Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating - View Single Post - Who has been Striper fishing steady for the last 30 years or more.

baldwin · 02-23-2007, 05:23 PM

I've only been seriously fishing the salt for about 15 years, but have studied the fishery a bit. Decline of big bass can not be natural cycle. If you have large numbers of small fish, they grow to be big unless they die. When lack of reproductive success occurs, maybe part of the cycle, you get a shortage of smaller fish which takes about 10-20 years to gradually shift that shortage up through the size range to eventually cause a shortage of larger fish. The smaller fish disappear first. That's exactly what happened with the striper crash. Large fish were still being caught, fewer and fewer smaller fish, then none (large nor small).

02-23-2007, 05:23 PM	#27
baldwin Registered User Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: New Haven County, CT Posts: 3,883	I've only been seriously fishing the salt for about 15 years, but have studied the fishery a bit. Decline of big bass can not be natural cycle. If you have large numbers of small fish, they grow to be big unless they die. When lack of reproductive success occurs, maybe part of the cycle, you get a shortage of smaller fish which takes about 10-20 years to gradually shift that shortage up through the size range to eventually cause a shortage of larger fish. The smaller fish disappear first. That's exactly what happened with the striper crash. Large fish were still being caught, fewer and fewer smaller fish, then none (large nor small).