I just saw that the 2012 Chesapeake Bay YOY index was .9, last year it was 34+. That's a massive drop off! Lowest in 59 years.

awesome..... more crappy fishing to look forward to

Sadly it doesn't matter at this point.

Last year's large YOY means plenty of young fish in the pipeline and buys fishery managers another 10-15 years of mismanagement before there where will be any real concern about stock collapse.

It also means that existing fish are now expendable. They can continue to hammer the current large fish to obliteration without threatening "sustainable yield", indeed under the law the ASMFC is expected to do so.

Unfortunately the result is likely to be an exhaustion of quality fish over the next 4-5 years, followed by 5-6 years of a fishery dominated by small fish. Commercially this won't matter very much, but recreational fishermen who care about maintaining a consistent population of large bass to target have a lot to lose under current management guidelines.

.9 wow that sucks
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Sadly it doesn't matter at this point.

Last year's large YOY means plenty of young fish in the pipeline and buys fishery managers another 10-15 years of mismanagement before there where will be any real concern about stock collapse.

It also means that existing fish are now expendable. They can continue to hammer the current large fish to obliteration without threatening "sustainable yield", indeed under the law the ASMFC is expected to do so.

Unfortunately the result is likely to be an exhaustion of quality fish over the next 4-5 years, followed by 5-6 years of a fishery dominated by small fish. Commercially this won't matter very much, but recreational fishermen who care about maintaining a consistent population of large bass to target have a lot to lose under current management guidelines.

Exactly.

One thing I've never understood is why so little attention is given to the Hudson River YOY?

Is it because the difference in overall output is that large? From what I understand a very large percentage of the tagged stripers caught from Chatham to North Jersey are Hudson River fish. I don't have a source to cite and I'm sure someone on here knows a lot more than I do about this subject.

Here is the graph up to 2010, trying to track the numbers for 11 & 12 now.

Anyone know more about this?

http://www.dec.ny.gov/images/fish_marine_images/yoysbass.jpg

The reason why the chessie numbers are focused on is because that population makes up close to 70% of the total population? I believe. The exact percentage may be off but the vast majority of the population spawns in the Chesapeake.
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I remember reading that now.

Not to say the other populations aren't important but I think the feeling in general is as the chessie goes so goes the population
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Dog-Fish.com? John, register that site name quick..

I have my own thoughts .....could be way off .

1st let me say that the majority of the fish I,ve seen caught in the winter that had tags >>>>>>>>>had Hudson river tags .

IMO the 1st descent slug of schoolies we get in the spring /adding holdovers are Hudson River fish / throw in what,s left coming out of the Thames .
&&&& WE in RI >>>Narragansett bay have a OK spring ................ when the water warms the large move out of the bay much sooner than the schoolies ..........But IMO the schoolies do leave & travel north ......... the resident schoolies that S/B taking up residence are Chessie fish ...........$$here in lies the reason that for the most part .. we have seen a yearly decline in schoolie fishing . thru out the summer .

Our holdover fish along with fish from the Hudson & other feeders . go north .
That,s why I think the cape & CCB north has a somewhat summer fishery for schoolies .

In the fall we no longer have blitzing schoolies in the bay >>>>>>>>>>>> plenty of bait ......not enough fish ............................ the majority of schoolies that are caught On & near the south shore are heading south . to the Hudson or Chessie ???????

The little & I mean little schoolie fishing we get in the bay & small off shoots ..again IMO are mostly Hudson or fish that were spawened north of the Hudson River , come in in small pods / Where if your are there when they come up river you,ll have a few fun days ........... But with dropping temps .. which had them moving to begin with .they quickly go into the holdover mold for the most part .

again IMO .when the hudson fish mature & are caught & kept .............. you will see a almost non.fishery for stripers .

IMO we havn,t been getting the majority of schoolies from the Chessie ........... with the issues that are down there , taking of small fish , gill netting & mostly pollution [[DEAD ZONES} which are getting larger ;;
BUt WTF do I know ?>>>>>>I fish from a boat & I,m a Clammer ><><:fishin::confused:

Myself and a few other guys caught a lot of bass in 2012 in the Cape Cod Bay area. Most of the fish we caught were small 12-20 inches. According to the charts the fish are 2-4 years old. Based on YOY results I didn't expect to catch many bass in 2012.

Has anyone seen any science based theorys on why we had such positve results in 2012?

There is a study around somewhere ( I don't have the time to go find it) which says that the success or lack thereof of any particular spawn is directly related the the rainfall received in the Chessie during the spring.

There is a study around somewhere ( I don't have the time to go find it) which says that the success or lack thereof of any particular spawn is directly related the the rainfall received in the Chessie during the spring.

I think that was an older study that tied run-off of the farms into the bay as culprit for poor spawn success. The chem's reacted with the oxygen in the water and caused problems for the fry. Since then, there was a massive undertaking to control run off.

In the past a lot of rain in the spring meant disaster for fish. Now I am not so sure that is still the case.

Overenrichment by farm runoff leads to algal blooms which lowers dissolved oxygen.
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The runoff was also tied to acid rain which was thought to kill the very young fish.

The thing driving most people that follow striped bass science all year rorund is that pretty much teh same spawning stock biomass bore the 2011 (4th largest YOY index) and 2012 (not good). When the same number of fish end up creating both of these just increasing ssb is not a clear solution.

That being said ond of these days all the radical ideas will slow down their constant failed strategies and joind the resonable call to roll back to one fish coastwide...that is the next smart move that results in true gain....the rest is BS and a waste of time

The thing driving most people that follow striped bass science all year rorund is that pretty much teh same spawning stock biomass bore the 2011 (4th largest YOY index) and 2012 (not good). When the same number of fish end up creating both of these just increasing ssb is not a clear solution.

That being said ond of these days all the radical ideas will slow down their constant failed strategies and joind the resonable call to roll back to one fish coastwide...that is the next smart move that results in true gain....the rest is BS and a waste of time

Agreed 100% it is a proven method and it in fact worked before. Everything else is theory. Which requires trial and error.
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