The images above and below weren't all that uncommon just about 10 years ago. Find any beach blitz along the Jersey Shore and it was game on and gaffs in. I won't go and post here the images from the party boats of piles of huge striped bass because I seem to pick on them too much from time to time, but you can just imagine.
The reason I write this is because the ASMFC has closed the public comment on Addendum II for Amendment 7, which was put in place to address rebuilding the striped bass stocks pst 2023. Yeah, how we doing with that?
Looking from front to back the ASMFC put into place in 2023 the emergency action for a one fish per angler slot at 28-31 inches. That continues today and we'll see what they decide for 2024, my gut tells me it will be more of the same. Not a perfect option and you know my opinion on that. At times we try to protect one thing and destroy another, like year classes or species of fish.
With things looking bleak for striped bass in 2015 the regulations were changed from a two fish at 28 inch limit to a one at 28-43 inch size and one over 43 inches. So you could take a 30 inch bass and a 40 pounder home for dinner, for your neighborhood, to eat, for months.
To keep the looking back every 10 years 2013 had in place the two fish at 28 inch minimum. That means that you could take two 30 inch fish, or two 40 pounders, depending how much room you had in the freezer.
If you fished for striped bass twenty years ago then you were allowed two fish, one 28 inches or larger and one slot fish between 24- 28 inches.
Then we look back into the 1990's. I researched things and I hope I have them correct, or close to correct. In 1995 then Governor Christine Todd Whitman passed a law increasing the one fish per day regulation to two fish per day.
Let's go back to 1984 and look at the bigger picture. It was in that year that the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act was passed. It was that year that a three year moratorium, for both recreational and commercial fisheries, was enacted. During that time it was illegal to target or have in possession Atlantic
That's where the actions and timelines were hard to track down. But I do know these dates to be accurate. In 1990 the Striped Bass Bonus Program was started in New Jersey. The next year, 1991, commercial fishing for striped bass was outlawed and it received "Gamefish" status. Gamefish status means there is only recreational fishing for any one species, with no commercial fishery. That doesn't mean it would be managed correctly and the recreational side couldn't hammer down and decimate any one species.
New Jersey, the only state with a Bonus Tag Program, moved the commercial quota, say just over 200,000 pounds of striped bass caught in New Jersey waters, to the recreational side and allowed participants to harvest smaller 24-28 inch fish. Returns of tags (kind of a joke) put harvest weight in tens of thousand of pounds rather than hundreds of thousands of pounds. A win depending on who you talk to.
They say that history can and often does repeat itself. While New Jersey has become the Montauk of years past that is only a snapshot of a biomass of fish during one particular season, or day, in one body of water. As the ASMFC "kicks the can" in regards to truly taking steps to rebuild the striped bass fishery, anglers should be aware of what may come of stricter regulations if things don't improve. All they have to do is look into what happened in the 1980's.
Paul Dixon, a well known guide and conservationist from Montauk, stated, "The 10 year period following the 1984 striped bass moratorium is the greatest example of rebuilding a fishery we have ever seen". Since 2012 the river herring has continued to be under the protection of an East Coast moratorium. That's 10 years. I never fished or saw anyone live line a herring but they tell me it's like striped bass crack. Drop a herring, catch a bass. Kind of what live lining bunker has become. So banning herring has hopefully aided in the rebuild but also helped curb that bait fishery for striped bass.
Imagine if another moratorium for striped bass were to come. How old are you? How many seasons would you have left if they said no fishing for 3, 5 or 10 years? For some that would be it. No more. So look at the bigger picture when those regulations come down for 2024 or you might have to dust off those old Lionel trains in the attic or those golf clubs in the garage for something to do.