Striped Bass Management

[wdmso]

https://www.mass.gov/news/striped-ba...ce=govdelivery


saw this this morning


measure was in response to an almost doubling of recreational harvest in 2022 still not buying that ...

Draft Addendum II includes separate options for the Chesapeake Bay recreational fishery, the Ocean recreational fishery, and the Commercial fishery. For the Ocean recreational fishery, maintaining the 28” – 31” slot in 2024 will accomplish the required cut. Additional options include a 30”-33” slot and for applying separate rules to the private /shore anglers and the for-hire fleet (specifically, a wider slot limit of 28”-33” for the for-hire fleet)


they should have the same regs as recreational .. who do you think goes on boats for hire ...

and zero in the article about the commercial fishery . or how they are participating in these reductions to protect Bass ...

[Rockfish9]

this once again proves it's all about the money, not the fish, how on earth do they have any idea on the amounts of fish the Recreational sector harvest or kills, they don't, not with out accurate creel surveys, catch reports and law enforcement actually checking anglers-

I've been bringing this up ( to deaf ears) since the '80s( when I still sold fish too) that managing small fish is an uncertain practice, many things can happen in their lives along their journey to adult hood, but large fish are a known commodity, yet those fish are targeted - when for the love of all things Striper, THEY are the ones we should be protecting - not targeting.
Fish - any fish or other wild "creature" are a PUBLIC resource they should be managed as such -

[piemma]

NJ slot will be 28" to less than 31.01". WTF are these guys thinking. It was 28" to 31". Their statement is: "This will lead to more fish 31" being released." Additionally there is a Striped Bass Bonus Program for 1 fish 24" to 28".

I honestly think someone is taking "stupid" pills.

[Nebe]

Originally Posted by piemma

I honestly think someone is taking "stupid" pills.

Come on Paulie. No one is that dumb.

It’s all about the money.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[piemma]

Eb, I've been fighting this battle since 06 so 18 years of dealing with this idiotic mentality.

I honestly am not the brightest bulb in the string but I can see this is nonsense. They are burning bridges!

[hq2]

Don’t know if people read the part at the end, but it pointed out that we have now had 5 low years in a row, and last year’s was the second lowest in 66 years. I’m starting to think that the issues are actually as much with the spawning areas in the Chesapeake as they are with SB catching. Could global warming have anything to do with this?

[Guppy]

Originally Posted by wdmso

https://www.mass.gov/news/striped-ba...ce=govdelivery


saw this this morning


measure was in response to an almost doubling of recreational harvest in 2022 still not buying that ...

Draft Addendum II includes separate options for the Chesapeake Bay recreational fishery, the Ocean recreational fishery, and the Commercial fishery. For the Ocean recreational fishery, maintaining the 28” – 31” slot in 2024 will accomplish the required cut. Additional options include a 30”-33” slot and for applying separate rules to the private /shore anglers and the for-hire fleet (specifically, a wider slot limit of 28”-33” for the for-hire fleet)


they should have the same regs as recreational .. who do you think goes on boats for hire ...

and zero in the article about the commercial fishery . or how they are participating in these reductions to protect Bass ...

“ measure was in response to an almost doubling of recreational harvest in 2022 still not buying that ”

That bite off Plymouth had to have something to do with the rec kill…. IMHO

90 days….. :-)

[afterhours]

Alot of us have seen this coming for almost 2 DECADES. As long as there is profit in dead fish this will continue until someone kills the last striper.
Moratorium now.

[fishgolf]

What Rockfish, Piemma and Afterhours said.

[redlite]

I have never commentented on this topic before cause I have killed my fair share of fish even tho I don't eat fish but Even I stopped selling fish and I used to say I never found a fish I wasn't willing to sell. The older I have gotten, the less competitive I have become with fishing, esp since this past year my 10 yr old got hooked. I have grown an appreciation for the future rather than just gettin my share of it. It's not about me anymore.
I have been at this too hard and sacrificed too many times with friends and family chasing a pea brained fish with blinders on over the past 30 yrs
My son has asked so many times after seeing all the pics of me with big fish why I don't catch so many big fish anymore around Westport and think the attitude my old fishin partner and I used to have of "they just don't live here anymore" is not valid. Wether it be due to environmental changes in the spawning areas, locally, or globally. It is not good. The shameful part of this is that the only 1 contributing factor that we as humans can control is killing them.
Yet it just seems to be status quo
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[fishbones]

Originally Posted by redlite

I have never commentented on this topic before cause I have killed my fair share of fish even tho I don't eat fish but Even I stopped selling fish and I used to say I never found a fish I wasn't willing to sell. The older I have gotten, the less competitive I have become with fishing, esp since this past year my 10 yr old got hooked. I have grown an appreciation for the future rather than just gettin my share of it. It's not about me anymore.
I have been at this too hard and sacrificed too many times with friends and family chasing a pea brained fish with blinders on over the past 30 yrs
My son has asked so many times after seeing all the pics of me with big fish why I don't catch so many big fish anymore around Westport and think the attitude my old fishin partner and I used to have of "they just don't live here anymore" is not valid. Wether it be due to environmental changes in the spawning areas, locally, or globally. It is not good. The shameful part of this is that the only 1 contributing factor that we as humans can control is killing them.
Yet it just seems to be status quo
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

We’ll put, Mike. I feel like I lost my drive a lot over the last couple years. I don’t lose too much sleep or risk my safety to chase big fish anymore. I can’t remember the last time I killed a fish. I still fish quite a bit but mostly because I like being out in the water at night and I also have a great time with the guys I fish with. Every year I get closer to buying a boat and fishing for things other than bass. Just need to convince the wife 😂.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Got Stripers]

Caught one bass all last year, striped kind that is, I did more largemouth fishing than salt variety. After the spring sea bass season thinned out, I just fished a handful of times, just lost the drive to get up early for a couple shots at a good fish. Rather be playing golf or carving something.

[redlite]

Originally Posted by fishbones

We’ll put, Mike. I feel like I lost my drive a lot over the last couple years. I don’t lose too much sleep or risk my safety to chase big fish anymore. I can’t remember the last time I killed a fish. I still fish quite a bit but mostly because I like being out in the water at night and I also have a great time with the guys I fish with. Every year I get closer to buying a boat and fishing for things other than bass. Just need to convince the wife 😂.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

My son and I did that this past summer quite a bit on one of our long time generous customer's boat. I targeted other fish with Westportmafia quite a bit too. As u know he has rarely targeted stripers much the past few years and I could never understood how he could find it fun until now. I got my first weak fish and albies and lots of big sea bass and taoug, but I gotta tell ya even then my mind was on big bass.
However I still never desire to own my own boat. My soul is always in the surf
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[DZ]

Originally Posted by redlite

My soul is always in the surf
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Amen

[Rockfish9]

a lot of hard fishing, common sense people have replied here..
My area, Plum Island (Mass) has always held big fish, even when there are none /few anywhere else. this past year, was very good early for large , the rain drove the fish out of the river and offshore, where all summer, a massive school sat out along the Isle of shoals NH.. every charter boat in the area pounded these fish, all summer, in late August, the moved inshore onto Coffin beach, where once again charter boats, and commercial "fisherman" pounded the school relentlessly, it was "stupid" fishing at it's best, any commercial boat that did not limit out on 25 -40lb fish just didn't try very hard, it lasted until the season closed and the offshore hurricane push the remains of that school south, I'm sure Block Island finished them off- 20 years ago, there would have been 4 or 5 boats in on it, now, due do to social media and a "bounty" on these fish, that massive school of breeders took a big hit.. the last night I fished them, I released ( boatside, none were removed from the water) about 30 fish( nothing under 25lbs, most were considerably larger) and left them biting all on single hook needlefish.. I hope it wasn't the last buffalo hunt. on a sadder note, I saw =very, very few fish under 30" this year- that is scary.

[hq2]

Very few fish under 30”. Wow that is scary. If you’ve read Frank Daignault’s books, this is exactly what things were like in the late
1970s, with nothing but 25 to 40 lb. fish. Folks, I hate to say it but I think we’re looking at another moratorium. And that will be the end of it for most of us on this board; (I’m about to turn 65) we won’t be around to see it recover. Enjoy these last years of SB fishing. It was fun while it lasted.

[RIROCKHOUND]

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

20 years ago, there would have been 4 or 5 boats in on it, now, due do to social media and a "bounty" on these fish, that massive school of breeders took a big hit..

Same thing with Blackfish (Tautog), which grow exceedingly slow and have a very regional, non-pelagic population. I was telling my kid that in November out of Newport when I was his age, there would be a dozen boats and we'd know at least half of them. I don't think I saw a day where I counted less than 100 this fall, including numerous out of state head boats and 6-packs. Even with the slot and boat limits, I think that fishery is heading for a crash as well.

Gear up for sight-casting for sea robins. That is the future.

[MAKAI]

Same thing Rockfish saw.
This past season I got hundreds of bass Monomoy to Billingsgate.
Hardly any under 24”
I know what’s coming. Seen it before.
We will never learn.

[ivanputski]

While out and about during the season, I have come across multiple guys with the attitude of " hey, if its curtains for striped bass because everyone is killing em, I might as well take it ... Someone is gonna eat it anyway... might as well be me!!"

Its a shame when anglers adopt this "i might as well get mine if its over" attitude which only helps it become a self fulfilling prophecy.

[piemma]

Originally Posted by ivanputski

While out and about during the season, I have come across multiple guys with the attitude of " hey, if its curtains for striped bass because everyone is killing em, I might as well take it ... Someone is gonna eat it anyway... might as well be me!!"

Its a shame when anglers adopt this "i might as well get mine if its over" attitude which only helps it become a self fulfilling prophecy.

See this is exactly the additude a lot of guys had in 86 and 87, right before the moratorium. The rod and reel comms on the Back all said the same thing. "If this is the end of the Stripers then I'm taking all I can before someone else does."
The slaughter in the Canal, the slaughter on the SW Reef and the EEZ all have directly contributed to this. I fished the Canal with Mike L this past spring and I watched a guy put 3 30+# fish in his truck at the Sag. No DEM guys around, no enforcement of the regs.
We all saw this coming, as we did back in the first slaughter.

There is an answer and that's Game Fish Status. I don't want to hear about the C&R mortality. That's Bull crap. Game Fish Status worked fot Snook, Tarpon, etc. It has to be across the board, ALL STATES. It will have to start with a moratorium. CLOSE IT DOWN!!!!

[rphud]

I think the best path right now (well very soon anyways) is closing the fishery down for certain periods of time to prevent too many fish from being taken and to allow for easier enforcement. If we can't get there just start counting the days until an overall moratorium. Maybe this years young count will finally push that decision across the finish line if they realize size limits are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

[Got Stripers]

I think most of us old farts have fished through the lean times, the moratorium and the incredible fishing we had after the rebound. Technology, the internet, the juvenile mentality of the young guys getting into this sport a decade ago, all combined to add to the slaughter and disregard for the fishery. GAME FISH is the answer, but I won’t be alive if and when it happens. I’m grateful to have fished in some great years and that at 70, I have other passions now that fill the void.

[redlite]

Originally Posted by piemma

See this is exactly the additude a lot of guys had in 86 and 87, right before the moratorium. The rod and reel comms on the Back all said the same thing. "If this is the end of the Stripers then I'm taking all I can before someone else does."
The slaughter in the Canal, the slaughter on the SW Reef and the EEZ all have directly contributed to this. I fished the Canal with Mike L this past spring and I watched a guy put 3 30+# fish in his truck at the Sag. No DEM guys around, no enforcement of the regs.
We all saw this coming, as we did back in the first slaughter.

There is an answer and that's Game Fish Status. I don't want to hear about the C&R mortality. That's Bull crap. Game Fish Status worked fot Snook, Tarpon, etc. It has to be across the board, ALL STATES. It will have to start with a moratorium. CLOSE IT DOWN!!!!

Ha. I was hot to trot to post about this as an hour ago as I passed a squirrel cop doin a road detail again and was on the phone with my fishing buddy about it but you beat me to it
Typical politicians passing more restrictive regulations when they don't do their jobs to enforce the regs already on the books.
You are a better man than me cause I can't bring myself or my kid to deal with that #^&#^&#^&#^& show in the canal. All i have read about heard and witnessed over the past few years with blatant poaching down there is asinine. Dont get me wrong. They don't call me saint michael cause my halo is on crooked. I have toed the gray line plenty over the years. But what continues to happen at the canal/ RR bridge with no enforcement I am speechless about when it is well advertised everywhere and easy to enforce. Too many of these squirrel cops are afraid to deal with language barriers of poachers for fear of more hassle of opening a can of worms regarding legal statuses/ immigration / licensing. They would rather turn a blind eye to it. Just like the judges that try these poachers with the attitude of you are taking up precious court time for fish I eat for dinner when I have a lobby full of murderers. Slap on the wrist. Next.
I spoke with a young new squirrel cop to the Westport area 3 yrs ago (i out of the game now) in the middle of the nite about it and he agreed that most of them don't care about / see the significance of a few poached fish. This kid assured me he would never shirk his duties cause if one does it, so will their whole circle. Domino effect.
My buddy and I talked about how many more fish are probably killed in one good tide in the canal is prob more than the whole comm fleet does in a season.
Now I understand why what I felt was a yahoo that came out with "stars n' striper" sticker guy was about back in the mid 90's down the backside when I got after it hardcore. He had lived through the moratorium. I was too young to remember the lean years and it was a bonanza at the time. Now I'm getting ready to put that last one of those stickers I have on my truck
Sad
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[piemma]

Absolutely a super post Mike! We lived it when it was "of another world".
You can't explain what it felt to be on The Back at the Mission Bell at 2:00 Am with a dropping tide, a NE wind and a sliver of a Moon.

I saw s hit at the canal that just pissed me off so much. I went because it's easier on my old body than Nathans Cove or Black Point or Deep Hole.
I will fish the Back,, again before I pass.

[afterhours]

[QUOTE=piemma;

There is an answer and that's Game Fish Status. I don't want to hear about the C&R mortality. That's Bull crap. Game Fish Status worked fot Snook, Tarpon, etc. It has to be across the board, ALL STATES. It will have to start with a moratorium. CLOSE IT DOWN!!!![/QUOTE]

QUOTE=Got Stripers;
GAME FISH is the answer, but I won’t be alive if and when it happens.


Been preaching that for many, many years...

[hq2]

I’m starting to worry about the togs too, RIRockhound. Had my own spot since the early 90s to go to, never saw anyone there until recently. Saw a couple of guys togging it this summer, and noticed a whole bunch of 15 to 16 inch fish, like they’d been picked over, which never happened before. And we didn’t come close to limiting this fall there either. So even my spot, where I’d never seen anyone for 30 years has finally been found. Used to catch bluefish near there too; not any more. In a few years there won’t be anything besides BSB and scup.

[bloocrab]

It's been echoed throughout this post, but yeah..It's the perfect storm...poor spawning-periods which we're all experiencing in regard to schoolies over a good number of years now, social media, much better technology for the boat guys, social media, no spot is secret anymore, social media, encyclopedias on how, where and WHEN to fish the Canal, social media, ignorant chest beaters looking for attention, social media guy catches a fish, he's on the phone before he even releases it social media lack of law-enforcement from top to bottom, perfect storm....Although we've all made some life-long friendships via the web and social-sites like this one, I remember telling some friends many years ago, this internet thing is gonna ruin what we have....

[JFigliuolo]

Make all the rules you want. Without the enforcement we don't have... it doesn't mean #^&#^&#^&#^& gamefish included

[Mike P]

It was back in the early 2000s that I became familiar with the term "maximum sustainable yield" and it was the mandate that the ASMFC had to follow, and then and there I saw the end of the bass fishery in my lifetime. I interpreted it as managing the fishery on the brink of collapse.

Frankly, I'm surprised that it has taken this long. I saw evidence of a decline starting in 2009.

[piemma]

Originally Posted by Mike P

It was back in the early 2000s that I became familiar with the term "maximum sustainable yield" and it was the mandate that the ASMFC had to follow, and then and there I saw the end of the bass fishery in my lifetime. I interpreted it as managing the fishery on the brink of collapse.

Frankly, I'm surprised that it has taken this long. I saw evidence of a decline starting in 2009.

2009 sounds exactly right.