Started out May 2024 with one for the tank. I can't tell you how alarmed I am by the water levels in the river, but today we actually had a bump up. I don't know how or why, maybe they drained the big reservoirs up in the Catskills. It's now up to 11,300 but the temps are now 68, lower at night though.
It's going to be early first shift or the graveyard shifts as to not stress out the fish too much. It so reminds me of trout fishing. It's not that 68 is bad, but the trend is only going up. We need rain. Bad.
The fish I landed wasn't all that big but looking at, well her, I think she may be spawned out. Or maybe she was really heavy at one point and had bariatric surgery and that's just some low hanging
skin going on there. The tank is well, just the best thing ever. One foot, on a boat, it's the best way to rest a fish before returning it to the water. They just hang out. And swim. And look around. It a great way to study them and photograph them.
The big news today is the ASMFC Striped Bass Management Board met during their spring meeting.
I have to give a thanks to Ross Squire for keeping a running update on what was going on. It seems nothing groundbreaking, but the foundation for big shit has been laid. While "kicking the can" has been something the ASMFC has been doing for years it appears there are ready to do some things. However, it takes things like last years Emergency Action and the slot limit to get peoples attention.
I have been saying a few things for some time now. Things I think we are going to see in the near future. Seasonal closures and gear restrictions. As for seasonal closures, I think you just might see places like the Chesapeake, Delaware, Hudson shut down completely during the spawning runs. What you will also see, IMHO, are places like the Delaware and Raritan Bays shut down as well. Like for the Raritan, I could see a May 15 th start, for both New York and New Jersey. And the Delaware River, all three states will have the same regulations.....closed until such a such a date.
Now for gear restrictions. I have been saying that there has to be a trend in getting rid of belly or tailing treble hooks on plugs. It's not like guys are throwing these for fish for the table. These are for the biggest fish they can find, which have to be released anyway. Striped bass hit the head, the other hook
just catches an eye, a gill plate, gets inhaled down into the gullet, or catches the fishermen themselves. This is something we all can do better on. It's going to be a law soon, watch. Look above, "Prohibit
trebles", "Require barbless hooks". The other thing on the radar, even though they put in the Circle-hook law, is the prohibiting of live-lining bunker, or herring (they can still do that in NY...WTF?). When you look at the numbers, and they are the numbers, trust them or not, recreational mortality is what is killing the most striped bass, more than what we recreational legally can harvest, and what the commercials harvest and then their dead discards.
I always say people make changes when they choose to, or when they are told and forced to. We need to do a better job, spin, fly, rec, commercial, at reducing striped bass mortality.