Summer Fishing Update and Release A Breeder Reminder

We hope you are getting out on the water this summer and enjoying the striper season.  We’re hearing mixed reports from anglers and guides: some are finding good fishing, but must work hard to do so. Coast-wide the number of fish of all sizes seems to be declining, including an alarming absence of the large schools of 15” to 16” fish that should be found, given the reported near-record 2011 Chesapeake young of the year class.  Fisheries managers have pinned a lot of hope on this particular year class and have dragged their feet implementing harvest reductions in anticipation of these fish.  Whether there were ever as many as originally thought or if they have succumbed to myco is impossible to say, but their absence is a major concern.

All this makes our Stripers Forever Release A Breeder Club program even more important.  Striped bass spawning success has always been unpredictable, and nature designed these fish to produce a lot of eggs over a long life to make up for it.  One of the best things we can do for the population is to release these large breeders.

Click on this LINK to read about how the program works and by visiting the guide and angler pages you can see who has signed up and which anglers have been sent their release certificates.  It is a decent start, but the striped bass need much more help than they have received so far.

Here is what you can do to help:

• Getting ready to book a trip with a guide?  Check out the ones listed on the guide’s page.  You’ll find handy links to their websites.
• If your favorite guide hasn’t registered yet on the site, contact him and ask him to go to the SF website and register now.  It will help business!
• If you have released a fish of 36” or larger yourself this season, complete Angler Application form on the Release a Breeder Club home page.  Register your fish and get a certificate and recognition of your catch.

Stripers need our help now, and if we aren’t a part of the solution we are a part of the problem.  These magnificent fish are being driven to the edge by ineffective management, and we need to set a strong example with widespread, voluntary catch and release and to put pressure on the ASMFC to do the right thing.

As always, Stripers Forever will let you know how and when to make your comments to the fishery managers, and we’ll be consistently advocating for greater striped bass conservation, including the curtailment of the destructive commercial fisheries.