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Tracking Striped Bass Migration, and the Bait
July 18, 2008
Gloucester, Mass., locals say the 54-pound striper Colin MacKenzie caught two miles offshore the biggest striped bass landed in a decade. MacKenzie, who hooked the striped bass with a live mackerel, first thought he had a tuna on the end of his line. The cow striper is estimated to be 22 years old.
July 12, 2008
Anglers fishing the Penobscot River in Maine are reporting the ‘worst ever’ striper fishing season in recent years. Hopefully the main reason is that big stripers are still enjoying the waters further south. But one reporter suspects that anglers may be infecting the river with didymosphenia geminate algae – better known as didymo or “rock snot” -- by not cleaning their gear after fishing other waters
July 1, 2008
That group of bottlenose dolphins which has drawn nationwide attention since entering New Jersey’s Shrewsbury River two weeks ago is feeding on menhaden, the key food source of striped bass, according to biologists. While the dolphins reportedly appear healthy, authorities are concerned that the increased boat traffic sparked by their rare appearance endangers the pod.
North Carolina closed the recreational striped bass season Tuesday, implementing new striper regulations adopted by the N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission. “The closure will encompass all coastal waters from a line running from Roanoke Marshes across Pamlico Sound to Eagle Nest Bay (near Pea Island National Refuge in Dare County) to the South Carolina state line.” The season will reopen Oct. 1, when stripers begin their southern migration from Maine to warmer waters off of North Carolina.
About 75 anglers ages 8 to 16 competed in the striped bass tournament in New Hampshire to raise funds to bring the skeleton of a 32-foot humpback whale named Tofu to the Seacoast Science Center. Tyler McKenna landed the biggest fish – a 46-inch striper that also led the kids ages 8 to 10 category. “This is the best day of my life,” McKenna said.
June 28, 2008
Anglers in New Jersey are catching big striped bass off the northern part of the Jersey Shore, with stripers up to 50 pounds being caught off of Island Beach State Park and Sandy Hook. The bluefish action has slowed, but anglers are still nailing some big blues weighing in at more than 10 pounds.
Implementing new striped bass regulations, North Carolina plans to close its striped bass season to recreational anglers on July 1. The season will reopen in North Carolina – where many stripers spend the winter months – on Oct. 1, and it will run through April 30, 2009. North Carolina is also limiting striper anglers to two fish apiece each day during the season at a minimum of 18 inches. “Also, no striped bass between 22 inches and 27 inches may be taken from waters classified as joint or inland.”
June 14, 2008
Cape Cod anglers are nailing striped bass up to 40 pounds, with schools of stripers migrating north to cooler waters. Action at Cape Cod Canal has “busted open,” with the linesiders chasing schools of tinker mackerel. “The bass are following the bait and anglers from the canal to Boston have a chance at hooking up with a real trophy for the next couple of weeks.”
June 12, 2008
Smart community relations move from Exelon, which operates a nuclear power plant at Clinton Lake in Illinois. After the state Department of Natural Resources said it couldn’t afford to continue stocking the reservoir with hybrid striped bass, officials at the power plant donated 50,000 striper fingerlings about three to inches longs. That’s good news for anglers that fish Clinton Lake, since a reduction in the amount of fish stocked each year have made catching a striper much more difficult.
June 7, 2008
Canadian angler Christian Levatte landed a 59-pound striper in Nova Scotia’s East Bay, setting a new Canadian record for striped bass. With stripers in the midst of their northern migration from North Carolina to Maine (and apparently as far north as Nova Scotia), let’s hope that most of the remaining 50-pound-plus stripers are still south of the border.
June 3, 2008
Five Ohio men convicted of taking too many striped and hybrid bass from the Ohio River were fined $2,695, including $1,900 in restitution for 38 illegally caught stripers. On April 27, the men were caught breaking fishing regulations at the Greenup Dam, which limit catches of striped bass, hybrid stripers, white and yellow bass to 30 fish, with no more than four fish over 15 inches. “Several of the overbagged fish exceeded the 15-inch limit, with some fish weighing up to 8.5 pounds.”
May 30, 2008
City Island’s Riptide III Lands Big Stripers, Bluefish
Great night of fishing Thursday aboard the Riptide III, based in City Island, N.Y. Fishing the Long Island Sound from 6:30 p.m. to midnight, anglers began nailing big stripers up to 30 pounds at about 9 p.m. The Riptide’s Capt. John Jorgensen landed the biggest fish of the night, while the pool fish – caught seconds before the boat headed back to dock – weighed in at 17 pounds. See the video from Thursday.
May 27, 2008
A week after a shadless Hudson River Shad Festival was held, 250 miles to the south, scientists say the healthy striped bass population is one of the factors hurting the American shad fishery in Maryland. But Maryland Department of Natural Resources official Dale Weinrich offers a better analysis of the shad shortage, blaming overfishing in the Atlantic (especially by Canadian commercial fishing boats). “Someone is perhaps targeting the shad for fishing,” Weinrich said. Or fishermen pursuing other species might be catching shad in their nets accidentally, he said. “But once you get them in a net, they're dead.”
Eleven years after Georgia passed a moratorium on striped bass fishing in the lower Savannah River, biologists report that the striper population is thriving. Savannah River stripers began to disappear in the 1970s, after a tidal gate and canal were installed in Back River, where the fish spawned. In 1987, the striper moratorium was passed, and the gate was removed. Authorities reopened the striped bass fishery last year. Anglers are now catching 100 to 200 stripers 27 or inches longer – the minimum length, and they’re catching and releasing up to 1,500 striped bass each year.
May 24, 2008
After a few slow weeks of striped bass fishing – with bluefish dominating most of the action – anglers in New Jersey are landing big striped bass as the northern migration kicks into high gear. The linesiders are chasing “massive schools of bunker.” One charter boat captain, whose customers caught bass this week up to 43 inches, suspects most of the recent catches are stripers heading north after spawning in the Chesapeake Bay.
May 23, 2008
A year after Rhode Island legislators attempted to ban purse seining of menhaden (aka bunker, pogies), Department of Environmental Management officials estimate that 13 million pounds of menhaden will migrate through Narragansett Bay in 2008 – nearly double last year’s count. Menhaden are the main food source for striped bass, and the top bait used by striper anglers. While the healthy population of bunker in Rhode Island appears to be good news, the risk is that this year’s count will give more ammunition to purse seiners -- which can take out entire schools of menhaden by hunting them down with spotter planes and boats – in their fight agaisnt tighter controls on the menhaden fishery.
May 22, 2008
There were no shad served at this year’s Hudson River Shad Festival, because the fish, which once thrived in the Hudson, are very hard to find these days. While environmentalists blame the shad decline on fish kills from power plants, overfishing and pollution, 78-year-old commercial fisherman Bob Gabrielson blames the shad shortage on protection of striped bass, which prey on shad. “Don’t get me wrong. The striped bass is a great fish, but they act as if it’s the only fish in the ocean,” Gabrielson said. “And the striped bass are eating everything in the river that’s not nailed down.”
May 19, 2008
Reports from the Massachusetts coast are tracking 25-to 30-pound stripers moving into the eastern end of Buzzards Bay, chasing mackerel migrating from Gay Head. Anglers are landing the big striped bass with surface poppers, Storm shad lures and jigs. Bluefish up to 12 pounds are also being caught.
Dead menhaden (bunker) are washing up near the Navesink River Bridge in Red Bank, N.J. Officials from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection are blaming the fish kill on an infection caused by vibrio ordalli bacteria, which is toxic to fish but reportedly harmless to humans.
May 18, 2008
The 110-foot Brooklyn VI saw its best day of the season Sunday, with anglers on the Sheepshead Bay, N.Y., boat catching 27 keeper striped bass up to 25 pounds, along with limits of bluefish. The Brooklyn kicks off its 10-hour “Captain’s Choice” trips on Monday, targeting stripers, blues, sea bass and fluke.
May 17, 2008
A huge drop in the river herring population in Connecticut has some biologists pondering whether the species – a key food source (and bait) for striped bass – should be protected by the state’s Endangered Species Act. “At the Holyoke Dam on the Connecticut River in Holyoke, Mass., 630,000 migrating blueback herring were counted in 1985. By 2006, the number counted at Holyoke fell to 21 fish, and last year it was 69 fish. This year's run is just beginning, with only a few fish counted so far.”
May 14, 2008
Strong winds Monday kept party boats in New York and New Jersey at the dock, but captains expect the strong northeast winds will drive bigger catches of striped bass and bluefish. Anglers were already nailing stripers running more than 20 pounds over the weekend. Sea bass and ling are also being caught.
May 13, 2008
Anglers in Canada are cheering a decision from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to keep the striped bass fishery open. But regulators are still taking a look at implementing some catch-and-release rules for stripers north of the border.
May 10, 2008
Anglers Blitz Bluefish on the Brooklyn VI
We didn't find a single striped bass during a trip on the Brooklyn VI party boat out of Sheepshead Bay, N.Y. But there was non-stop bluefish action on diamond jigs. We started off the morning in Jamaica Bay, only a few minutes from the dock, where the biggest fish -- some 8 to 10-pounders, were nailed. The boat then headed south, and spent much of the morning and early afternoon jigging for bluefish off of New Jersey's Sandy Hook.
May 7, 2008
The problem isn’t a lack of herring, but difficulties buying the bait. While schools of river herring and Atlantic herring are swimming off the coast of Massachusetts, anglers blame a spike in diesel fuel prices coupled with a regulated “no fish” zone for the bait resulting in a shortage of herring that can be used as bait for stripers. Lobstermen are also having a hard time tracking down herring, which they use for bait in lobster traps. “The bait industry might come down to frozen herring or pogies [aka menhaden or bunker]," said one bait dealer and lobsterman.
It’s been hard to find striped bass in the New York Bight with a big surge in bluefish nailing everything anglers throw at them, but anglers fishing off the Jersey shore are beginning to have more luck scoring stripers. Even better news – the striped bass look very healthy. "These are beautiful fish. There are no sea lice on them; they're clean, healthy fish. I think we're in the groove now. I think we'll be all right from here on out."
May 5, 2008
Big striped bass aren’t an easy catch in New York’s Hudson River these days. One angler says using sonar is key to hooking 25-pound linesiders. “Every serious striper fisherman owes it to himself to have a good quality graph recorder aboard. You simply cannot do a good job with one of those cheap rigs that simply beeps at you very time a fish, a log, a partially submerged tire or any other junk in the river passes under your boat.”
May 2, 2008
With the flounder season slowing down, anglers on New York’s Staten Island are targeting stripers and bluefish. Most of the striped bass are schoolies, but there are reports of some keepers. The bad news – blackfish season ended in New York on Thursday, and anglers targeting mackerel are striking out.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources said Friday that it’ll extend the Susquehanna Flats catch and release season for striped bass by one week. The fishery, originally scheduled to close tomorrow, will remain open until May 9. The state cited “cold water combined with the forecast of an extended cool weather period” for extending the striper season.
Cold weather slowed fishing for a few days this week, but anglers on New York’s Long Island are catching plenty of striped bass, bluefish and weakfish. Blues are running up to 10 pounds, with anglers using diamond jigs and bunker chunks. A couple of days of warmer weather should spark more action.
April 28, 2008
Plenty of reports of bluefish chasing schools of bunker (Menhaden) off of the New Jersey shore. And when there are blues tearing up bunker, you can usually bank on stripers picking up the scraps on the bottom of the blitz. Anglers in Jersey’s Raritan bay are scoring with bunker chunks as bait, along with lures.
April 26, 2008
Quite a biology lesson coming from California’s Lake Elsinore. Authorities there released more than 3,200 pounds of hybrid striped bass into the lake in hopes that the stripers will eat a growing population of shad minnows. Why? The minnows eat zooplankton, which filter out harmful algae that can rob fish of oxygen, and result in fish kills. They’ve also removed 1.4 million pounds of carp from the lake in the last five years – the carp also feed on the zooplankton. The carp – although considered a delicacy by some anglers – are being taken to a processing plant, where they’re turned into fertilizer.
July 22, 2008
Rhode Island angler Peter Vican nearly broke the world record for striped bass, catching a 75-pound, 4 ounce striper in the Block Island Volunteer Firefighters Tournament. Vicars, who landed the monster striper at 1 a.m. Saturday morning, didn’t weigh the fish in until 10 a.m.
If his team had rushed the fish to dock and weighed it in immediately, there’s a good chance that it would have broken Al McReynolds' world record 75 pound, 8 ounce world record striper, caught in Atlantic City in 1982. But if it was up to Vican, his fish never would have been weighed in. His friends had to convince the angler not to release the striped bass.
It took Vican about 30 minutes to reel in the bass, which struck a live eel. Vican's striped bass shattered the Rhode Island striper record by more than 5 pounds.
