Striped Bass

[Joe D]

Stripers Forever


Our favorite fish is under more pressure than ever, and Stripers Forever, a free membership, internet-based organization, is fighting to conserve striped bass by ending the commercial fishery and managing the resource for personal use/recreational fishing.

Check out how easy it is to help: Cross Current Fishing: Stripers Forever

 

[trico mike]

They are a great orginization. I belong and donate. More needs to be done to protect stripers from recreational fishermen also. Last years fall run was dismal. I have been screaming for years about the decline noone wants to listen. Hopefully things change but I fear it already is to late.

 

[G Lech]

Bring back the slot fish. Remember how good the fishing was then???

 

[Catskill Mountain Man]

it all fluctuates

 

[trico mike]

How about catch and release until the stocks can fully recover? It has been flucuating down for a good amount of years. Just like the weakfish, everybody said they were in a bad cycle now they are all but gone. Haven't caught one in 3 years and I fish the salt often. Used to be able to catch 20 or more a night in late august sept and october. These officials need to stop with the ridiculous fluke regs and start regulating the fish that are in real trouble.

 

[Trouser Trout]

How about catch and release until the stocks can fully recover? It has been flucuating down for a good amount of years. Just like the weakfish, everybody said they were in a bad cycle now they are all but gone. Haven't caught one in 3 years and I fish the salt often. Used to be able to catch 20 or more a night in late august sept and october. These officials need to stop with the ridiculous fluke regs and start regulating the fish that are in real trouble.

I have no problem with your suggestion, I only keep one striper per year anyway....But any serious conversation about striper limits needs to begin with how many are caught by trawling and dredging, my thoughts are you will never get an accurate number because the fish are processed automatically on the boat and those employing this technique couldn't care less about striped bass, they are just happy to have them in their nets

 

[trico mike]

While I agree that the commercial guys to hurt the population from legal and illegal acts in the case the recreational guys are more to blame. I have a great article from 2005 I'll be damned if I can find it now but it said that the commercial guys harvest by legal and illegal means was estimated at around 600,000 pounds were recreational guys harvest were around 2.5 million pounds not counting catch and release mortality. If you read the book striper in the backs it tells you the estimated harvest numbers of both rec and com guys right before the crash and the rec guys were by far out killing the com guys. Most other fisherys I agree that the commercial guys are killing but not stripers. A great example of no good deed going unpunished is the rebound in the bunker population. It is great to see this very important bait fish back to its former numbers. Thru good regulating they made a great comeback,BUT with all this big bait all of the cow stripers started coming closer in making them easy pickins for any knucklehead who could throw a snagging hook and of course they are keeping them all. The biggest breeders carry up to 5 millionn eggs and are 20 plus years old. In a few seasons the rec guys have managed to cull alot of these fish leaving smaller breeding fish hence less eggs. I am a trout fishermen by heart but a striper fishermen by birth and from the age of 6 till now 37 fishing 9 months out of the year for stripers I have seen many things and what I see now is major cause for alarm. One day I will sit down and start a thread chronicling my striper fishing career. I never type this much but stripers are a major passion in my life. In closing not many people on this board would never even consider keeping a trout or a steelhead stocked or wild so think twice next time before you put that big breeder bass in the cooler. They taste like crap anyway.