Rumors about stripers

[eelman]

What is a keeper? Come on a 28inch fish? Give me a break, those are way to small, they are the future I would much rather see someone take a lrge fish than a dink at 28 inches, Its almost embaressing to keep a 28inch fish. I have never considered that size fish a keeper to me they should be 34 or 36 inches and up before I would even want to mention it. Steve has said there are so many guys that go into the shop with these 28inch dinks , its a shame to see. As john said its so much better to get a fish at 36inches sure its harder but it is much more rewarding. The 28inch size thing was a disgrace, its a schoolie nothing more, let em grow!

The 34 to 44 inch are the "workhorse" stock, however they are much harder to catch than 28 inch school bass so, I dont think it will hurt the future to raise the size.

[The Dad Fisherman]

How about one at 34" and one at 44" that way you get a respectable fish for the table and if you get your Cow you can bring it home too.

[Nebe]

the only bass i usually keep are the ones thatare barely 29 inches up to 30. They feed my family for one night, plus another if i make a chowder and they are safer to eat. I want to see a one fish at X and one greater than Y... leave all the 20's all the 30's and all the 40's.... take your trophy and take your dinner. look at what they did with the redfish down south- thats what i want to see.

[eelman]

Originally Posted by Eben

the only bass i usually keep are the ones thatare barely 29 inches up to 30. They feed my family for one night, plus another if i make a chowder and they are safer to eat. I want to see a one fish at X and one greater than Y... leave all the 20's all the 30's and all the 40's.... take your trophy and take your dinner. look at what they did with the redfish down south- thats what i want to see.

You know its fine to take a fish now and then to eat at 28 inches however I see to many people stretch a 27-1/2 to a 28 and justify taking it, I would rather them stretch a 35 to a 36. Its the mentality of it that I see, they take the 28s just to say they have a "keeper" not with the thought of a meal.

[striprman]

I'd like to see the recreational fisherman be able to keep 2 fish a day over 24 inches. I'd also like to see no commercial fishing allowed.

1 fish at 30 inches is more realistic.

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by striprman

I'd like to see the recreational fisherman be able to keep 2 fish a day over 24 inches. I'd also like to see no commercial fishing allowed.

1 fish at 30 inches is more realistic.

Problem wih 2 at 24 is that they are much more attainable and easy to catch. The typical angler is lucky to get two keepers over 28 a year, make them24 inches and a lot more of those younger class fish will be taken out of the pool. At least a slot between 20-26 has a fair amount of males mixed in as there are a higher percentage of males at 20 inches than 24, whereas females are over 90% of fish over 34 inches... I think cutting out comm fishing is rediculous. I thknk there is too much take commercialy AND recreationaly and that both should be scaled back. Unfortunately, if the biomasses of the various baits keep shrinking, it will all be moot. The problem is not the commercial or recreational fishing as much as it is the forage these fish feed on. Too many people feel that if they debate the size issue of Striped Bass, that their work is done, the size of the fish is just a small part of it. The important parts are not addressed strongly enough...

Slot limit.... and no commercial pogie harvest within 3 miles of the coast, fix the herring problem and we'll have a wonderful stock of fish...

[eelman]

John, why is everyone so fixated on the bunker? while its a main forage, its not the only one.I agree that the comm take of bunker should be scaled way back, I think bass adapt. I have cleaned plenty of bass over the last 25 years from both boat and shore and have found 80% of the time these fish have some type of lobster, crabs etc... in there belly. This year was banner for bunker in narr.bay however all of the fish I saw had lobsters or crabs in there gut, in fact there is no shortage of crabs! there was a recent crab hatch and there were millions of the tiny guys all over the shore.

Dont get me wrong small finfish are a staple in a stripers diet and I want to see it stay around and be protected but bass simply eat anything they can, flounder,scup, etc....I have seen years where the finfish forage was non existant and still the bass fishing was good, they adapt and acually prefer a diet of crabs and lobster. What a loss in bunker does do is prevent fish from being in places we normally see them, if no bunker in the bay then no bass.I caugt a bass once that had tautog in its gut!

I dont want this taken the wrong way but bass eat everything.Sure we do need to protect the forage but the bass does not care weather it dines on lobster or bunker its going to eat the same........

I dont like slot limits, granted you certainly seem to know more about the sceince than I do but that size limit encourages to many small fish taken. My final is 36inches at 1 per day and leave the comm. bass fishing alone

[Notaro]

then what is the size limit for the striper commerical fishermen to keep? right now, they are allowed to keep 34 inches or above. so if the recreational striper limit creel is 36 inches and comemrical size limit has to be 34 or what? just asking.

[basswipe]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

John, why is everyone so fixated on the bunker? while its a main forage, its not the only one.I agree that the comm take of bunker should be scaled way back, I think bass adapt. I have cleaned plenty of bass over the last 25 years from both boat and shore and have found 80% of the time these fish have some type of lobster, crabs etc... in there belly. This year was banner for bunker in narr.bay however all of the fish I saw had lobsters or crabs in there gut, in fact there is no shortage of crabs! there was a recent crab hatch and there were millions of the tiny guys all over the shore.

Bunker ARE the stripers' #1 forage.Its what maintains them.They be eating lobster and crabs because that's what's available especially now that the Asian crab has become so prolific.

This year was "banner" for bunker ?I guess a few schools could be considred "banner" when compared to no schools.There hasn't been a banner year for bunker since the early to mid 80s.The pogie boats literally SUCKED the bay and surrounding waters dry of pogies in the 80s.

What makes BIG bass truly BIG is a steady diet of pogie.

[fishdog13]

Originally Posted by striprman

I'd like to see the recreational fisherman be able to keep 2 fish a day over 24 inches. I'd also like to see no commercial fishing allowed.

1 fish at 30 inches is more realistic.

OoOOoo another HERO!

[Iwannakeeper]

Originally Posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&

You know its fine to take a fish now and then to eat at 28 inches however I see to many people stretch a 27-1/2 to a 28 and justify taking it, I would rather them stretch a 35 to a 36. Its the mentality of it that I see, they take the 28s just to say they have a "keeper" not with the thought of a meal.

The problem is that people are taking fish home to show off and not eat or sell.

As someone pointed out (eben I think) the 28in fish is enough for a meal or two and is safer (from a toxin level). I perfer to keep a small fish once in awhile for a meal or two. I do not take fish to stock freezer.

I hope the length limits do not drop. I do not know enough to decide whether they should go up.

I do like the idea of a small (28-36") and a large (over 44") so that you can have table fare and still keep a trophy if you are lucky enough.

But the bait fish demise makes the most logical sense to me. If there is not enough bait to supply the predators, there are no predators. and the predators that are left are smaller, undersized, and not as healthy.

-IWK

[RIJIMMY]

I'm prbabaly not adding any value to this thread, but,,,arent there tons of juvenille blues (snappers I called them as a kid) for the bass to feed on? Wouldnt they be an available source of forage for big bass?

[piemma]

Jimmy:
I think they bite the bass when the bass bite them and then you have a lousy bite or no bite or.....never mind.

[Pete F.]

I think this is a multi-faceted problem.
1. Male bass comprise 50% of the population of fish under somewhere in the low 30s. There are very few large male bass. A 50/50 ratio of males to females is not neccesary for good reproductive success. This is the rationale behind a 20 to 26 inch slot limit.
2. The pressure on the Striped Bass fishery is historically very high at this time. They are relatively easy to catch, you dont need a boat or a lot of special equipment. (Don't tell my wife that I said that) Fish still die from catch and release and there are estimates that will scare you on percentages.
3. Shoreline developement and the resultant pollution has increased tremendously over the past 30 years. Thsi includes stormwater discharges into nearshore areas. When I was a kid it was not a requirement in Suburbia that you fertilize your lawn and make sure that it is a bluegrass monoculture. Now it is not unusual for people to have service contracts for fertilization, etc. This makes a percentage of the estuarial areas unsuitable for use as a nursery by any fish, bait or game.
4. We have become too effecient at finding schools of baitfish and being able to collect them.
I am sure there are other factors involved. I think a Maine style slot limit is the way to go.