Well this will go over like a fart in an elevator. Last week the Connecticut State Environmental Conservation Police published a press release detailing a recent "get" from the department. The officers were out on patrol on the Housatonic River where they found six anglers fishing from the shore. In the end the unlicensed anglers received 64 summonses, worth $4,734, for 34 striped bass that were between 12 and 25 inches in length, short of the 28-32 inch slot.
Now poaching isn't a new thing, it's been going on forever. In New Jersey our favorite striped bass poaching areas are usually centered around the larger and, let's say, more challenging cities. Jersey City and that whole waterfront, Perth Amboy, in and around the Manasquan River, and out front and inside of the Atlantic City area. Below is an image from the NJ DEC Conservation Police with some bad hombres poaching the Raritan River in Perth Amboy.
Poaching also occurs out front, along the beaches. Those guys, not all of them, and some women too, that fish at night are keeping bass of all sizes. They catch em', run them back to their vehicles, and then go back for more. But it's also the guy who says, "I took it because it was going to die, it swallowed the lure, (and let's be equitable) or the fly". Keeping fish out of season or out of the slot is poaching, or breaking the law, no matter what you think, even if you're right.
Old school anglers in New Jersey will tell you about winter fishing for striped bass when it was a thing. Outside of any warm water discharges from power plants which felt like Florida to the holdover fish, there were other places that held a wintering over striped bass population. While these fish tend to be on the smaller side they are perfect for the poaching angler to hide and keep.
I don't want to get into the whole ASMFC thing again and the bullshit with them, and New Jersey, has been going on for decades. The reason I was digging around was to find out when Jersey closed down January and February to all "out back" fishing, out back meaning bays and rivers.
The best I could find, was the below. It was the discussion of Conservation Equivalency (We hate CE) options as submitted by New Jersey to the ASMFC in 2003. It was there I saw, under Option 8, "...continue spawning closures (April and May), and estuary closures (Jan & Feb).
So those regulations have been in effect since before 2003. What we have is all New Jersey bays and rivers closed during January and February, and the Delaware River (Jersey side!) closed in April and May, the later protecting spawning striped bass. Most anglers know, or can remember, when early season striped bass meant one thing, soaking worms or clams, and that was it. So finding that honey-hole of wintering over bass and tossing out a blood worm that kerplunks in their lethargic face could make for an easy haul. So that was eliminated, no doubt as part of some trade-off. That early season fishery has changed, maybe because of warmer water temps?, as bass now take rubber things and lures as early as March. It's matching the hatch, and fish will eat, maybe not chase, what is in front of them.
The "Housy" is a 149 mile-long river that starts in Massachusetts, passes through Connecticut, and empties into the Long Island Sound. The section concerning striped bass is the lower section, from the
is the lower section, from the Ousatonic (Now Derby) Dam, in the Town of Derby, down to the Sound. That's just north of where the Naugatuck River joins and then it's about 12 miles out to the bigger water. It was in that stretch where the Connecticut Police got their get.
The Housatonic River has been, well was, a well kept secret, to the angling community. What was once a one way pilgrimage, ie: Jersey Boys heading to New England hot spots like the Cape Cod Canal, has become reversed with the Massholes, I can't help it I just love it, coming down to New Jersey, where we have the best year-round fishery on the East Coast, well at least what's left of it. While most of the fair weathered fishermen, like me, have quit after early December, it's after that that the winter holdover bass crowd comes out. If you think I'm blowing something up, then look below.
After doing some digging I enjoyed reading and watching about this fishery, which targets these fish, who are just taking a break and awaiting spring. Many of the "100 fish today" claims were guys catching fish that were 15-25 inches caught on barbs-up rubber shads jigged off the bottom. You don't believe me? Pick a video and watch the releases as that big barb is stuck in the baby bass's face.
Basically it's fun day. Put in, drive around, look for the other boats that found the Mother Lode as the school, sometimes a huge school, ebbs and flows with the tide. And with the "ease", if you will, of fishing that easy, you no doubt get those poachers out and about and breaking the law. It's the same thing up and down the East Coast wherever fish come and set up in big numbers with relatively easy access.
So I don't want to piss on the Connecticut guys fun. The closest I've been to the Housy was during one of my hundreds of trips to Newport, Rhode Island or Martha's Vineyard. Just north, or northeast?, of Bridgeport you drive over the river. I think I've driven over it for years without really knowing what river it was. But the question is is having a fishery like this a good thing for the striped bass? With recreational catch and release mortality running about 40 %, and this fishery being made up mostly of sub-schoolie sized bass, would it make sense to have Connecticut put into law gear restrictions while fishing?
I think there's nothing wrong with "one for the table", well really I do, and nothing wrong with catch and release fishing, I do it, but it could only be a good thing if, there, well everywhere, you went to a barbless single hook on all lures, including flies. No doubt after this deep-freeze we're in today the
temperatures will be up again around Christmas. For many, fishing on Christmas is a thing, and no doubt you'll find those boats clumped together over a school of fish moving up and down with the tide.