In todays world of spot protection anglers on social media choose their words carefully when it comes to describing the places they fish. They also do everything in their creative power to blur, change, or blacken out backgrounds so you don't know where they have been catching fish. This usually happens when bigger fish are caught, or there's a lot of fish caught, or the spot is so small that putting it out there would "blow it up". Truthfully, I have benefitted from poorly posted reports or images, even as going as far to look at rocks, sand, towers, and houses in the background. Now being honest I can say that was a thing of the past for me. I like to fish alone and find my own fish, although, a friendly call from someone in my tight circle has helped, like one banner evening that occurred this past fall.
But enough about that. There's a few different descriptions posters use to give a general area of where they fish. "Out front", the ocean side, or "Out back", meaning in the bays and rivers. This post is more about fish caught in the back. Say a small fish caught in the back. As my interest and intensity of fishing rivers and bays for striped bass increases I think back to those times, and they happen on the beaches as well, when I would catch a bass that was less than 10 inches, or more like 4 - 6 inches and ask myself, Where did that come from? Do striped bass spawn here?
If we go with the premise that striped bass spawn in the Chesapeake, Hudson, Delaware, and Abermarle Sound/ Roanoke it's hard to explain these micro bass in waters that are far from the big four. I have heard from friends, read on the forums, and heard speakers in person all say there are other natal waters where striped bass spawn. If we talk New Jersey those waters are the Mullica, Maurice, Raritan, Navesink and Hackensack. While there may be speculation, there just isn't any proof. Want to know what spawning striped bass look like? Take a look at the Miramichi up in Canada this past May, 2023.
When's the last time you saw that in New Jersey? One of my main striped bass goals for 2024 is to find and photo/video that going down. It has to happen because the Delaware is one of the big three, well four if you count the Roanoke. I might venture down to the Chesapeake searching as well.
The others rivers that are up for discussion are the Connecticut River in, well, Connecticut, and the Kennebec River in Maine. With the Connecticut public opinion may sway the argument of it being a spawning river but there are no studies or literature to support that. In fact the state itself states on their
CTDEEP website that spawning has not been identified (above). Now way back, like way back, like way, way, way back, hundreds of years ago striped bass may have spawned in every river everywhere along the East Coast. In a 1952 article by Raney, et al. titled, The Life History of the Striped Bass, there is discussion of a striped bass spawning rivers in Connecticut, specifically the
Niantic and Thames. In Maine the Kennebec River has been reported, with scientific proof, to be a small spawning river. To note, as we get up to Maine we are nearing Canada, which has it's own and
totally separate strains of striped bass going on up there. In Canada the spawning rivers are the Miramichi, Schubenecadie and the Stewiacke Rivers. I wonder if these Canadian fish migrate down into United States waters, like into Maine, or does Maine get the Hudson and Chesapeake fish that summer north and come south, or are the Kennebec "fish" enough that it created the fishery that fly rodders and guides have found in Casco Bay? Or is it a mix of Kennebec and Hudson and Chesapeake and Canadian fish? Many would say who cares? Well it all intrigues me.
In the article, Genomic population structure of Striped Bass from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to Cape Fear River, LeBlanc, et al., (2020), did a study looking into the different strains of striped bass from North Carolina to Canada. Getting back to Maine, and the Kennebec, they attributed that fishery to
the successful stocking of that river with Hudson fish from 1982-1991. The Natural Resources Council of Maine take claim that the Kennebec is a spawning river for striped bass, as seen below. The CCA of
Maine has been performing YOY survey studies since the 1980's after those Hudson strain of striped bass were reintroduced, or stocked. In 2006 they saw the greatest numbers of YOY, as seen below. So,
if we follow the science, the Kennebec River in Maine is a spawning river, which comes from the Hudson River striped bass strain of bass that were stocked in the 1980's. Interestingly, the Navesink River in New Jersey was stocked with Albemarle/Roanoke fish in the 1980's. These are a non-migratory strain, put them in a river system, they stay in that river system. In 1879 Navesink River
striped bass were transported across the United States to the Sacramento River - San Joaquin Delta to create the West Coast striped bass fishery we see today. Cali can thank Jersey for all of that.
So what does all of that mean? Now mind you, school for me starts Monday so you won't have to suffer through these long winded posts for much longer. But hey, you don't have to read them. Anyway, so what about all those micro bass. No, those little guys you catch in the back of the Toms River or in the Hackensack are not there because they were born there. They are Hudson or Chesapeake fish. There's primary nurseries and secondary nurseries. Small fish can find themselves far away from the nest. While most spend their first few years in their natal rivers others get moved out or move out themselves. Back to Leblanc, et al., (2020), where we see that Delaware
and Chesapeake fish can come out of their natal rivers. They move along the coast and into the back bays and rivers of NJ where they grow into sexually mature striped bass, which for males may be between 2 to 3 years (16-22 inches) and females 4-6 years (23-25 inches) old.
I used to have a pretty dumbed down idea of how the whole striped bass circle of life used to go. Spawn in the Chesapeake (and other natal rivers) in the spring, summer over in New England in the summer, head south in the fall, winter over off Virginia, repeat. Well, I am learning it's all not that simple, and in the end, may not be all that true anymore. In fact, changes to the above routine may in fact be one of the greatest reasons why striped bass numbers suck these days. Now I'm not letting the fishing and harvesting off the hook, but that may NOT be the biggest reason. I'm working on all that.
I am putting in a lot of time reading and looking into things trying to pin down some other possible reasons, outside of the commercial and recreational fishing, and environmental conditions, why striped bass numbers are low and trending down. And while everyone has an opinion, some backed with evidence and science, I am starting to put some, maybe a lot, of the blame on striped bass themselves.
Back to the ASMFC parents from yesterdays post. It's like parents trying to protect their children, from say all the dangers in life, if have kids they have a mind of their own. Are kids today like kids from the 50's 60's, 70's? What era do we call the greatest generation? These days don't some people call kids "snowflakes"? It's because kids do what they want, they adapted to changes around them (like playing outside back in the day vs all things technology today), and in the end, no matter what we do as parents, they control their own destiny.
Maybe striped bass have the changed the game, or a large part of it, that no matter what we do, outside of a total moratorium, we can't control how they control their own species' destiny.
Now no one is going to want and hear that, but it is what it is.