Don’t know about you guys, but my fall season was a poor one. There was a noticeable lack of those big fat pig fish that we all dream about. If it wasn’t for those albies I would have called it a bust. Last spring wasn’t so hot either. It’s not just me… There’s a growing chorus of anglers that are concerned about the perceived lack of fish over the 20-pound mark. And the farther North one goes the louder those complaints get. Maine seems to be experiencing the dearth of such fish to a greater extent than other striped bass states. Because Maine is at the northern edge of the species’ range it’s very possible that the state is a bellwether for what may be real problems with the stock. The same case could be made for the saltwater flyfishing/light tackle crowd who, because of the difficulty imposed, may detect a declining trend sooner than those employing more efficient methods.
Yet, despite what appears to be a decline, it is very hard to prove that a scarcity of large fish actually exists. Undoubtedly there are still localized pods of big fish around. Last June, northern New Jersey saw some enormous fish taken by anglers fishing live menhaden. There were also many quality fish taken around a body of menhaden that took up residence off Rhode Island. And no one can claim that there weren’t any big fish in Virginia last winter, as numerous 50-plus pound fish were boated. Still, one would think that a healthy stock composed of a natural age and size structure would show an even distribution of large fish throughout their range.
The latest stock assessment released earlier this year shows that stripers are abundant, capable of producing strong incoming year classes, and are being fished at levels well within the bounds of the current fishery management plan. Unlike species such as summer flounder, the stock is not overfished, and overfishing is not occurring.
However, the stock assessment doesn’t say much about the number of the larger older fish. And here in lies the problem. The “catch at age” models used to determine striped bass abundance are dependent on accurate fish age determination, which is done by counting the rings on a fish’s scale. But this method only works out to about age 11 or 12 because rings on scales stop forming after that. Thus all fish over 11 are lumped together so there is virtually no good age data for striped bass older than 12. The only way to get accurate ages for the older fish is through sectioning otoliths (a bony structure in a fish’s ear). ASMFC is just starting a program to do this, so good data will not be available for several years. Until such data is developed, no one can accurately estimate the true condition of fish older than 12. And judging by what many folks are seeing on the water, including myself, there just aren’t the same number of the big’uns that we had just a few years ago.
It doesn’t take brain surgeon to figure out why this might be happening, just a trip down to any of the big recreational fishing ports on a weekend. When you count the number of carcasses in the trash can then do some coarse math you’ll start to get it. Fish over 30-inches are being harvested at what appears to be an astounding rate. To put it simply, most fish are being killed before they can get big. Thus, the direction we appear to be heading is a stock composed almost exclusively of small fish. Even more gloomy are the mounting studies suggesting we may even be altering the striped bass’ gene pool by killing all those fish that grow fast and grow large, and are most apt to produce a great number of offspring. A kind of reverse natural-selection, so to speak.
And we can’t point the finger at the commercial folks for this one. It’s pretty much exclusively on the angling crowd. Our total harvest dwarfs the commercial one. Believe it or not, just the recreational release mortality alone (those fish the die when we throw them back) is double the total commercial mortality! Maybe hard to swallow, but it appears to be entirely true. And the recreational catch is only growing.
With all this being said, I acknowledge that I may be wrong. Hell, I may just not be the sharpie that folks catching big fish in other regions are. The reality is that I have no solid data to support such assertions regarding the lack of large fish. But the growing number of anglers concerned about their declining striped bass fisheries is getting harder and harder to ignore. And indeed, even the ASMFC’s data shows that fishing mortality is increasing while the spawning stock biomass is decreasing. Regardless the spawning stock biomass is well above the threshold for corrective action and the fishing mortality is well below it so don’t expect to see any corrective action in the near future.
The good news is that while it is still early in the season, I’ve had some really good days with fish in the mid 30” range. So, I’m trying to be optimistic about the whole situation. But I’ll certainly keep an eye on it, so stay tuned. A quick note: I discuss this subject in more detail in my next FFSW resource column. If you are interested in learning more, be sure to take a look when it comes out in the following weeks.