BY EDITOR NICK HONACHEFSKY
KEEP STRIPERS STRONG Striper numbers are tailing off. Is it time to worry? Anyone who lived through the 1980s knows just how bad it got for the striped
Maryland and Chesapeake Bay from 1984 to 1989, and the population rebounded
bass population. As a kid in 1986, I remember surfcasting with my dad at Island
to allow the stocks to recover. That gave way to a mid to late 1990’s explosion
Beach State Park in New Jersey, and in a stroke of luck, we caught and released
where recruitment classes allowed young-of-the-year bass to live their life cycle
two stripers on clams. I was written up in the local newspapers for catching not
and replenish the stocks.”
one, but two 26-in. bass, because it was an unusual accomplishment during that
Many states such as New York, Virginia and Maryland still have a commercial
time. Now, fast forward to the late ‘90s into the mid-2000s. Every angler, whether
fshery for bass. Without a doubt, the commercial fshery for stripers knocks of
a frst-timer or a seasoned striper hound, was bailing dozens upon dozens of
tens to hundreds of thousands of fsh each season, and the black market for bass
stripers per man each day, with plenty of fsh in the 30- to 45-lb. class. It was
may be twofold of what commercial angling legally nets. So an obvious answer
unreal. From Maine to North Carolina, recreational anglers were stacking trophy-
to protect the stocks is to eliminate the commercial fshery completely on the
caliber bass up like cordwood along the docks. Then photos surfaced that spread
East Coast and delineate the striper to gamefsh status, as states such as Maine,
like wildfre on the internet. They showed tens of thousands of trophy bass being
New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina have
illegally gillnetted in Chesapeake Bay, and that sent of an alarm in the fshing
already done.
community. From 2009 until now, something has changed. Today, striper catches,
But it’s not all about curbing commercial interests. Next is the recreational
though still a quality afair, have been diminishing. The schools are thinner and
side of management. There is no reason to stack big breeder bass up on the docks
the catches of trophy-caliber fsh are harder to come by again. Some areas in the
each and every day.
Northeast see only a handful of younger bass of 20 to 28 inches. So now what? Is it an alarmist point of view to worry about the stocks right now? Maybe,
“It’s a matter of education as I see it,” says Jim Hutchinson, managing director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA). “Guaranteed, there are some individuals,
maybe not. Brad Burns, president of Stripers Forever, ofers his take on what
or a bunch of friends, or a charter boat that will catch a limit of bass, and will eat
caused the major decline of striper stocks in the ‘80s and what could possibly
all that fsh—there’s no shame in that. But other anglers who are frst-timers or
be happening now. “In the 1970s, overfshing from legal commercial angling
tourists looking for a trophy, keep a mess of big breeder fsh, but then when they
and a recreational angling minimum 16-in. size limit with no bag limit reduced
are at the dock, have no clue what to do with the catch, saying they can’t possibly
the biomass quickly, where plenty of bass over 16 in. were being plucked from
eat all this fsh. It’s about education of the angler, teaching them about the
the waters at an alarming rate. Swift actions came to institute a moratorium in
species, its growth and history to instill respect for what they are fshing for.”
