A month or so ago I wrote a post regarding wintering over striped bass. I touched on things happening north of the border and in known wintering over waters such as the Housatonic River in Connecticut. While the ASMFC close to punt any changes in regulations for 2025 things are brewing inside state waters from the south to the north.
While we're still trying to determine if the ocean side 28 - 31inch slot is good for the striped bass populations plenty of places still allow harvesting of smaller fish for the cooler. New Jersey's Striped Bass Bonus Program allows for anglers to harvest fish 24-28 inches. On January 17th Maryland published their regulations for 2025 for recreational and charter boat fisherman allowing one fish in the Chesapeake Bay with a size limit of one fish 19 - 24 inches. That goes from May 15th till July 15th and from August 1st through December 10th. There's a closed "season" from July 16th through July 29th, which I think was once their "Trophy Fish" season. Pennsylvania allows anglers fishing the Delaware River to keep one fish 22- 26 inches, from April 1 - May 31st.
But an interesting thing came out of Connecticut this week when Senator Brandon Chafee put up proposed bill H.B. 6248. That bill calls for the moratorium on fishing for striped bass in the lower Housatonic. The reason, "To restore the population of striped bass in the lower Housatonic River." Chafee, a Democrat, proposes this on the heels of talks of "No Harvest" and "No Target" during the ASMFC meeting in December, both of which failed to be included in any change of regulations for 2025.
So while the push is to protect large spawning striped bass we continue to target, and kill, the smaller fish from 19- 31 inches up and down the East Coast. The smaller fish are still spawning fish, just not of the magnitude of the larger females. Killing the smaller fish, which are the future of striped bass, and targeting the last few decent, at best, spawning year classes is a death knell for the striped bass' future.
While I am sure Chafeee ruffled some feathers up in Connecticut will the future of protecting the striped bass down to the individual states and the rivers and bays that fall within their jurisdictions? Some talk the talk but then push to satiate the shareholders, both recreational and commercial, but using the data and "science" to skew the numbers but all the while allowing more, and smaller, striped bass to be harvested.