For what it's worth, a friend of mine whose a long time lobster diver tells me he sees the same fish year after year in the same general location. It has a deformed tail, easy to spot.
Makes me surmise that maybe populations of the same fish locate to the same general area each year. So it wouldn't take long for everybody to pound the snot out of easy to get to fish. While the harder to access populations go relatively unscathed. So spillover fish don't as quickly replenish nearshore populations. Just a small part of a myriad of issues that have an influence on a wild fish and its habitat.

An old mans two cents.
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I think the same way,plenty of fish. I fish both shore and boat. I fish the boat mainly during commercial season and i see more than enough. I fish from shore the remender of the days including sundays during comm season. I have caught more fish from shore yearly including five fish on sundays without a problem. Patterns are changing for the fish but patterns for the fisherman are staying the same. If ur not catching u need to try something else or somewhere else. I havent been around for a long time but i have been fishing hard for the past 15 years and i have seen NO CHANGE.

you are not insuating that you keep the 5 comm fish on Sundays, right?

A commercial rod and reel licence covers it right.

Right. I was thinking closed day. forgot thats Fri/Sat (in RI).
sorry

DZ you hit it pretty good. I've been fishing for Stripers since the mid 60's and when it dropped we saw it ist.Same as now with the same type saying there was no problems. We need to work at it. Small steps are good but steps need to be taken. If not well greed will do the same it did in the past.Funny to see a guy with a $100,000 boat claiming he needs the money from commercial striper fishing. shame he doesn't pay his taxes on it.

What about the guys claiming they "make money" comm striper fishing? They certainly ain't going to the dealers.

HO HO
U SELL ME FISH BAK DOOAH!

The boats with gps, fish finders and radios will always find bass even when stocks are overall low. Whereas the shore fisherman is random independent sampling the water independent of such equipment thereby resulting in more accurate measurement of the stock. Also compound that with consecutive years of poor results should give a somewhat accurate picture.
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Problem is that everyone is viewing this from a micro point of view. The YOY has nothing to do with the stock assessment/required actions. Those fish are too small to be counted as SSB.

Get serious. Obviously this year's YOY has nothing to do with current female spawning stock. Just as obviously the YOY has EVERYTHING to do with future spawning stock. Also obvious is that the current spawning stock is disappearing fast by the ASMFC's own numbers. Without this good YOY index there would be nothing in the pipeline to replace them and fishery managers would have to take steps to slow the decline or the fishery would meet the level to shut down in several years (go look at the slope of the ASMFC's spawning stock curve). With this fortunate good YOY number, they can easily calculate that in several years a large number of female bass will enter the spawning stock. Hence the current fish become expendable and the ASMFC is going to see to it that they get expended.

Without the good YOY index, striped bass regulations would have changed this year. With it the pressure is off so nothing changes. It is easy for ASMFC members to vote to continue to fish at current levels when the see big numbers of fish in the pipeline, even if that vote means some very lean years for quality fish in the near future.

Collect rod & reel gear...send to ASMFC commisioners-and for both comm & rec lobby
 

good idea presented in this thread earlier....gather up a holiday packet of suitable rods & reels for striper fishing......gift them to the ASMFC......maybe it would send a mesage of future intent:)

.......sometimes in the mddle of night....I awaken...no, it was not about a women, stock market crash, etc....is it hope, faith, or reference to continued bi-partisan cooperation to maintain the striped bass and other coastal fisheries......:wid:

They would have to ignored their own fishery management plan to do anything this year. Go read the stock assessment, SSB is above target F is below target. No one on the commission would have voted for more restricted measures.

The report say there has been a 26% on average decrease in the recreational harvest since 2006. But 4 states have actually seen increases above the 2006 number so the other states have seen a decrease of 45%. I think you will actually find the decrease number much higher in Maine and NH.

How good the assessment data is I really can't say, but no matter what it is at least a year old by the time they put it out. To me the real issue is are the threahold numbers the ones we really want. These numbers are based on the over all fishery management but factors of other demands play in. Reduce the harvest of bunker, mackerel and other bait fish and you can increase the numbers of fish like stripers and blues.

Up here in NH we have seen not only a major decrease in the numbers of stripers but the blue fish numbers are even worse. Without these two fish there really is no surf fishing up here.

WOW talk about stepping back in time. More n more it sounds like the late 70's and early 80's. As the fishing died on the beaches the boat guys argued more to do nothing till the collapse of the fishery. SSDD Ron

The vote was 9-6. Throw out the federal agencies involved, USF&WS and NMFS, and it was 7-6. 6 states wanted more restrictive measures. Each state, as I understand it, has at least 3 representatives, so multiple people from each dissenting state wanted more restrictive measures right now.

Each State only gets one vote. I'm not sure how (or if) the federal agencies voted. They usually abstain on these types of issues.

Both of the federal agencies voted to do nothing until the 2013 numbers come in.

Main thing here is what the vote really said was that ASMFC didn't want to hear from the public. This was only a vote to start the process of looking to put in place more restrictive numbers. The only reason it was even talked about was because of public input saying something is wrong.

Makes it easier to write that check to Stripers Forever. They may not be perfect but at least they try.

This is why gamefish status in just one more state would make a huge difference. Change that balance to 7-6 in favor of conservation and the fish get treated differently.

The states may only have one vote, but every state has multiple representatives on the commission. Majority rules on a state's vote. Each state that voted in favor of imposing restrictions now had at least two reps in favor.

What fantasy world are you in? The plan is not final, it can be ammended. The very fact that they did indeed take a vote and that 6 states "on the commission" did indeed feel the plan should be ammended makes your statement above ridiculous. Clearly there WAS serious doubt (or more likely certainty) that the current plan was failing.....hence the need to vote whether to ammend it. The YOY class got those that wanted to keep the fishery going full speed off the hook. They can fairly claim the plan is working.....even though it will likely leave us with predominantly small fish for the next decade.

Something I've been wrestling with... Like you said, they aren't perfect but they are better than the other options and the only group with enough political pull to actually get something accomplished.

Do you have any idea of what is required to amend a FMP? Hint: it takes a lot more than one vote. Its a process that usually takes years.

No it doesn't, although you may be hung up on semantics.

The current management plan establishes a threshold for SSB (spawning stock biomass) where fishing MUST be shut down. The plan allows for adjustment of fishing regulations to avoid that eventuality (in contrast to what your earlier posts suggest). The current SSB is dropping fast and without fish in the pipeline (until now there have been none to speak of) it was INEVITABLE that the SSB would reach the level of mandatory reduction in fishing pressure soon. Commercial interests wish to avoid this at all costs, since it costs them money (and without money their influence on fishery management, and hece their fishery itself, withers fast). Many on the ASMFC keep commercial interests paramount. If there was no good YOY class, the managers could easily see that the commercial (and recreational catch and kill) striped bass fishery was in danger soon of ending. To prolong that eventuality and buy more time for a year class to salvage the situation, they would have reduced fishing effort on the present SSB, PROBABLY UNANIMOUSLY.

The good YOY class made this unnecessary. So the states with strong commercial (or recreational C&K) bias felt safe opposing any change, knowing that in several years, likely before the SSB shut down level is met, a large number of juvenile fish will reach spawning age and ensure the continuation of a commercial fishery. Furthermore, voting that way is entirely consistent with the ASMFC's mandate of achieving maximal sustainable yield.

Believe what you want, but this seems plain as day and not anything unexpected or wrong to me. Just a fact of life.

"Here Here"

Save the striped bass fishery.

Reduce the recreational catch to one fish over 34 inchs per day per person. And only one in posession.