.

The only thing that happened here was that big girl was in the wrong place at the wrong time and caught a spear for it. She wasn't fooled into taking somebodies perfectly presented eel(Roccus). She wasn't fooled into taking somebodies freshly carved plug.

Not impressed.
 
#17 ·
I am not impressed by the recent front cover of a magazine showing a 70 pound fish killed on a charter boat. I would have been impressed if the fish was weighed photographed and released to make the spawning bed again next year. The prevailing attitude of kill it and get a picture at the scale, has been subsiding somewhat. I have released many Bass that many still seek. My attitude was a learned one, I grew up in the kill'em all catagory, money fish. I watched the crash, and did what I could to help the stocks rebuild. I am a releaser, as many of the other guy's here. Could you imagine if Roc killed half the cows he hooks? We should all thank God he is no longer a commercial fisherman. The fact is that we have lived and learned, and now respect the large fish, to let them go after we meet them, and admire the beauty and power they have shown us.
The speargunners are all about prowess, how deep, how long, and how big.
They do NOT CARE ABOUT THE ACTUAL FISH, as long as they can get a picture at a scale for the local paper, Look at me, I can hold my breath and kill a big fish.
I am a scuba diver, I have gunned fish in the past. There are three fish that are the easiest to shoot. Top of the list is Grouper, find a wreck or deep reef. 2nd is tautog, you litterally have to move them with your hand sometimes to present a good side profile shot. 3rd is the Striped Bass, they are naturally curious and I have had them all around me as I dug Hogs in the bay. Take a picec of steel and a brass hammer to the bottom. Slowly tink the hammer to the steel, the clinking will bring the Bass running to you. Yup, they can be called in!
 
#18 ·
70-pounder joins monster bass club

More monster bass have moved onto the reefs, reports Pat Abate of Rivers End Tackle at the mouth of the Connecticut.
"We weighed in a 55-pound bass on Monday, another shop weighed a 51, a slightly over 70 was taken on a chunk in the Sluiceway and two over 60 were taken, one on bait and another speared in RI," he writes.
"All these reports are not a sign that we are overrun with these big cows. It's just the end of a year class of 20-year-old plus bass. There's nothing wrong with keeping a lifetime trophy. My concern is the number of 20, 30 and 40-pound bass that are taken out of the brood stock on a daily basis. Its my belief that these bass are the fish that will spend the summer in our waters and might be next summer's population. I'm sure that there are hundreds if not thousands of these sized bass in our local waters but if a couple of dozen are taken out of the pool every day it doesn't take long to whittle down the population.
"Encourage your friends to let the cows go.
"I'm off the soapbox now."

Figured you guys would like this story and learn from it!!
 
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