Tiny bass locally spawned/
 

Was out fishing in the wind and the huge tide on sunday night. I was fishing a tidal outflow on the sakonnet river. I managed to catch the smallest striper of my life. It was six to eight inches long. The guy next to me had another that size. I went home and checked out the maryland dept of fish and game website. According to them stripers dont migrate till their second year of life. I looked at an age to length chart accorinding to the chart it takes a year to grow 12 inches. What gives does this mean that the two tiny bass I saw are local fish and not spawned in the big three the Chesapeake, the delaware or the hudson? I would be interested in explanations that anyone out there might have boy am I curious. Charlie

Bass certainly spawn where they winter over. From the Chesapeake all the way to prince Edward island. In fact nova scotia has a slamming bass population right now. Bass eggs need a set of conditions to carry them through the hatching process. Proper salinity, depth, and they Need water flowing over them at the right rate if my memory serves me correctly. So if all those conditions are present, you will have baby stripers
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Dannyplug:

without any scientic explantion, it sounds commonsensical that you caught local (native born) fish.

there have been a crap load of those tiny stripers this year, especially around here on the cape as well. cool to see. i caught a 8 inch beast and put a picture up on the charity thread :uhuh:

I know they spawn in the CT River.

alot of smaller bass also in rivers in ct

Reports of lots of tiny bass is music to my ears.

2 or 3 years ago I caught some micro bass and weakfish in the Greenwich Cove when targeting skipjacks with small shad darts.

I've been getting a larger number of micro's off of the Ptown/Truro beaches than I have in a few years - don't think that they are locally spawned. My 1st fish of the year couldn't have been bigger than 8", and it took me a dozen to break a foot

While they very well might be spawning in local waters, I don't think it is far-fetched to think yearlings may have travled up from points south this winter. The waters never got that cold, why wouldn't they swim up here? While I for one compeltely believe they are spawning in way more places than we have documented, do you really want your local water-way to be named an official spawning ground? If I am not pistaken, you can not target stripers in certain stretches of the known spawning rivers in the spring.

I know for a fact that they don't spawn in the CT River anymore.

:cheers:

Here's an interesting thought:

What if the reports of YOY are bein g skewed because the YOY are dispersed all along the east coast as fish are seeking new spawning grounds? That could account for lower numbers of young fish, since they are breeding farther north than the number-crunchers are traveling.

Just an observation, since as they say, "Nature will find a way!"

It's funny you say that. While not so much in reference to the YOY #'s, I made the argument in the past when I was pushing people to believe SB were spawning in new places that there was a very good chance fish adapted to these alternate river systems. Scientists state that a SB needs a certain set of strict variables to come together like the perfect storm or the eggs will die. Sure, the eggs of fish that have been studied and documented might not survive, but haven't we already learned that SB are some of the more adaptive and resilient fish out there? If we can fill a train car with a few hundred bass, drive them across the continental United States, drop them in the Pacific Ocean and they thrive, why can't they adapt to new spawning grounds in the Atlantic Ocean? Evolution is at work all around us.

In all honesty I noticed a smaller Striper a couple of years ago not far from where you were catching them. It was no longer than 5" and was swimming in a tidal pool that was washing away. I would not be surprised if they are in fact spawning some where near us
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Stripers used to spawn in all the rivers before dams were built. Now with winters being warmer we are seeing spawned fish in many placed thar there were very few due to cold winters and fewer places for them to winter up. the last couple yrs have been prime for winter over fish to survive and then spawn.up here in Maine we used to have loads more spawning species than now befor the dams.In the mid 90,s there were loads of micro stripers around.Some under 6 in. they were reported from Maine to Maryland.Just food for thought.

Very true. I caught zillions of them in the Merrimack in the 90's from Joppa to the Rocks Village Bridge. They are now the cows I hunt today! It has been quit a while since I've seen or even heard of a good population of micros anywhere.

Little fish are the future.

:agree:
Likely not a product of recent adaptation. Another factor is that water quality in rivers improved as a result of the clean water act and the decline in manufacturing in the 70's and 80's. When the bass came back, the conditions were more favorable. The Naugatuck, Housatonic, Mystic MA, etc. of the middle 20th century were not conducive to succesful spawning. Much more so today. Now, if we could just get rid of the feakin dams :wall:

I second that motion!!!

I would love to get rid of the dams on the merrimack river. No need for them anymore...Eli Whitney and his cotton gins are long gone!

I think that they spawn in only a few rivers.

many rivers don't have the wide "flats" areas that are condusive to spawning like the Hudson/Cheasapeake do. That water quality and temp. might be good but other conditions might be lacking.