Here's another post that might have me sounding like I know what I'm talking about, but really I don't. Like most of these posts they start out as a thing, like something going on in the world of fly fishing or striped bass, an event, like a fishing trip or a fly fishing show, or something that piques my interest, like where do these striped bass go over the winter, which is mostly down in and around the Chesapeake Bay (CB for short).
I've never fished the CB. Never been out in a boat on the CB. I have passed over the CB and its tributaries heading south but that's about it. Now I have fished a tributary or two but that's only a handful of times and without success. What is interesting is that people who are striped bass fanatics up north, like me, don't know all that much about the CB striped bass strain, which makes up about 70%, give or take, of the entire biomass. We throw the CB around in conversations and debate but most of us don't even know which states border this body of water or even how big it is, which I know, is 4,480 square miles.
I've probably seen more CB pics of big bass from Jersey's own Chuck Manny (left) when he jumps on his buddies boat from SHO-NUF Sportfishing. It seems, again I don't know, that these big migratory fish arrive around the first week of December. These are the fish that we see in late October and early November at the top of the Jersey Shore. And then each week they hit points a little south following the bait, and maybe warmer waters, before hitting the entrance to the CB.
I looked up the deepest part of the CB thinking that maybe those big girls hunker down like they do in and around our Ambrose Channel here up north. The depth around Bloody Point as they call it runs 175 feet deep, plenty of depth to hang in, with bottom temps in the mid-40's, and stay away from the surface temps which can be in the mid-30's. I'm sure it can be a great place to fish, but getting a 450 gr. sinking line down may be a bit of a challenge, even with dumbell eyes on your fly.
The entrance to the CB is approximately 255 miles from Island Beach State Park. That's just a few tail kicks and an easy ride down for those migratory striped bass. Historically that's the way things have gone, summer up in New England and winter down in and around the Chesapeake Bay and Virginia and North
Carolina. But we know places like the Boston Harbor, Housatonic River, Lower New York Bay, Manasquan River, and all the little back bays and deep holes hold wintering over striped bass. In recent years, although not the last two, bringing up the rear of the migratory mass, and even holding over, were the micro to small schoolie bass along the beaches. That seems to have gone away.
When I started Googling around about striped bass and the CB my Facebook page blew up with every charter operation and private angler's post. I couldn't help but scroll through. Those boys, and girls, down there are on them now, and braving the elements to catch them. I read into the Eastern Shore Light Tackle Charters page and the Chesapeake Light Tackle blog. In one post they described how they ran through thick ice to get out there and go fishing for winter striped bass. That's just a tad too hard core for me. Imagine throwing a fly over that ice into open water.
On The Water magazine publishes weekly fishing reports from down in the CB region. It's normally off my radar, but once again, when you search something it opens up a whole new plethora of content. Wanna test that out? Just Google mens shoes or a trip to Ireland, and hold on.
So want to go down and unload your boat into the CB for some striped bass fishing? Well you better know exactly where you are fishing because there are more states and more regulations then you can imagine. You have three, at least I think, regulatory bodies down there, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, the Maryland DNR, and the
Potomac River Fisheries Commission. You have different regulations for different sections of the bay and tributaries and different regulations for recreational and commercial, all at different times of the year, which means seasonal closures. Right now, and having just ended on December 10th in Maryland, Virginia recreational anglers can (could) harvest striped bass from 19-24 inches. I'm not going to disect the entire CB fishery, but commercial operations in Maryland can harvest fish 18 - 36 inches. Depending on the season that can be done by hook and line, or, in the winter months, by gill netting.
Looking at the number of reports and posts that pop up when I fire up my computer I see that the area in and around the Potomac River is an early winter hot spot. Again that
is managed by the PRFC and anglers down there have a week left to harvest those 19-24 inch chicken tenders for the table. The Potomac River is the fourth longest river in
the United States running 405 miles from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia, down through Washington D.C., before emptying into the Chesapeake Bay. The spawning area for striped bass there is about 18 miles below Washington D.C.
So why is this all interesting? Well it just is. What it makes me think about is how these fish never, like never, get a break. While the Maine anglers season, which is like a month, is long over, and even New Jersey's 10 month season which ended, because they left, three weeks ago, these same bass, yep same ones, are still being targeted, harassed, caught and released and killed. And that's not just from fishermen, you have environmental conditions, predators like birds and seals, and other fish like blue catfish, boat strikes, and whatever every else that they have to dodge.
In my opinion, these fish that are now off of and inside the Chesapeake are really not just wintering, but pre-spawn fish waiting for that urge and 50 degree water temps to make a move into the spawning tributaries. What those guys, legally of course, are doing are fishing for the same kind of fish we see in the
Raritan Bay in the spring, which are pre-spawn Hudson River fish, but for them it's the Chesapeake fish. The conditions those anglers are facing down in the CB now, outside of the last two days Polar Vortex or whatever that was, are similar to the hard core early spring guys in and around the Raritan.
What else is sad is how the ASMFC did nothing to protect some kind of year class of fish last week. I don't want to get all jacked up and test my left ventricle this morning but really? Recreational anglers taking fish as small as 19 inches to commercials taking fish pushing 40 inches? Plus all of the 28-31 inch fish that fell in the coastal slot? We did that in 2024 and will do the same in 2025.
By years end the air temps in Annapolis will be around 50 degrees. Those last chance anglers will be out harvesting, if they choose, 19 inch fish which are 3 years old. Those 2018 year class fish are seven years old and are between 28- 31 inches, so they are going to get decimated in 2025. The 2015 class, what's left of them, are now above the 31 inch slot limit. Those were the fish the ASMFC put an open season on since their Emergency Action was passed in May 2023. So that has been 19 months of harvesting, and greatly reducing the number of, the 2015 year class.
So, looking at the chart above what the states, and commissions, are "allowing" with the help of the ASMFC, is the continued, let's say, no protection, of the 2020, 2021 and 2022 year class of fish. "Stupid is as stupid does", said Forest Gump.
These fish are not Snowbirds, they are fighting for their lives. Every. Single. Day.