Striped Bass Migration

[Billfish715]

So the thread about Virginia Striped Bass Size Limits doesn't get too off topic, this article from 2013 might address some of the other topics to which that thread may have led. There was quite a bit of information to absorb but with the cold weather upon us, it makes for good reading and knowledge. The migration of striped bass from and to the major spawning areas is very informative.

One thing that struck my attention was regarding the spawning stocks that winter and spawn in the N.C area. The article talks about the fact that those bass seldom, if ever, migrate north of Ocean City, MD. It also mentions that most of the bass that swim past our coastline are from Chesapeake stocks. I have to read it more carefully to find out more about the wintering grounds of the Hudson River stocks and from where they migrate. Some may be females that come from the south and don't spawn in the Chesapeake or Delaware River.

I also learned an answer to a question that I've had for a long time regarding green eggs in females. I've seen those eggs in bass that we've caught long after the spawning periods of the Hudson River fish and the Chesapeake Bay fish. They were from bass that had never spawned and the green eggs would be absorbed by the bass as they continue to migrate.

There was lots of other information about water temperatures and fresh water flow which affects the percentage of eggs being fertilized. Some of the low fresh water flows over the last several years might have been a big influence on the amount of fry that were hatched out since a high salinity of the water would adversely affect the spawning process.

https://www.stripersonline.com/surftalk/topic/517577-spring-striped-bass-migrations/

[Capt Sal]

May 1998 caught a striper with a Maryland tag .It was tagged eight years before in Maryland.Arthur Kill river Perth Amboy .Sometimes they migrate to the West end of the bay and then go up the Arthur Kill to the Hudson.Full of eggs and released.Some times they come up the beach and go straight for the Verazano and up the Hudson.If there are loads of bunker they will stage in Raritan Bay and then make there trip up the Hudson to spawn.Many bass are already far up the Hudson that wintered over and will spawn when the water temp is perfect.Remember years ago New York striper season didn't even open until May 8.It seems like the bass come earlier than 20 years ago.Changing fishery every year.New Jersey still can't get the bunker boats out of the bay but New York did it a long time ago.Maybe Booker can help us out lol:cool:

[Billfish715]

The Federal biologists from Maryland were involved with a tagging program of Hudson River stripers. I've never seen their findings but I did catch one of their fish in the fall a few years ago off Seaside. I retagged the fish with a Littoral Society tag and returned the Federal Tag to find out the fish had been tagged in the spring in the Hudson and must have spent the summer in the river or in the bight somewhere. I haven't had the Littoral tag returned yet. I'm not sure where it spent the previous winter, but I know it was tagged in the Hudson in the spring as I said. It was obviously heading south when I caught and released it.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Here is a quick little article I did on Striper Migration a few years back...

All the focus lately on Stripers I thought it might be interesting to write about how they migrate and spawn.... It’s a very predicable cycle that has been taking place for hundreds of years. Understanding when and how spawning and migrations work can help you to be in the right place at the right time and help improve your catch...

There are 3 main bodies of Spawning Stripers along the East Coast...Hudson, Delaware and Chesapeake. These fish are known to migrate as far North as the St. Lawrence river in Canada and as far south as Northern Florida. The Chesapeake is said to have the most fish followed by the Hudson and then the Delaware. For the purposes of this article we will talk about the Hudson spawners.

In the late winter, usually Feb/March Stripers come out of the ocean and bays and take up residence in the rivers in which they were born to spawn. Like Salmon they are thought to have a very keen sense of smell and that's how they detect where to return. In the northern NJ area the Hudson spawn takes place in brackish and fresh water areas north of the Tappan Zee Bridge. This is what creates the great Hudson fishery in early Spring. They are usually caught in great numbers in the upper parts of the Hudson just after the spawn in March and April.

In mid April after the spawn most fish will move downstream to take up residence in the bays into which the river feeds. They usually hang out and fatten up on all the bait that is present before they continue their migration. This is why we have such a great fishery in mid April through June in places like lower NY bay, Sandy Hook bay and Raritan bay.

Once the water temps in the bay and ocean warms up to above 60 the fish tend to move out and start their northern migration. This is when the fishing will get better in areas north of us like Montauk, Block Island, Martha’s Vneyard, Nantucket, the Cape, Rhode Island and Maine. The fish feed as they make there way up the coast.

Around the beginning of September the fish will start their southern migration to return to their spawning grounds. They stop along the bays and shoreline along the way to feed on bait and fatten up for the journey. Knowing this you can predict that our fall fishery here in the Sandy Hook area will usually follow Montauk’s by a few weeks. When we slow down the Hudson spawners will go up the Hudson to start the cycle and over while others will move down the coast and places like Cape May will get hot. The Cape May fishery usually gets hot a few weeks after Sandy Hook. The beaches, inlets and bays between Sandy Hook and Cape May get hot in between.

So, we have 2 main fisheries in the Sandy Hook area. One takes place in the Spring (April - June) which is a result of Hudson River spawnwers returning to the oceans to migrate north. The other takes place in the fall (October - December) which is a result of the fish migrating south and stopping to feed along the way or go up the Hudson to spawn....

The reasons that Sandy Hook and Cape May tend to have a longer more consistent fishery then other areas in between is 2 fold... 1) They have large bays which are like highways used by local spawners to get upstream and back out to the ocean. 2) These bays hold massive schools of bait that the resident and migrating Stripers feed on to fatten up themselves up for their continued migration or spawn.

Some other fun facts :
- A spawning female Striper can lay 180,000 eggs
- Tagging surveys have shown that Stripers can migrate as far as 1000
miles ( I'll bet that was a male fish.. If I were responsible for
fertilizing 180,000 eggs you'd probably find me in Canada)
- Sexual maturity occurs around 4 years of age
- It's been said that back in the late 1600s Stripers were so thick that farmers would harvest them to use as fertilizer in their fields.

[Billfish715]

Gerry, There is a significant number of young stripers which don't migrate until they are old enough. Instead, they winter over in and around the coastal rivers and bays. There are any number of post spawned females the migrate out of the Hudson and travel by way of the Harlem or East Rivers into LI Sound and then farther East. Some do drop out of the river and stage in the NY Bight including Raritan Bay. At the same time, there are egg-laden late arrivals that also stage in Raritan Bay before entering the Hudson late in the spawning season. These are the bass that are often caught by N.J. anglers in late April and early May. Most of them swim from areas off Maryland and Virginia and don't get to the Hudson until after the initial wave of spawners arrives north of Tarrytown. Sometimes they show up to spawn after the water temperatures get beyond optimum levels and never have their eggs successfully develop into fry.

There is no doubt that stripers are being harvested prior to their spawning. It happens in N.C., Va., Md., Del., and N.J. and N.Y. Striped bass numbers are declining for a number of reasons, and one reason is that pre-spawning females are not given the chance to lay their eggs because they are targeted in areas where they spawn or near where they do. Timing is everything in their harvest and their migration. I would also venture to say that most of the larger bass (as is the case with fluke) are females. We just have to protect the bass in our waters and give them a fighting chance to spawn. After that, we have to let Mother Nature do the rest.

[Finprof]

For the purposes of this article we will talk about the Hudson spawners. .

Gerry's article about the Hudson spawners would also apply to the Chesapeake fish. Our season closes December 15 and opens up May 18 this year. I am in the mid-Bay area just south of the bridge between Kent Island and Annapolis. When the season closes the main body of spawning fish is down by the Bay Bridge Tunnel near Virginia Beach and not near me. By the time the season opens the cows have spawned and are heading down the bay. We get a shot at post-spawn fish for about 3 weeks. After the first week of May the cows are all gone. The Bay has millions of immature fish that grow up in the Bay and don't migrate until they are about 25-30 inches long at which time they head up to Montauk or Cape Cod.

If our season was open in April and early May we could slaughter pre-spawn cows, but it isn't open. The upper Bay (Susquehanna Flats and the spawing rivers are not open until June 1 when all the spawned-out fish are already up in NJ or past it.

[Billfish715]

http://gisapps.dnr.state.md.us/stripedbass/

Finprof, The Maryland interactive fishing zone map is an interesting concept. Rockfish have been a mainstay for Chesapeake fishermen for decades and their importance to not only the economy but the culture is extremely important. Therefore the commercial harvest and sale of striped bass (which was largely responsible for closing the striped bass fishery from 1984-1990) is a difficult matter to approach no less readjust. Maryland is one of many states that still allows the commercial harvest and sale of "wild" striped bass (AKA Rockfish). The fish may be harvested by licensed commercial fishermen who may use gill nets, seines, hook and line, and pound nets. Fish as small as 18" may be taken commercially and as small as 19" by recreational fishermen using hook and line. While not "breeders" the smaller fish still count in the numbers of fish taken.......future breeders perhaps.

The interactive map indicates closed seasonal areas and catch and release areas as well . There are obviously areas, as indicated on the map, that are closed to striped bass fishing well into May. I assume because there are still breeding females that have not yet spawned. Since there is the possibility that some of those breeders may not have spawned when or where they were supposed to, it is very likely that those females might be some of the fish that move up the coast to the Hudson long after the first wave of Hudson River stripers have already spawned. Therefore, there is a good possibility that some of the Raritan Bay stripers that we catch in the bay are females that left the Chesapeake without spawning and arrive here full of eggs but at a time when successful spawning is unlikely.

As I mentioned, timing and temperature is everything for a successful spawn. I applaud Maryland for taking steps to protect their resources since their resources are shared with us all. I just wish the state could do more by reexamining the effects of commercial fishing on the striped bass population and perhaps limiting that fishery more. Of course, the stripers that escape from the Chesapeake still have to face the hooks, and nets of the Virginia recreational and commercial fishermen at the mouth of the bay. Let's not go back to the late 1980's. Learn from the mistakes of the past before it happens again.

Lets's not point fingers but join hands in order to keep the stripers a viable resource for our children.

[AndyS]

From the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries:

Striped bass & bluefish quotas not reached. For the first time in decades, a substantial portion (~11%) of the striped bass quota was left uncaught. Of the 847,585 lb commercial quota for Massachusetts, landings tallied about 753,000 lb. Anecdotal reports from commercial anglers reveal fewer schools of commercial-sized bass were available within Massachusetts waters this past summer. The Massachusetts commercial fishery is constrained by a higher size limit (34”) than that of the recreational fishery (28”), just two open fishing days per week (Monday & Thursday), a commercial season that opens on June 23, and strictly enforced daily limits of 15 fish for boat-based fishing and 2 per angler for shore-based harvest. Environmental police have been diligent about inspecting commercial anglers’ catches.

The shortfall in bass landings was similar to that seen in the bluefish fishery of which only 40% of the 486,539 lb quota was landed. Commercial quota shortfalls were seen in all states throughout the range suggesting a stock-wide downturn for bluefish.