The best news in a while!!!

I have been complaining a lot about how bad the striped bass fishery has been the last few years. I have given my opinion on commercial fishing. I've complained many times that to many spawners are being taken out of the population. I've complained that the number of schoolies only 40% of what it was only five years ago.

So today I finally have some good news. Actually I feel it is great news. I am trying to convince myself to be only slightly optimistic, but truthfully I have images of the old days ( five years ago) of ten fish nights. The good news is... This has been a great year for striper reproduction in Chesapeake Bay. It seems that many young of the year striped bass  have survived their first few months of life. Actually, the young of the year index is the 4th highest total in history. This is great news, if this year class is as good as they say and there are no environmental disasters, we should have loads of 17- 22 inch schoolies in three or four years.

These fish will hopefully, in a couple years from now be a wall of schoolie sized stripers invading the Atlantic coast. In six or seven  years there should be a large number of just legal sized stripers along our shores. These fish will be legally protected in most states until they are 28 inches. Then recreational fishermen will start taking them. Recreational fishermen do very little to hurt the population. When this year class reaches 34 inches ( the size in Rhode Island) commercial guys will take their toll.

I feel that strong year classes should be protected for long term success of the species. We have not had a good strong juvenile recruiting year in six years. That is far too long. If we are only going to have good year classes every six years, then the strong classes should be protected to keep the population stable long term.

Although, I am getting ahead of myself in excitement, there is a downside. The group in charge of regulations on the entire Atlantic coast has finally realized there are a lot less stripers than five years ago. Next year they want to tighten regs ( its about time). Having a good year class will give commercial interests a little leverage on keeping quotas high ( read: above sustainable levels). They will claim taking large numbers of spawners has no affect on small stripers. To me, the more spawners you have during years when conditions are right for young of the year survival, the better.  Still, this is good news. I am not going to dwell on the politics of it and be happy and hope that three years from now, I may again find ten fish nights a common thing!!!