When the Chesapeake Bay striped bass stock collapsed in the late 1970s, people tried to figure out why. Recreational fishermen were quick to point fingers at the commercial sector, which was not yet burdened by significant regulation. There were no gear restrictions and no annual quotas, and the fishery accounted for a larger share of […]
Is the Science Perfect? No, But Without It, We Got Noth’n’ Hey, man… I’m gonna admit here that sometimes I have a real hard time understanding the science behind fisheries management decisions. What I mean really is not just the nuts and bolts on how fisheries scientists get to the numbers that they do, but […]
In 1984, New York’s recreational fishermen took home about 14.5 million winter flounder, a harvest that totaled about 13.9 million pounds and dwarfed the 1.35 million pounds of flounder that was landed by the state’s commercial fishermen in the same year. Winter flounder made up over one-third of the nearly 40 million fish landed by […]
Read Part I of this series. Top photo: striped bass with a catch-and-release scar On and Off the Water Observations of 2023’s Fishing Season Last go around, we detailed some relevant on-the-water/real-world observations regarding last season’s striped bass fishery. Primarily how the new 3″ slot limit likely increased dead discards, ahem, a LOT. This go-around […]
Read Part II of this series On and Off the Water Observations of 2023’s Fishing Season There aren’t many anglers around who wouldn’t agree that the striped bass run in the New York Bight this fall was downright EPIC. And the spring/early summer? ‘Twas really good too. Indeed, I said similar things last year, but […]
I was still in school the last time the striped bass stock collapsed. The crash began slowly, while I was still in college and had a summer job in a local tackle shop that let me be on the water just about every day. There were a lot of big fish around at the time; […]
Top photo by Capt. Dave Monti The Chesapeake Bay produces most of the migratory striped bass on the Atlantic Coast, and about two-thirds of those Chesapeake bass are spawned in Maryland’s waters. Maryland spawning success is so important to the overall health of the striped bass stock that, at the November 2022 meeting of the […]
Top photo by John McMurray At its May 2023 meeting, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC’s) Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board (Management Board) learned that recreational striped bass landings had nearly doubled in 2022 and that, unless fishing mortality was reduced, there was little chance that the striped bass stock would be rebuilt by […]
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