Unbelievable Aerial Photos of Striped Bass Schools

Aerial photographer Wayne Davis was flying over Cape Cod Bay this week when he spotted and photographed this massive school of striped bass.

by OTW Staff

Check out these incredible photos shot on May 29, 2014 by spotter pilot Wayne Davis (oceanaerials.com). Wayne was flying over Cape Cod Bay when he spotted and photographed this massive school of striped bass. Based on many years of experience, Wayne estimates the number of bass he saw yesterday in the tens of thousands, and estimates the average size of the bass around 1.5 to 2 feet.

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46 on “Unbelievable Aerial Photos of Striped Bass Schools”

    1. Jim

      You mean an easy way for commercial fisherman to net them all up until there gone, for humans to eat. Enjoy your jellyfish sandwich in years to come.

      1. tony

        Why can’t you just enjoy the pictures? Must you state the obvious

      2. Jake morris

        The hundred thousand seals have nothing to do with the drop in fish population its just the commercial guys right??

      3. Jeremy

        Nets are not allowed in mass for commercial bass . It’s a hook and line rod and reel fishery. We keep 15 a day Monday and Thursday.our qouta is not even a fraction of what they take in NC Maryland and Virginia . Facts are facts

      4. Jeff

        Always blame the commercial guys!! Rec takes twice/three times the commercial catch but that won’t even amount to anything cause it’s all seal bait

      5. Chris

        Commercial fishermen are not alllowed to net them !

  8. SPech

    Incredible, imagine schools 10 times bigger in earlier days as stocks are 90 % decimated now.

  10. Canal781

    Glad those fish didn’t come through during these sets of tides or they would have been wiped out

    1. RY

      How would they been wiped out when they weren’t keeper size, they were estimated that the average size was 18″-24″. Great shots

      1. Luiz

        Is that really your question? “How did they get wiped out when they weren’t keeper size?” Do you understand how ANY animal get’s wiped out? It’s pretty much one way.

  11. James

    Simply astonishing considering that there have been years that the bass number have been so sparse. Wonder what’s causing the explosion?

  12. Stray

    A fraction of what it should be. We need to give the stripers a break for a few years before AFMC runs them into the ground again

    1. eric peterson

      “before” ASMFC runs them into the ground again? It appears that’s been their plan for the last 10 yrs and continues going forward. It’s as though they’ve learned nothing from their miserable record of past mismanagement of every species the agency has overseen.

      1. philip lofgren

        Seems like we’re on the same page Eric. Glad to see someone feeling as I do….

    2. Ronson P Hedges

      It’s not ASMFC it’s the selfish angler that doesn’t give a crap about anything but to kill breeder fish for ego and any entity that supports that that. Cough cough.

    1. Dean

      Guessing these were in 12-16 feet of water. Was out off billingsgate last weekend and the bait was “insane”. Water was boiling with sand-eels. Wouldn’t surprise me if this is where the photos were taken. Could see the schoolies right under-em, but again all were in the 20-25 inch range.

  15. Lance

    No surprise here. Anyone who has put their time in on Cape Cod knows these schools are a yearly occurrence.

  17. greg wood

    Millions upon millions of stipers migrate north each year. Seeing them in big schools is amazing but as one previous poster said it is not a surprise. ASFMC estimates that 5.2 million stripers were caught and released in 2012.

    http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/AtlStripedBassStockAssessmentOverview_Oct2013.pdf

    To be conservative let’s say that the ASFMC estimation is over by 50% and 2.6 million stripers were caught. Fish caught to fish that could be caught is say, 10%. That means that there were about 26 million stripers in the northeast in 2012. To put that in perspective that is 3.5 times bigger than the entire population of Massachuessets. Enough with the fish are gone and global warming and seals and crying in your beer because you didn’t land a keeper last night…

    They are not at their peak in 2006 but the stock is still healthy and we have safeguards in place to make sure the 70s and 80s never happen again. That said, I’m all for culling seals. That population is getting out of whack.

  18. William Alstete

    you are correct that we should do some culling of the seals I have seen myself a seal diving of a rockpile he or she had been sunning it self as i came closer in my boat it dove into the water after a little while it came back up with a striper about 2 foot long in its mouth it then took one bite out of the belly and truw the rest back into the water ,and repeated tha same performance agaain,if I had had a gun I would have killed the seal .

  20. jason

    Tons of assholes netting and selling them too. I know someone who reported some guys for netting stripers and fish and game said if you dont have a name we csnt do anything. But he wasnt sure of full name but knew it was happening in a certain spot .

  23. Homeslice

    Tell them to re-calibrate their GPS, because they missed Virginia Beach for the 4th year in a row!

  24. Glen

    Stop bitching and just enjoy the beauty of nature and just imagine how big some of them are !

  28. Wayne

    All shorts that will be scooped up by the commercial boats, before the sport fishermen can find that one bass that’s long enough to keep. What a joke!!!!

  29. CMH

    They hit the Hudson River, nothing bigger than 24 inches but caught more than 50 this year!

  30. Brian

    Meals for the seals, then the seals are just meals for the sharks! Yep great whites are coming and I can’t wait!

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