http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/sports/stories/6363893.html

Recently, a Striped Bass Dietary Study done by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries caught my eye because some of the foraging preferences over a three-year period flew against common logic.

For starters, we all think American eels excite stripers, but in a list of 57 forage species, eels landed in the 45th spot from the top of the most popular striped-bass food -- 12 up from garter snakes!

Just for the record, Atlantic menhaden were first, rock crab second, American sand eel third, unidentified bony fish fourth, sand shrimp fifth, American lobster sixth, green crab seventh, lady crab eighth, Atlantic herring ninth and sea worms 10th. River herring and unidentified herring placed high on the list near 10th place.


--KEN ALLEN

If I can't get fresh menhaden, I'm going to start live lining crabs...NO MORE BOOFISH PROBLEMS CLAMMER...just a tautog bycatch. I'm also flipping rocks for garter snakes and I'm sure a bucket of black racers would produce some real cows.

Mike

Mike

I guarantee you that eels would be higher on the list if the bass studied were taken from estuaries.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I guarantee you that eels would be higher on the list if the bass studied were taken from estuaries.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

maybe up one or two spots. but i don't think it would make too dramatic of a difference. the key with these rankings is availability. crabs and bunker are practically every where. and fairly easy to catch. now american eels may be everywhere to, but spend much of their time under rocks (or hidden in other structure) and out of a fishes way.

now if american eels schooled mid to high in the water column, or were constantly scurrying around the ocean floor in the open all day and night, making pig piles on every scrap. i think that would change the rankings dramatically.


needless to say, if you drop anything on that list right in front a bass.... it's gonna eat it.

edit: lol wait i technically agree. but read your intent wrong. combined with the first i was still in the mind set of discussing what they LIKE/PREFER to eat. and that your comments was that eels were the preferred meal in the estuaries and not the more readily available. i just think they would be higher on the list of preferred foods every where if they weren't hiding all the time.

I'm not sure where the 3-year study was done, or what time(s) of year the fish were sampled. But I do know this. Striped bass are highly opportunistic feeders and are also able to feed on a wide variety of forage. This is one reason that when spawning grounds are kept free of pollution and obstruction, the species will flourish as the number and availability of different forage species varies from place to place and year to year. Also, feeding behavior will vary depending on the size of the striped bass.

I would imagine that to get an accurate picture of a striper's "preferred" forage one would have to sample a very large number of fish, of sizes ranging from "school" bass to 50 lb'ers, during all four seasons, for several years, and cover the entire eastern shore from NC to Maine including bays, estuaries, and river mouths. I doubt the study being referenced was this broad. In these parts we regular see bass feeding naturally on herring, menhaden, "sand eels," hickory shad, mackerel, crabs, lobster, small fluke, spearing, scup and more.