Angler and photo Zach Schubert
All I wanted to do was wake up and start my day. It's time to whittle down the lessons plans for the start of classes next week. But a quick check to Facebook got me wide awake and quick. When I saw the below post on the Hudson River Striped Bass Fishing Reports and Discussion page I thought to myself, wow, there's a ton I don't know about striped bass and how all these
waters are truly managed. When I don't know something, and I advise my students to do the same thing, it's time to head back to a good footing, like when wading, to things you're sure of, then take small steps moving forward, so you don't lose your footing or get the information incorrect. So, here I go.
The ASMFC, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which was started in 1942, was brought in to manage striped bass after the Atlantic Striped Bass Conservation Act was passed in 1984. They manage coastal waters along the individual East Coast states shorelines out to the three mile line also known as the EEZ, or the Exclusive Economic Zone. That means state waters inside, federal waters outside. There's no striped bass fishing on the outside, even though snakes will say in late November, "We're targeting bluefish".
From experience, I have erroneously fished for striped bass outside the three mile line, also known as "The Line", or "The Fence". There's no traffic signals or markers out there. There are strong tides. There are other boats "fishin' dirty". It is easy to get caught up in the moment. And that's what happened to Leif and I one day a
few years back, and I only picked it up when I looked down at the screen. When I realized it we were out of there and back inside, all by ourselves, with no fish. Integrity is doing the right thing when no one else is around. Well that never happened again.
The ASMFC "manages" the striped bass. They look at stock assessments and all kinds of other technical crap that most people's brains can't understand. I think that is done for a few reasons. One it keeps participation down. Make it so complex and convoluted that only the geniuses and players can understand it. And two, when you create confusion it becomes a tool to be used to get what results you want. Now that sounds a little conspiracy theory-ish well too bad. And then three, it is all wholesome and pure and done for all the right reasons. But just go to a ASMFC or fisheries management
meeting and listen in. I can't tell you how many times people who are frustrated by the presentation or by the final decision are left to react like Gordon Ramsey famously does on Hell's Kitchen (above).
So in my K.I.S.S. mindset. The ASMFC are the parents. They look at how things are going to go down in house. The kids are the individual states, and they have a bunch of them, 11 to be exact. They are Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. But in this house rules and how to live within the rules are a little different. The parents survey (Like a stock assessment) how day to day things are looking and then set the tone about how things have to change or stay the same (Like an Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP)). But the difference here is this, these parents make each kid
responsible on how to "fix" things to make them fall within the bigger and common good of the family. (That's where things like conservation equivalency, or CE, comes in). If the parents see total chaos then they step in and set quick hard rules (Like an Emergency Action). If the kids don't do the right things then the parents set punishments (like fines or treats of shutting things down). And, to boot, each kid (state) can make up their own rules to make the parents happy, even though the rules may all be different. What may work for one, may not for the other. It leads to confusion and potentially a mismanaged household (or fishery).
Wow, that was off the cuff but good. And that brings me to, well, not there yet. Let's look at New Jersey. We have a Gamefish status. Yeah. No commercial fishery. Now that's cool. In order to keep things fair quotas are set for each state. There are commercial and recreational quotas. Just to keep it
simple. So in order to maintain, or use up, any particular states quotas or numbers, or to meet reduction guidelines as set forth by the ASMFC, CE has to be achieved. In New Jersey, our commercial allotment has been transferred, replaced, whatever, over to our Bonus Tag Program, which has been around since 1990.
Remember last year they had an option up for quota transfers? A state like North Carolina, which has about 500 striped bass swimming in it these days, could transfer a portion of their quota to a state which is seeing the biomass of fish in it's waters. They would also have to pay a vig to the feds to do that. Now a state may have a quota, but has finagled that around to shift their allotment to, say, the rec side, like New Jersey does with the Bonus Tag Program, which, may not be the devil that I once thought it was, more on that in the future. Now all of those transfers would have to be with a state that has a commercial striped bass fishery, like Maryland, Virginia, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.
To point out. The three big natal rivers for striped bass in order are, Chesapeake Bay, Hudson River, and Delaware River. The Chesapeake accounts, depending on who you talk to, for 70-90% of the striped bass. The only one that has a commercial striped bass fishery is, well, the Chesapeake Bay. Mind you,
just look at Maryland's YOY Chesapeake Bay (CB moving forward) index. Looking good yet? And according to the ASMFC the CB commercial landings account for 60% of all of the fish commercially harvested since 1990. It is the CB where between the commercial and recreational fisheries you can harvest fish from 18" up to an over 35" fish during the "Trophy Season". That season is currently on the chopping block as states are scrambling to fall within the soon to be released reduction percentages as set by the ASFMC, all in order to rebuild the striped bass by 2029, which has a +/- 85% chance of not happening if we stay on the same current path we're on.
If you want to torture yourself one day look at the CB regulations. Now to be fair, this ain't the Raritan Bay. There are all kinds of tributaries that support spawning and then big ones and little ones and sections and landmarks....it is daunting I am sure to fish it yet alone manage it. To me, make it all catch and release, fly only, barbless hooks. I know...delusional.
Sssoooooooooo. What am I talking about and where did this all start? Ah, it was about the Hudson River. Well, let me pick on New Jersey and Pennsylvania and their shared Delaware River. Same river. You could hit a golf ball drive across parts of it. But it's a river with two sets of regulations. If fish A swims up the Jersey side on said day and its caught it has to be released, gently, so it can "Swim away strong". But twenty minutes later if it crosses the state line in the middle of the river and Pennslytucky Pete who is soaking a salted clam gut hooks and gets to keep that 25 inch fish. That just doesn't make sense to me. And sorry for picking on Pete, I just had to.
That brings me now north to the Hudson River. What do I know but after seeing the antics that occur early in the Raritan Bay each spring I think the Hudson River fish account for a lot more than the reported 70-90% CB fish do. In fact, if it were a mild winter and the Raritan could be fished, like the Chesapeake is being fished hard right now, anglers would find, or see on their electronics, and catch good fish. They wouldn't be on poppers and metal lips but they'd be caught, because they are there.
I've seen the Hudson River. That's about it. It's 315 miles long just about the length of the Delaware River. As far as striped bass they are in about 150-ish miles of it from the area between Jersey City and Manhattan up to the Federal Dam in Troy just above Albany, New York, where it is still tidal. Anglers fish the main river as well as the tributaries that feed into it. Striped bass make their way up to spawn. They follow and chew on other anadromous fishes, like river herring. While surfing around I was surprised to learn that New York, and four other states, recently, within the last few years, still allowed the harvest and use of river herring for "personal use".
I thought it was a protected and closed fishery across the United States? It's hard to know for sure but I think some changes were made in 2021 for some states but in the Hudson River they can still be caught and used for bait. From the NY DEC website, in 2023,
Maybe I had, or have, it all wrong, as it's hard to keep track of it all the moving parts. Anyway let me get out of this and head back to the original Facebook post. It's all about the striped bass. What I've learned is that there are different regulations for the Hudson River. It all falls within New York so there's no multi-state regulations for the same water. The difference in regulations is a line that is drawn at the George Washington Bridge, below it you have to comply with the 28-31" slot limit as set by the ASMFC in May of 2023. Above the GWB the 2023 NY regs call for one fish between 18-28 inches.
The post on Facebook was a letter that went out from Jessica Best, the NY DEC Fisheries Biologist. She is taking a proactive approach by getting input from the public before the ASMFC proposes any changes for each state to make to the regulations to help save the striped bass. She outlines six options which contain changes in combinations of seasonal closures and size limits. The lower end of the slots that may be considered are 18, 19, or 21 inches, with a upper size limit of 26, 27 or 28 inches. So while New York's ocean fishery had a 28-31" slot in 2023, north of the GWB it was 18-28".
Now people smarter than me will probably have better answers while I just raise more questions. Is it "good" to have different size limits for different fisheries in different states. If we ALL go to a 28-31", or 28-33" slot, then how can there ever be fish around from the 2013-2016 year classes? Now mind you, New York does have an ocean commercial striped bass fishery and that slot is from 26- 38". There was commercial fishing for striped bass in the Hudson River until it was shut down in 1976 due to water quality and PCB's found in the fish. So New York is harvesting fish from 18-38 inches between the commercial and recreational fisheries. In contrast, in New Jersey we're harvesting fish 24-31", just on the recreational side.
Just to add some light on some states not near the New York Bight let's head south to North Carolina where the Albermarle Sound /Roanoke strain of fish call home. Prior to the ASMFC's emergency action last May the NC Resources Wildlife Commission made a very important proclamation on striped bass.
After making the pitch the article goes on to tell how horrible things are down south, like overfished and or overfishing, and that something needs to happen, so lets harvest 18 inch striped bass? While the
goal is "To conserve and rebuild the striped bass population in the Roanoke River..." yeah, " the six harvest days outlined in the proclamation were selected using past angler data with the GOAL of anglers having an opportunity to harvest fish throughout the river".......and with that, and with all of that, and this, I defer it back to my boy Gordon Ramsey,