You know I don't like to just post other people's and places content but sometimes you just have to. I found this video after it popped up on Facebook. It caught my attention because there was a striped bass as the lead image.
The video discusses how to properly prepare a fish (kill it) to get the best results for the table. How many of us have hooked a fish, fought it, put it in the cooler, buried it in the sand, or put it on a stringer. The ikejime method is comprised of three steps, inserting a spike to the brain, bleeding the fish out, and then running a metal rod through the spinal cord for final nervous system destruction.
I found it very interesting and wonder how many of us have had really properly, and professionally prepared, striped bass. Commercial fisheries don't have time to prepare fish in this way. And states that do have a commercial fishery for shore based or small boat anglers, I doubt the ikejime method is used.
Last year, after years of not eating striped bass, I ordered it at a fine restaurant called NOCO out in Long Island. It was one of the best fish dishes I can remember having. I might think that finer
restaurants demand that kind of preparation for their foods. In the better restaurants fish and meats are hand picked at the markets, like the Fulton Fish Market in the Bronx, where the best trained eyes can easily see, or smell, fishes that have been processed before being sold.
When I looked at the video I thought "Well, that's a tiny striped bass". So that was a Chesapeake fish. The Chesapeake bay and it's tributaries fall in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware ( The C & D Canal) and each has a different set of regulations, and there are different regulations depending on the time of year. In Maryland, from May 16th to July 15th you can harvest one fish per angler per day 19 inches to 31 inches. And the Trophy Fish period is from May 1st to May 15th where the MINIMUM is 35 inches. That ASMFC emergency plan doesn't include the Chesapeake. And while you thought Maryland hates striped bass, they go and close it July 16th to July 31st, to reduce the stress on the fish. But the next day on August 1st it's one fish a day again 19-31 inches.