Maybe there is some hope?
 

2011 Y.O.Y. Virgina

2011 a banner year for young striped bass in Virginia

Interesting and encouraging information. Thanks for providing the link.

Very encouraging result. A YOY index of 27 would be huge.

until they feed the seals and then reproduce

Seals, my rear...unfortunately the netters get them all down here...they never even have a chance to leave the Bay...

saw a nice farm on the edge of the bay Bill
but then i wondered if there was fly over airport traffic there...

guess everyones general attitude here was kinda wrong, no? all i heard from people all year was there were "NO SMALL FISH ANYWHERE". not just here either

Same story in CT. Maybe a couple dozen dinks this whole year... Average fish this year has been 12-14 lbs, with high teens and low 20's fairly common. More 30-40lb class bass caught this year by my friends and I than ever before...

Numbers are WAY down, average size is way up.

Im a young guy, but from what I understand, this sounds an aweful lot like it was before the last crash...

If you look at the past several years YOY, it supports the lack of smalls being available for us to catch, thus the no small fish anywhere consensus is actually correct. This means we can't catch what wasn't born. 4 of the last 5 years(not counting 2011) have been below par in terms of small bass recruitment.

The 2011 YOY likely aren't migratory size yet, thus they likely won't show up in our catches up here until, perhaps, 2013 or later.

gotcha. :smash:

I call BS on this.

These fish will be over fished just like every good year class before them to support a commercial fishery that should not exist on striped bass.

Im a young guy, but from what I understand, this sounds an aweful lot like it was before the last crash...[/QUOTE]

Those of us that went through the crash in the late 70s and early 80 and then the moritorium have been saying this for 6 or 7 years. Myself, Clammer, Jim White, Mike L, Numby, a bunch of other to numerous to mention. This is what we experienced. Lots of 30s and 40s and 50s and no schoolies.

There are a lot of reasons not the least of which is what George posted. The striped bass should be a game fish. PERIOD!
Not targeting the comms up here but the draggers and seine netters and gill netters in NC, VA, DE, Maryland etc.

The nitwits who are running the quota program are so clueless it's laughable. In the last 6 months they have vacilated from INCREASING the commercial quota by 50% to DECREASING the quota by 50% to leaving everything as is. It is like having the fox watch the hen house.

:fury: :(
that's what I was afraid of :wall:

well I hope plenty slip through the cracks

Acres of micros tonight in Salem harbor. Their presence is a good sign for the next few years...

there should be a web page identifying the dummies that are systematically
destroying a whole fishery on the Atlantic Coast

kinda like: America's most UNWANTED

I fish in the area known as the Middle Bay (the middle third of the bay from the Upper Bay Bridge to the Virginia line) and I have to admit that I've caught more small stripers ranging from 6 inches to 14 inches while fishing for white perch this year than as far back as I can remember. While we had a few nets found this past spring the weather was not conducive to a lot of fishing most of the year and there was a lot more oversight than previous years. Perhaps there is hope. My previous post was the result of my pessimistic view of the breeding ground grab (everyone here on the Chesapeake wants more than their share!).

My fishing buddy went out tonight (I had to mow the yard) and caught 20 or so small stripers on those little beetle grubs with spinners... that's a good sign of a chance for hope.

High hopes that we have 3 more years of good YOY reports.

Maryland too.... good year for the Chessie


2011 Young of the Year Striped Bass Survey Shows Fourth Highest Reproduction On Record | Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service News

I know that this is a good thing, but I think everyone was getting ready for a big change in size and bag limit for next fishing season. A change that most of us would have been excited for, A keeper size somewhere in the low to mid 30" and one fish per angler type of thing. I am nervous that these YOY findings will change what was most likely going to happen.

I beg to differ. The YOY sampling has been carried out for over 50 years and has proven to be a good predictive tool with regard to future fish availability. I'm sure it has faults if you examine it closely, but its been "wrong" in the same manner for 50 plus years. This means the data collection process may be imperfect, but if its carried out in the same manner each year its ability to identify future trends will prove reliable.

Many may not know this, but the striped bass fishery was rebuilt on the back of the 1982 year class of fish, which had a YOY index of about 8 or so. This year class is likely accounting for the recent spike in record class fish we have available seeing they're close to 30 years old..

What happens after these yearling fish become angling and food targets is another story. :behead:

Are the fish in trouble? Not yet in my opinion, but they will be very soon if some curbs aren't put in place to help restore some balance.

I've seen and caught more small fish this season than the last 4 years combined. And there were a lot in places where I haven't even seen small stripers in the last few years. I'm cautiously optimistic that things can get much better in the future, especially if they change the regs to only 1 fish per day at whatever length is best for the fishery.

For the whole season I had two trips when I caught an abundance of schoolies. One in May in Narr bay when 3 of us caught about 50 all under 28". The next was at the canal in August when I got 10 one morning with only 1 over 28".
Are the fish in trouble? i think they are. Clammer and Jim White specialize in schoolies. Not that they can't catch large as both of these guys are 2 of the best striper men I know. They target small fish for the sport of it. Light gear or fly rods and small offerings. Finesse (sp) small jigs, Cochoes, etc. Both of these guys will tell you emphatically that they are catching vastly fewer schoolies than they were even 6 or 7 years ago.

I'm telling you, something is up.

I believe it. I just think there's more fish out there to catch than most people are reporting..

Yup. More of the same, all is well.:doh:

My thoughts exactly...

I'll bet you right now that the proposed 40% mortality reduction gets shelved. :doh:

Mike I really hope you're wrong. This is a good YOY but we will not see these fish , even at 16" schoolies for 4 years. They will not reach 20# until 2022 or 2023. A 36" fish is estimated to be 12 years old and that's about 20#.
The time to mitigate the losses is now not "close the barn door after the horse is stolen."

Couldn't agree more, Paul. But, if you remember back when---one good YOY index, in 1989, was enough for them to lift the moratorium. You can bet your bottom dollar that the charter industry and the commercials will be fighting any reduction tooth and nail now.

Great news; terrible timing.