I think this mild winter, hopefully not jinxing it by saying that, is playing games in my head, along with anyone else that fishes for striped bass. There's other fish in the sea and the tog guys are having a hoot out there and enjoying 50 and 60 degree days on the boat as they dangle crabs over the wrecks.
So where are the striped bass now?
While I haven't been out fishing in the salt waters others have so it's nice to have some idea what is going on. As you know we are having a mild winter so far and I wonder how that effects the bait and striped bass migrations. I have checked the following buoy readings from NOAA, Station 44065 which is 15 nm south of Breezy Point 46 degrees, Station ACYN4 Atlantic City, 43 degrees, and Station 44009, down off Delaware 26 miles south of Cape May, 47.8 degrees. While south Jersey has seen their steady action of striped bass decline over the years there may be something going on this winter. Now Cape May and Atlantic County do get theirs, Cape May known for their backwater bite and the Delaware Bay fishery in the spring when the bass go up and down the Delaware River, and Atlantic City, yep that jetty, and Brigantine across the way, where there must be a magnet on the bottom leading into the Absecon Inlet that attracts striped bass in the spring.
There's a charter operation, Stalker Fishing Charters out of Cape May, who have been on the bass since they left us up here in north Jersey at the end of December. Above is a sscreen shot of their fishfinder on the bass. They have been reporting daily of fish from 30 inches to 30 pounds both rolling on the surface and throughout the water column. They are fishing with sight of the beach and within the three mile line. While their videos show the rolling, they don't show gannets diving like we see when herring are out and about. I was thinking that maybe due to the unseasonably warm temps the herring were staged early outside of the Delaware Bay and the bass, either Delaware or Husdon River strain bass were staying put and eating before the spawning migration.
So As I tried to figure out the Cape May thing going on I started to think about the Chesepeake Bay and striped bass. I know 0% about the Chesapeake, only that striped bass come from there, Maryland sucks ass when it comes to protecting striped bass, and pollution has wreaked havoc on spawning and summering over habitats. To be honest, and I am geographically challenged, I had to look at a map and really see what the Chesepeake really means.
Being a student of the striped bass game has me doing a lot of reading and searching online which includes social media. I can't help but follow Chuck "Tyman" Many who is from New Jersey and is probably one of the best big bass fisherman out there. I can't even count how many 50 + pound bass he catches each year between New Jersey and down off of Virginia and in and around the Chesepeake Bay. I know he does a lot of work tagging fish for research. Cape Charles, which is on the northern side of the entrance of the Chesepeake seems to be where a lot of anglers lauch from.
But I started to look at the map of the Chesepeake. The Susquehanna River is at it's northern border, the Chesepekae and Delaware Canal connects the CB to the Delaware River below Wilmington and then tributaries that are spwaning grounds that run off the bay. To note the CB is about 4,500 square miles, and in comparison Newark NJ is about 25 square miles, so you can see how expansive a body of water it is.
Rivers that are spawning grounds are the James, York, Potamac, Choptank and Nanticoke, I am sure some of the smaller rivers contribute as well. They say the Chesepeake contributes 70 % of the striped bass to the East Coast biomass, followed by 30% from the Hudson River, 10% from the Delaware River, a few % from the Roanoke/ Albermarle Sound, and then smaller amounts in rivers up and down the coast. Some will say smaller rivers like the Navesink and Raritan Rivers in New Jersey and the Connecticut River in Ct. contribute, although that has not been confirmed. It is interesting that in 1879 132 striped bass were trucked across the country to California which quickly multiplied and was the foundation of that fihsery out there. One question up for debate always is, where they Navesink bass, or Hudson River strain bass? We'll never really know. Below is a map of the Albermarle Sound in North Carolina, with the Roanoke River off to the left.
Striped bass, like other anadromous fishes like herring and shad, spend thier lives in the salt ocean water and return to their natal freshwater to spawn. Eggs must be laid and fertilized and begin their lives in freshwater, at first, and after hatching, the larve, fry, and immature fish grow before riding the currents down into brackish waters before heading out to the ocean. Fertilized eggs and salt water don't go toegther well as osmosis, the movement of salt and water from high to low concentrations, will cause a fluid shift and swell and kill whats inside a fertilized egg.
The Delaware is 330 miles long and striped bass have been caught up as far as, just let's say, Junction Pool in Hancock, where the East and West Branches meet to form the Mainstem. Down river they can congregate, maybe even winter over, in deep sections like Narrowsburg NY where the depth is over 100 feet deep. As they migrate to spawn they follow other anadromous fishes like the shad and the river herring, and that is what I see in the Delaware from mile marker, just an estimate 120- 140, with Trenton being mm 130. A look above shows where the salt line currently is, somewhere around mm 70, about where Wilmington Delaware is located.
One of my goals this spring is to find, and either photograph or videotape, Delaware River striped bass while spawning. When I ask the most experienced Delaware River anglers not one has reported seeing it first hand, although there was report from one that they saw acres of bass spawning in Burlington County last year, but they didn't haver a camera. The image above is from the Miramachi, in Canada, which is becoming it's own world-class fishery for striped bass. Some up there say striped bass are a nuciance since they are decimating the salmon populations in the rivers.
It's fun to expand your knowledge about things, but casual reading or report stalking isn't the same. If I wanted to try and learn the Chesepeake I would have to send time, a lot of time, both on the road and on the water. Trenton NJ to Harve de Grace Maryland is just under two hours. And then once I got there, now what. I think for me, just being able to read about that fishery, and the importance of that body of water, can help me understand the whole picture better.
Alan Battista, above, kayak angler and author, has penned three books about catching big bass in the Chesepeake. I plan on ordering one of his books to get a better understanding of the Chesepeake and that fishery.
So now what? It looks like winter is going to start to show this week and for sure cabin fever will really set in. The shows are coming soon which will help as will more time at the vice getting ready for spring. But if you believe that migratory and pre-spawn striped bass get going in March then it's only like 50 days away, so where are they in the meantime? Are they staging now, in what seems like decent 45+ degree waters just outside of the Delaware and Chesepeake Bay? Are the Husdon fish still in the Raritan and Lower New York Bay and New York Bight, holding out before heading out into the deeper ocean or up into the deeper waters in the Hudson near West Point if winter were to come crashing down on the East Coast?
I don't know, don't know if I'll never know, don't know if I knew if it would really matter, but these fish are a mystery, they are amazing, and for some reason become an addiction.