Striped Bass Slot

[Broad Bill]

80% of landings I assume. It's a misleading statistic in fisheries with minimal possession limits like 1 fish for bass. You could fish all day, keep your one keeper, catch 19 more fish with one dying and fishing mortality will be 100% of landings while only 5% of catch. Any fishery with minimal possession limits are going to have high fish mortality rates to landings. It's a mathematical certainty compounded by more restrictive slot limits which is what's being adopted.

Curious how exactly marine fisheries know what percentage of recreational fish discarded actually die? For that matter, how do they arrive at a 25% natural mortality rate.

The southern stock in the Chesapeake has gotten crushed. If it's due to pollution and the negative impacts that's having on recruitment, which there's a good chance it is, introducing a paper thin slot between 28" - 31", no different than what they did with the fluke fishery last year, won't address the problem and will only compound it with higher discard mortality levels. How much of the southern stock problem is related to the harvest of bunker by Cooke Inc and their massive processing ships. Has that been thoroughly explored? Always thought management involved identifying problems before proposing solution. Why is the Hudson stock healthy and the Chesapeake not. Answer that question and then propose a solution which specifically addresses the problem as opposed to a coast wide marginal slot limit which is more speculative than fact based management.

[FASTEDDIE29]

This change comes in abruptly! At the start of Fluke season? Why? This is all related…….

[Capt Derek Fisher Price 3]

This is an absolute joke. There are much more bass around than 20 years ago. while the current regs are working or have worked to rebuild the stock in significant numbers, there are still certain year classes missing. The regs could be tweaked or adjusted to help this, but to go to a 3" slot limit coast wise is absolutely absurd. This was done behind closed doors, and without any public comment. While its "only 180 day" it can extend to a year or more. this will decimate the for-hire boats, tackle shops, marinas, ice sales, etc. etc. etc. what will be next, shut the entire fishing down completely, and not even allowing catch and release.

[Gerry Zagorski]

If there's a decline in Striped Bass populations you certainly don't see it here in NJ, our area is practically polluted with them. I think we've been good stewards of the fishery here. No commercial fishing allowed and Bunker reduction boats have been banned in our state waters. We've also taken recent measures with our regs to try and avoid the harvest of the larger breeders and our bonus program, which used to be for larger fish is now a slot between 24 and 28 inches. That and circle hooks and no gaffing to help with release mortality. I think we've done our part and I'm glad NJ voted against this.

The cause of all this is a result of the decline in the Chesapeake Bay fishery recruitment. This was caused in part by farm run off and lack of Bunker. What are the states along the Chesapeake doing about that? Omega who accounts for 70% of the bunker harvest are still allowed fish for them in the bay and farms continue to pollute and now we all have to suck it up??

I know this a highly migratory fishery and has to be managed regionally but time for the Feds to do some critical thinking here. If this is a Chesapeake problem, force change in the Chesapeake states and how about getting after the root causes?

Seems like there is no state sovereignty any longer. Look what recently happened with Fluke when the feds made a unilateral decision and no states were allowed a choice in tweaking their regulations this year. Now the same with Striped Bass? Why even have a state fisheries council.... The federal government knows what's best for you and they're on top of things

[Duffman]

Such BS with whatever regs they decide to come up with. If you really want to save the stock, make a real effort to put an end to the rampant poaching going on. Burlap sacks full of dead bass getting into truck beds and car trunks and no enforcement in sight.

Instead of enforcing that they’d rather the fore hire guys to take it on the chin. Such a joke.

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by Duffman

Such BS with whatever regs they decide to come up with. If you really want to save the stock, make a real effort to put an end to the rampant poaching going on. Burlap sacks full of dead bass getting into truck beds and car trunks and no enforcement in sight.

Instead of enforcing that they’d rather the fore hire guys to take it on the chin. Such a joke.

Enforcing the laws you already have in place, what a novel idea

Nah we need more laws we won't enforce because that's what we do and in the mean time we'll punish the law abiding people

[hammer4reel]

Originally Posted by Gerry Zagorski

If there's a decline in Striped Bass populations you certainly don't see it here in NJ, our area is practically polluted with them. I think we've been good stewards of the fishery here. No commercial fishing allowed and Bunker reduction boats have been banned in our state waters. We've also taken recent measures with our regs to try and avoid the harvest of the larger breeders and our bonus program, which used to be for larger fish is now a slot between 24 and 28 inches. That and circle hooks and no gaffing to help with release mortality. I think we've done our part and I'm glad NJ voted against this.

The cause of all this is a result of the decline in the Chesapeake Bay fishery recruitment. This was caused in part by farm run off and lack of Bunker. What are the states along the Chesapeake doing about that? Omega who accounts for 70% of the bunker harvest are still allowed fish for them in the bay and farms continue to pollute and now we all have to suck it up??

I know this a highly migratory fishery and has to be managed regionally but time for the Feds to do some critical thinking here. If this is a Chesapeake problem, force change in the Chesapeake states and how about getting after the root causes?

Seems like there is no state sovereignty any longer. Look what recently happened with Fluke when the feds made a unilateral decision and no states were allowed a choice in tweaking their regulations this year. Now the same with Striped Bass? Why even have a state fisheries council.... The federal government knows what's best for you and they're on top of things

Just curious
How many bass you hearing being caught from cape may to shark river ?

Oceanside bass fishing sucks except a few days a season now
Very hit or miss both spring and fall .
Used to have three solid months in the spring and two more in the fall .

Another month as the Hudson fish move east Thry normally merge with the Chesapeake fish . The next five months without Chesapeake fish adding to the mix all the pressure from Long Island to Maine would be in the Hudson fish .

It’s not just about great fishing now . It’s to keep it
Without the Chesapeake fish rebuilding it won’t take long to hurt our fishery here .
If anything the states east of us saw the issue as it was those states asking for the size limit change .

[june181901]

Stripers Forever announced that they are quite pleased with the new regulation.

[Skolmann]

Originally Posted by dales529

I have 2 questions:
1) If the current regulations (circle hooks and no gaffing) are still resulting in an 80% mortality rate by recreational fishermen as stated in previous posts how is this slot limit or has been discussed on many sites making SB a "game fish" Catch and release ONLY going to change the mortality discard rate???

2) OR is the mortality rate overestimated as it is with Fluke and other species?

In response to your first question, IMO I think with the increasing use of plugs with treble hooks on both the belly and rear cause just as much or greater harm to a bass. Since bass will eat a baitfish (therefore also a plug) from the head first, removing the rear treble and just keeping the belly treble would help OR swap out the rear treble for an inline single hook OR replace both the rear & belly trebles with single in lines.

[Skolmann]

Originally Posted by hammer4reel

Just curious
How many bass you hearing being caught from cape may to shark river ?

Oceanside bass fishing sucks except a few days a season now
Very hit or miss both spring and fall .
Used to have three solid months in the spring and two more in the fall .

Another month as the Hudson fish move east Thry normally merge with the Chesapeake fish . The next five months without Chesapeake fish adding to the mix all the pressure from Long Island to Maine would be in the Hudson fish .

It’s not just about great fishing now . It’s to keep it
Without the Chesapeake fish rebuilding it won’t take long to hurt our fishery here .
If anything the states east of us saw the issue as it was those states asking for the size limit change .

The only bass that I’ve heard being caught south of Manasquan to Cape May are being caught in the surf. Only exception is a for hire guy I know doing fairly decent out of Barnegat Light fishing the back waters (although the bass are not the size being caught in the Raritan).

I don’t often agree with you but on this I do.