Circle hooks would help a lot. Also, a slot size for keepers would help. Maybe 22″ to 32″. Throw back the breeders so that they can do their job.

Let’s manage the species as a whole, it’s a migratory species. The coast has to come together for once and and let’s help the fish instead of padding the pockets of profiteers from the species. Coastwise slot may be the answer?…… right now we’ve got charters MD taking 18” fish then Commercials up in MA keeping big breeder fish, too much pressure on these fish 24/7 365 days a year…. gotta give them some sort of break somehow

Two fish in some states is twice what we get in Mass. Shutdown the commercial. Sorry but me fishing one a week and taking one fish is not equivalent to commercial taking 11 every day. I went through this with the tuna guys. They think us googans should be shutdown so they can have at the stock. I informed them they don’t own the stock. I suck at it and only go 1 giant in three years. Am I the one hurting the species? Would letting us take one cod hurt the species more than the draggers killing them and throwing them back? I use circle hooks anyway.

I fish Long Island. On my last surf trip to Montauk I saw trucks on the beech with nets out a 1/4 mile in the ocean. I watched these guys pull in there nets with hundreds of strippers many undersized. These are the guys along with the professional fishing boats that should be stopped.

This year at Montauk was sad, it is quite obvious that the fish stocks are severely depleted. It is criminal to see the commercial netters lined up from the light house area for every mile or two, clear down to south Hampton. If limits are not made on stripers they will be desimated as in the past. Measures have to be made to protect this resource.

It’s estimated that the Cape is home to 50,000 “endangered” seals. Does anyone care to know what they’re eating? It’s time to cull their numbers.

Since the larger fish are all females should be catch and release 2 between 28 and 33 would be better

I fish Cape and Maine and practice catch and release with lures and flies. Only one per year does not make it and swim away enthusiastically. Are they saying those swimmers are dead? If so shouldn’t we keep them all? Something is not making sense there.

Since the eggs seem to be released exponentially by the larger females, it makes sense to cull slot fish and not the cows if your going to eat them or keep one, and want to grow the overall mass.

I agree that the Ch Bay keeps the babies and then only the big ones can be kept elsewhere. Since all the big ones leave the Bay for the summer, it might be tough on their charter businesses if they change the take size.

I have literally caught hundreds of stripers over the past 3 years. Anywhere from 14” to 49”. I can honestly say without reservation that I have not lost a single fish when released. I find it very hard to believe more have died than survived….. where is this data coming from?

Ban shore fishing in the Cape Cod Canal. It’s like the proverbial “shooting fish in a barrel”
The poaching and overfishing is rampant there.

Circle hooks are very important, but they need to be wide gap, non-offset or inline as manufactured by Owner, Offshore Angler, Mustad, or Gamakatsu. Also, a critical problem with rod & reel recreational fishermen is that they let stripers run too long once they pick up the bait, hence too many gut or gill hooked linesiders. Somehow, a study should be done to determine the optimum time (3, 5, 7, or 9 seconds for example) a fisherman should allow a striper to run with bait before closing the bail or engaging a conventional reel. Also, we need to determine if there is a significant difference between using live vs. chunk or dead bait with respect to allowed running time.

Changing the fishing regulations would be a step in the right direction but there should be harsher penalties for people that poach and keep undersized fish. Right now it’s not even a slap on the wrist, and because of that people keep doing it.

How about increase law enforcement? Right now there are TWO EPOs responsible for all of Cape Cod

A higher size and lower catch limit should be put on the commercial fishery. Party boats now have size and catch limits on Haddock and no keeping of cod. Sport fishing for recreational fishermen is a big business and brings money to small business in tourist areas. Hurting the rec fishermen will destroy in these areas. Circle hooks with the barb filed off would be fine . One may lose a fish or two but more catch and release fish would survive. Now there is a one fish limit at 28 inches. Its been a long time since I have caught a 28 incher. Its not worth a trip down the cape to catch one keeper. Even in Boston Harbor the winter flounder limit is 8 fish at 12 inches, not worth going. The place is a flounder gold mine. Maybe they should use the $15 license fee to build salt water hatcheries for the stripers. Where does that money go anyway???

Circle hooks for bait fishing and a slot limit. Like 19-27” or something. Protect the little guys, protects the big breeders.

We have multiple fishing nets near us that are up 365 days a year. I’ve been told these nets catch 1,500 stripers a week. The other issue overfishing the Menhaden in the Chesapeake Bay, which accounts for up to 80% of the Menhaden catch in the Atlantic according to the Mission Blue article “CHESAPEAKE BAY SUFFERS FROM MENHADEN REDUCTION INDUSTRY” found here https://mission-blue.org/2015/12/chesapeake-bay-suffers-from-menhaden-reduction-industry/. In addition to these problems, pollution and depleting oxygen levels are also hurting rock fish populations in the Chesapeake.

I might catch 100 to 120 fish in a year and we release about 70% of them, all that are less than 20″, the min size for rockfish in the Potomac River. A few die, like 2 or 3, but the vast majority live. It’s not the recreational fisherman doing the damage however, I would be happy to pay a “striper” tax, not $500, more like $20 or $30 in addition to my annual fishing license. Circle hooks will help but it doesn’t really address the main issues concerning depleting rockfish populations.

In the Chesapeake Bay the big breeders have become very very scarce. In our area, the menhadden fleet have take much of the bait fish the stripers need, so they don’t enter the
bay like they used too. The talk down here is a restriction on fish over a certain size like there is on red drum. The slot on red drum is 18″ to 28″ and it seems to be very effective. The larger drum are making a come back.

I do agree that live bait fishing should be restricted to circle hooks. Even better would be artificial bait only (lures) with a single barbless hook. Barbs are not needed to keep a fish hooked up. And barbless hooks make catch and release much less lethal. I bend tghe barbs down on all of my hooks and very seldom lose a hooked fish.

25K seals surrounding us from the tip of Monomoy to the tip of Ptown…I fish Monomoy 3-4 times a week and watch the devastation. I would like to see a report on what the experts consider the loss of all species is from the seal issue. At least in this area, catch and release has little to do with the overall loss of our fish stock. How much longer do we kick this can down the road?

It will take a combined effort from every category of fishermen to help the population of our striped bass. I think a lot of comments that were mentioned from circle hooks to to slot limits, reduced commercial limits, etc!!!!! It’s not going to happen overnight, but a little sacrifice from everyone would go a long way. Whoever Lou is, he can go fly fish for trout in a pond somewhere!!! $500.00 striper stamp. I already pay enough on stamps in my sporting license, I don’t need a $500.00 stamp!!! Hopefully there is also a bigger presence of EPO’s to help enforce the laws, there are always those who feel the need to break them. See you all soon when our favorite sport fish make their way back up for another season.

Let’s limit striper fishing on the canal to people who live in a 15 minute radius…. 😉

Ban all commercial fishing for striker bass and all catch and release using circle hooks until bass stock has grown substantially.

Fishermen who care and follow the rules need to be involved in protecting the species from those that dont.
Lets use the Canal for an example. If fishermen that cared patrolled the canal in griups of 4 or 5 and made sure the rules were being followed and helped educate people on how to revive a exhausted fish and the importance of releasing big breeers.
Also the slot has to happen.
Hope everyone has a great day. Tight lines!

1 fish 28-35 inches everywhere

Just a thought, as anybody considered the idea that maybe fish stocks of all species weren’t meant to be profited from but to feed a family.this has happened and continues to happen to all commercial fisheries.greed kills.

Id be ok not being able to keep any for a few years. Strictly catch and release and not removing the fish from the water for hook removal. Give the fish a break or they will end up like the cod in the gulf of maine.

I love those people who think that fishing in the canal is like shooting fish I a barrel!!!
Grant it, your odds are good when there is a blitz, but other then that, it’s far from easy.
I fish from boat too, too me, that’s a lot easier then from the shore. The fight is a lot more intense with a heavy current. I’ve never had a fight like that from a boat. In short, we need more epo’s present along the canal and I think you will see a huge difference. I’ve seen way to many law breakers at the canal. Just need to clean them out!!!

Lots of studies on steelhead show that time out of water for hero shots significantly raises mortality, and states like Washington have mandated releasing fish without taking them out of the water. Keep them wet.

Dale are you a commercial or a charter boat captain?

They need to install slot limits,circle hooks.The same rules for the whole coast not state by state. Back off on commercial fishing as well.
Eliminate the trophy hunts and let the cows do their job

I am afraid it is much more sinister than overfishing. we have destroyed over half their breeding grounds. Then we created a species that looks like them and acts like them but produce mutants that do not live as long and are potentially contaminated. These hybrids also carry traits detrimental to the species. The life cycle is very delicate and we have done little to improve it.

SIMPLE. All catch and release. Can keep ZERO!!!!!!!!

I fish on Long Island NY , I fish the surf 80% of the time and boat 20% of the time , been fishing 24 years 3 to 4 days a week April-December targeting Stripe bass ( catch n release ONLY) , Montauk surf was great fishing up til 2010 in the last nine years catching bass has been worse every year , if we all stood together and made a catch n release law for stripe bass , then our kids should be able to catch n release them also in years to come .

I think it might make sense to immediately (and temporarily) HALT the recreational and commercial taking of any stripers of prime breeding length – what ever that is. If it is stripers in the 30-40 inch range, than so be it. Then perhaps allow the taking of one striper per recreational angler of 28 inches and below. I wouldn’t object to a commercial ban, but then again I don’t rely on the income from such a job. I have fished with barbless hooks for two years now and have noticed NO difference in fish caught or lost. I have noticed a big difference in the east of removing a barbless hook. So yes, let’s go with circle hooks for live bait and barbless or crushed barbed hooks otherwise. And continue with efforts to replenish the depleted stocks of baitfish, herring in particular. Falmouth has just that sort of effort actively under way. Maybe a combination of things will help. Oh, one more. How many canal fishermen will catch a keeper, beach it, and then throw it back a half hour later dead or mostly dead when they catch a bigger one? The only way to stop that is for other fisherman to help police that. Phone cameras can provide great evidence. Clearly the worst thing we can do is nothing.

Does anyone else realize that we are all to blame for this predicament! I hear everyone blaming everyone else, the commercial sector, the recreational sector and the seals. Let’s review this situation. The commercial sector off North Carolina who were caught on video dumping dead 30 and 40 pounders because they wanted bigger. The pin holders in Massachusetts and Rhode Island fishing on off days and keeping their catch for commercial days. I recently took a walk along the Housatonic River in Stratford and some many people catching schoolies, many which were foul hooked being thrown back having trouble swimming away. Trips to the breachways of Rhode Island seeing people just tossing fish from the top of the jetties. Seeing thousands of seals off of Massachusetts needing to feed on something so they don’t starve. But the one biggest thing that makes me sick is Representative Lee Zeldin from New York passing a bill to not allow the Coast Guard and NOAA to patrol the EZZ for  illegal fishing for striped bass in Federal Waters!! How many boats are out there doing that? New York is suing for more fish because they over harvest, now how is that not depleting? Since Connecticut doesn’t have a commercial fisheries for striped bass, instead of leaving those 4000 fish in the population some idiot decided to give it out as a bonus program. How many people are abusing this program? It’s going to take a sacrifice from all of us for some time to fix this problem. There really is no simple solution. Here are my ideas.

1. We need observers on all commercial fishing boats! There is a reason that there are alot of birds behind them after their nets come up.

2. Vouchers for pin hooker permits that allow for no more than 5 fish a day with a shorter season. 

3. Trophy voucher of 3 fish over 32 inches per year per fishing license and must be reported.

4. Closed season during spawning season.

5. Any fish that’s bleeding or foul hooked is your fish for the day.

6. The department needs to take a look at reducing the seal population. 

7. Start turning in violators. There should be some kind of monetary award for it.

8. Violators lose their fishing license for the entire rebuilding period.

9. Allocate the quota evenly thru all of the  Striper states evenly between both commercial and recreational sectors. No quota sharing by states or sectors and if you go over, you lose that amount for the next year.

10. There should be some kind of printable ticket for each day you go out to fish that must be presented to enforcement along with the fish if asked. This is to prevent people from taking a morning trip than an afternoon trip and taking two fish instead of one per day.

I hope that when it comes down to making changes to this fisheries, that we will get to voice our opinions. Let’s not go back to the eighties again. This time, it may not come back.

Is there anyone left to blame? Climate change, seals, sharks, gill nets, Canal fishermen, fishermen visiting the Canal, menhaden fishermen, New Yorkers, Virginians, fisheries scientists, fly fishermen, commercial fishermen, foreign fishermen, trophy fishermen, bait fishermen, rich fishermen, poor fishermen, poachers, the federal government, state governments…..

Look in the mirror folks. Stop denying that some of our own practices are the problem. Stop denying the science. Unless we do most of what has been seriously suggested above, the game is over.

Undersized fish taste the best. Mind as well take what you can. It’s only a fish

Last year there were tons of headlines on poachers being caught with loads of undersized stripers. There was that big headline in NJ where 2 encon officers patrolling on a boat noticed a group of guys fishing. The guys were eventually caught with tons of illegal fish at their truck. There are so many more out there that don’t obey the laws. I’ve seen my share of the urban after-work families come with large coolers and their beer. They outnumber the recreational fishermen who obey and have a valid fishing license, causing more stripers to die. Fees should be raised big time. Commercial fishermen are the other big issue, but this country is all about money and trade, so they most likely won’t put the pressure on commercial fisheries like they really should. New size limit should be 22″-32″. There should be a c&r only season, which would most likely be during the spawning season. Think about how Southern states are with their redfish regulations on releasing larger fish for more reproduction.

As one who has fished both recreationally and commercially since the 1970’s in Massachusetts I have the following observations.
There are far more people fishing in SE Mass now then there was 10-20 years ago and most of them are catching bass, especially in the canal the past few years. A lot of the newbies are rude and ignore the rules as can be seen daily at the canal or during the 6 hours prior to the opening of a commercial day or on off days. We didn’t have these problems 10 years ago and there was far less pressure on the resource. The keeper size commercial fish stock is declining and is not showing up where it was 5-10 years ago and when it does show up somewhere hundreds of boats are notified by cell phone and they continue to pound on this stock until it moves elsewhere or is decimated. The problem is there are too many people doing this and the newbies all notify all their buddies when they find fish who notify their buddies and on and on. When you put hundreds of boats on a school of bass the fish don’t stand a chance, the boats keep following the bent rods. Years ago commercial guys kept to themselves and didn’t give up any info and that kept the commercial pressure spread out and left plenty of fish to return next year. Whats going on now is NOT sustainable.
To solve this problem Massachusetts needs to enact the control date they have established for commercial bass permits. Commercial fishing has gone on for years in Mass and it is not the problem, the problem is they give out too many permits now. As for the canal fiasco the first thing that needs to happen is new legislation that impose heavy fines for violations. $100.00 a fish is not enough of a deterent when bass can be sold for $5.00/ lb. or more. How about fines of $1000.00 per fish and confiscation of gear mandatory along with loss of license for life. Once that is in place the Chief warden needs to send 25-50% of his wardens to the canal area [half in plainclothes] until they get this under control. Then do the same thing to the boat guys that are fishing 6 hours before a commercial day. We need stricter fines and more enforcement. Use the fines to hire more wardens or better enforcement tools. If this was Maine and they had a big poaching ring killing deer to sell you can be assured they would throw whatever resources they needed to solve the problem not just 2 wardens. As for the size and limits let the science determine that and it probably should be consistent up and down the coast. We need to stop blaming each other and work together to solve this or it will be the 80’s all over again. Bottom line penalize the poachers not all the fisherman and use science to determine sustainable harvesting of striped bass for this and future generations.
George