Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

Dense concentrations of migrating striped bass began their way past southern New Jersey in early December. This year, the majority of the population took a more easterly route and traveled through the Exclusive Economic Zone waters where fishing for and possession of striped bass is prohibited. This did not stop many anglers from pursuing these fish unlawfully as Conservation Officers from District 8 apprehended a total of 21 recreational fishing vessels in possession of striped bass in EEZ waters during a two week period. As an example of the blatant disregard for the EEZ prohibition, one of these vessels was apprehended by CO'S Harp and Nicklow with one fish in possession and was apprehended later the same day by CO's Harp and Tomlin further inside EEZ waters with four fish in possession. Officers observed hundreds of recreational vessels illegally fishing for striped bass in EEZ waters as striped bass stayed well offshore. The cases were turned over to National Marine Fisheries Service for enforcement action. The fine for possession of striped bass in the EEZ is $500.00 per fish
Since the unlawful striped bass fishing effort in the EEZ was so rampant this year, District 8 Conservation Officers joined forces with the Delaware Department of Natural Resources, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement and the US Coast Guard. A force of 5 patrol vessels from these various law enforcement entities conducted and focused EEZ striped bass patrol off southern New Jersey on December 11. Several additional apprehensions were made of recreational fishing vessels with striped bass in possession including charter boats.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

That's just total and blatant disregard of the law. I should think EVERYONE, especially charters would know that the catching of, and even possession of striped bass is illegal beyond the three mile limit---and that's where the EEZ starts---Federal waters. That has been in effect for several years...I don't own a boat but even I know that!!!And no, that doesn't make me special, just one of the in-the-know multitude(on that point, anyway)...

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

According to the Captain of FG that spoke at the council meeting last week , there was actually 30 different boats ticketed for possession of striped bass.

Not even the tip of the iceberg .

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Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

I think this whole EEZ thing has ran it's course. I'm all for conservation but gawd forbid some one wants to go out in the ocean and catch some fish using a rod and reel. Nothing like drawing imaginary lines in the ocean.
FastEddie said it best. There are people dropping dead in the streets from heroin overdoses but we have to call out the US Coast Guard because some caught and kept a fish using a rod and reel.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

I respectfully disagree.
Stripers get crazy pressure on their whole yearly migration.
The get hammered from Thanksgiving till seasons close in April in their wintering grounds.
Smashed again when they get here May through July.
Then beat on again In RI , MASS, ANd NY from July till October.
Everyone only wants to fish for them when they are like shooting fish in a barrel.
Its nice their is an area where they get a little bit of a break .
While I think not legally being able to C/R out there is beat im sure its because the feel too many guy would take advantage of it and be running back inside the line when their coolers are full of fish


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Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

Tell that to the commercial fishing industry.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

only a handfull of states have commercial fishery for stripers.
And we are not one of them .

Killing bass in the EZ is like killing trout in the upper Delaware

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

Obviously intently fishing for stripers in Federal waters is WRONG. However in Northern Jersey it is common place for the fleet to move north along the coast in search of feeding fish. Once up around the sandy hook area that search sometimes continues on East to the Rockaway NY area. Then at days end rather than taking a GPS heading for home the entire charter, party, and pleasure boat fleet needs to head for Staten Island, and then South along the Jersey coast. Effectively taking two sides of the triangle, all because of law enforcement patrols on the pretense of National security. I am sorry but when a party boat with a hailing port on her stern reads Point Pleasant, Belmar or Brielle and has posted hours of 7AM- 3PM is stopped and boarded at 2:30 PM and then issued summons's for having stripers in federal waters that is TOTAL B.S. in my book! So one needs further information to condone some of these incidents which completely disregard common sense.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

A guy taking an extra striper or a guy fishing 3.1 miles out is not the problem. If any of you actually believe that you are delusional.
The state needs to do a better job policing the commercial guys. A private guy catches say 250 stripers s a season. Commercial guys do that per day, 6 days a week. See example below. That's 1 commercial boat on 1 day.

https://youtu.be/VGnqSD9V8Pg

Here's another one for you..... http://www.onthewater.com/striped-ba...d-in-maryland/

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

abrasion, with most of the other fisheries commercial fisherman put way more pressure on them than the recreational guys do.
But that is NOT the case with striped bass. there are very few states that allow commercial fishing . ( And NJ doesnt allow it) we put 95% of the pressure on those fish.
a look at any marina fishing for stripers when they are in that spots core area will show you we POUND them hard.
Look at the slaughter boards in Virginia when the bass are stacked up there all winter.
Then again here when the move up the coast.
There are 100 times the boats fishing for them than did 10 years ago.
Mid December there were days there were hundreds of boats bassing along 5 miles of beach.
Just simple math of 4 guys fishing on even just 200 boats is 800 bass at 1 fish per angler when fishing is good a low average of say 16000 pounds of bass.
ADDS up quick.
and actual numbers are probably 5 times that up and down Just our coast here in NJ.

apples to apples how many recs catching 250 bass per season , against 0 fishing comercially in NJ. Who is delusional

Just take 1 charter boat fishing 2 trips a day. catching just 1 fish per angler
12 bass, 7 days a week for 3 months( and most years between spring and fall we get well more time than that)
thats 1080 bass at 20 pound average is over 20000 pounds of bass.
Do you even realize how many charter boats and head boats fish for these fish BESIDES the rest of the recreational fleet ????????




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Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

You are delusional if you think a 1 bass limit from NJ is the issue when both their summer and winter grounds both allow commercial fishing. The bigger issue is who the hell eats striped carp? Id rather eat sea robin.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

Exactly! I love to hook into anything over 25lbs but would never eat one that size and find little pleasure "fighting" anything smaller. I consider even the slots just blah table fare. I understand tastes differ but not to the point of the mania these smaller fish create where PB's are forced to abandon sure fire jumbo bluefishing to chase around an often frustratingly fickle bass bite all day because hey, carrying 80 on a Tuesday in October sure beats 15, it pays the bills and it's what the people want. Me? I'd rather anchor up offshore and catch 15lb blues until they go on winter break.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

I typed slower so you could follow it .
I never said we were hurting the fishery in any way.
Just that the recreational catch is more substantial thank you think. And no reason to add to it.
The new limit. As well as downsizing bonus tag fish should make for an awesome fishery.
I was glad the limit changed to what it currently is.
While many practice catch and release .lots of breeders in years past were killed just to bang chests at the dock.

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Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

"we put 95% of the pressure on those fish.
a look at any marina fishing for stripers when they are in that spots core area will show you we POUND them hard."

I didnt think one could be self-delusional, but obviously I stand corrected.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

I said we are the ones catching the fish. Never said striper fishery was hurting.
It's best it's been in thirty years.
Let's keep it that way .

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Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

"Hey! We want to make an area where your not allowed to catch fish. Ok?"

"NO!!! WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO FISH ANYWHERE WE WANT!"

"Um, ok. Well, you can't catch striped bass beyond this imaginary 3 mile line we made up."

"OK."



makes sense...

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

Just had some 42" from the spring- cubed and fried with seasoned bread crumbs, home made cole slaw and home made tarter sauce. Tastes far better than any freshwater fish except walleye. We place it just under Tilefish, Blackfish, winter flounder, and Haddock - better than fluke. Only way to eat bluefish is smoked IMHO

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

my measurememt of fish taste is salt and pepper maybe so!e olive oil amd imto the oven. if it needs to be fried or soaked or marinated ill pass

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

exactly!

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

Imaginary line. Please.... what a complete waste of time and resource. Fxcking joke.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

I don't know why but I am going to stick my two cents into this issue:

- first, for all of you who want to extrapolate numbers - no one talks about the days we drive all over the ocean and can't catch very many or any for that matter - so put that into you calculation - it will drastically change it

- you right NJ has no commercial fishing for them but the last time I checked Stripers don't really read the sign on the nets that say "don't swim in we can't catch you" - so when this happens they are released but a good percentage are already dead or too hurt to make it

- yup I agree with the post about NJ boats going out the east beach - on the way up we can take the short route but not on the way home - I always believed there should be a way that we can just "transit" waters over 3 miles

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

So your the capt. of a party boat coming out of Belmar. You head North staying two miles off the beach. The birds start working and there Stripers rolling on top. You stop and have good fishing for an hour and it drops dead. You make a move furter North and 2.8 miles off the beach. You look out East a half mile furter out and Gannets are diving and there is white water everywhere! The forty customers see it to and start screaming"Let's go into the birds Captain! You say by law that you can't because you have retained Stripers already. But there blues not bass? Does not matter YOU CAN'T GO THERE!!!

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

Made that mistake and luckily didn't get caught. Spring time on way out for Ling We stopped on the knoll and jigged a few bass then headed out to Scotland for ling with Bass in the box. Didn't realize at the time we were in violation.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

If you run a head boat sometimes you have to straight off shore to the blues and bypass the bass. If it is an all day bass bite then that is what you do.When i use to charter in the winter we would try to get bass on thknoll on the way home. Same thing when i go to Louisiana where my youngest son is a capt. Red Fish can only be retained in state waters. We fish the oil rigs that are 10-15 off the beach. I let some real beauties go but it did not bother me. Here in Florida Cobia was closed in Federal waters. Let some beauties go again along with Red snapper and Amberjack and groupers. It is nation wide not just NJ. Iam all for conservation but realistic conservation.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

what stinks is North and central jersey get to catch these fish for a long period of time, unfortunately when they start heading south they head offshore past the eez. i am pretty confident its the same body of fish that have migrated from the north. While I don't advocate breaking any laws, cant blame guys who do it. The law needs to be changed as its antiquated and in reality doesn't protect the species

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

Protecting the stripers in the EEZ is a good law as it applies to both recreational and commercial fishermen along the entire east coast. The stocks would be devastated if we opened the EEZ to fishing for them as many winter off Virginia and North Carolina. There they would be easy targets for the netters who would wipe them out in no time.

Paul Haertel

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

I agree with Paul , in the past these fish were slaughtered , offshore protection is a must or else it would repeat itself ! Plenty fish inshore in most years to catch .

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

Just call me Darwin but I have a theory that short of spawning Stripers will become a slightly offshore fish due to natural selection

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

No such critter as an offshore striper. The stripers simply follow the bait fish during their migrations. Some years they stay close, other years they move out beyond the 3 mile line. All stripers procreate in freshwater.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

I don't think the Coast Guard serve the junkies in your town. Their job is on he water and maybe even prevent drug smugglers

REALLY....
The whole idea of conservation is good, as long as it doesn't apply to everyone?

No one thinks they'll get caught. And when they do, there should be HOLY HELL TO PAY. They deserve it.

Should be a $5000 fine, jail and seize the damn boat the second time it happens.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

Aren't you in charge of your boat and paying attention to how far off shore you are for that exact reason?

And then you retain the bass you see come over the rail 3.1 miles out?

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

NO! If you have a bass on board you do not go over the three mile line.

Re: Striped bass busts gone wild !!
 

Like the sea bass season. Fed rules are different.

Running the boat you should know that before you stepped on the boat at the dock. So what's unfair about the rules? You knew that before you had breakfast the day before. :)