What are we gonna do about the stripers? | Fish Thoughts

This fall striped bass was easily released thanks to the use of single, barbless hooks.

For millions of anglers who ply the Northeastern Coast of the U.S. fishing for striped bass, and the millions of others who appreciate their essential place in the marine and freshwater ecosystems of the area, grim news is starting to pile up.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) released its report on the 2023 striped bass spawn in the Hudson River, and it found that the keystone species experienced its worst spawn since 1985.

Timmy Facciola of the Times-Union filed a detailed report on the findings and their historical context in February, which you can, and should, read here.

That 1985 date is an ominous one. For those who don’t know, Atlantic striped bass populations crashed in the 1980s, only to recover in the early 2000s after decades of conservation efforts and controversial government regulations on the fishery.

It’s because of those efforts anglers like me have been able to enjoy robust striper fishing for over a decade.

But in just the last few years, as Facciola notes in his report, fisherman across the Northeast have reported banner seasons of striper fishing. So what gives?

It turns out that could be a bad sign as well. Back in the 80s, the final years before the crash saw massive hauls of giant striped bass. But these were just the older fish born many years before populations were overfished, and spawning ecosystems were trashed. The smaller fish were nowhere to be found, and in the ensuing decade, as the big fish died from natural or other causes, the fishery was all but dead.

Are the latest reports about declining Hudson River spawns a sign of what’s to come?

A bayside beach in New York City awaits the spring striped bass run.

Experts recognize the Hudson as one of two major striped bass spawning areas. The other, the Chesapeake Bay, experienced a disastrous recent spawn of its own. And the consensus scientific opinion is the Chesapeake spawn accounts for 70% of the entire Atlantic striped bass population.

With increasing signs pointing to another collapse, the question is what can we do about it?

The truth is, it will take determined, passionate advocacy and collective action to solve the problem. That means better and more extensive monitoring of the population health by the government; intelligent, targeted regulations based on those critical scientific findings; and widespread efforts to conserve and protect marine and freshwater spawning habitats.

A lot of action has already been taken in this regard, with the introduction of the slot limit a few years ago, and the emergency adoption of the new 28-31” slot size last summer.

But Facciola’s report also points out that studies showed the striped bass harvest doubled from 2021 to 2022. If those figures are accurate, it begs a different question of me and other individual anglers: should we be harvesting stripers at all anymore?

I like to keep a couple striped bass each year to eat, usually one in the spring and one in the fall, in a seasonal tradition my family and I cherish. Not only are they delicious, but it connects me to nature and to the humans who for thousands of years have done the same thing in the same waters to survive.

Is my one or two fish a year a problem? If every recreational angler did the same, is that too much for the population to survive?

My suspicion is no, but I don’t have easy answers.

It might be beside the point. From my experience on the water in recent years, the vast majority of striped bass anglers are practicing catch and release. They aren’t keeping fish.

And a recent report from Hudson Riverkeeper argued that reducing mortality rates in the recreational striped bass fishery is key to protecting the species. I have to agree.

One thing all anglers can do to help is improve the survival of fish we catch and release. It’s my strong belief that if proper fish handling techniques are followed, most caught striped bass will survive just fine after being released.

What does that mean to me? Swapping out any treble hooks for single inline hooks, and crushing all the barbs. In my opinion, this alone could make a significant difference if adopted fishery-wide.

You definitely don’t want to deal with barbs and treble hooks in a kayak.

It’s safe for the fish, reducing chances of injury and, even more importantly, allowing for easy releases. It’s also safe for anglers by slashing the chances of getting impaled by hooks (and going to the emergency room if they’re in beyond the barbs).

Any surf fisherman who has spent time in the Northeast on the beach fishing for stripers knows that many, if not most anglers do not handle fish correctly. And there’s one giant sin repeated over and over on beaches across the area: dragging stripers up onto and through the sand, then unhooking them as they lie on the ground while they get coated in the stuff.

I assure you the vast majority of striped bass handled this way will die in short order. And I suspect the numbers of dead are greater than those intentionally harvested by recreational anglers (not counting the commercial industry).

Most of these anglers wear waders or bathing suits in the summer. So the simple solution is to walk a few inches into the wash and hold the fish near the surface while you unhook it. The fish should never come in contact with the sand.

That isn’t so simple if your fish is hooked with three barbed treble hooks. Then you’re risking your safety, not just the fish’s. If everyone used single, barbless hooks and handled their fish sand-free, we could make a monumental difference.

I even swap out treble hooks on topwater lures like this white spook.

Finally, I want to make the point that this isn’t meant to be a shame campaign. A lot of the common fish handling techniques come from a time when most striped bass were kept. And education on proper fish handling in striped bass fishing is lacking compared to trout fishing, for example. People are going to do what they are taught, and if they are taught the wrong thing, they’ll continue to unknowingly do the wrong thing. Habits are hard to break.

It will take time to make significant change, but it’s time we got started.

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Opening Salvo: Welcome to Fishing On Fire

Greetings, fellow humans.

What is this? What is the point of all of this?

Hopefully over time those questions will answer themselves, but for now, the vision for Fishing On Fire is to document my fishing adventures, every single one of them, the good and the ugly, always with an eye to the environment, conservation and the rapidly disappearing wild spaces we love and depend on for survival.

But this foundling operation won’t be limited to a middling angler’s often torturous attempts to catch fish.

Welcome to Fishing On Fire.

I envision to share my thoughts and opinions on the big, often dire questions that surround the angling lifestyle, the recreational and commercial fishing industries, climate change and private and public conservation successes and failures.

But while horror and pessimism will not be ignored when called for, I also intend to highlight the often heroic work of many dedicated people and organizations fighting for an ecological future that looks more like the distant past, and to avoid the dystopian disaster toward which we as a species are barreling toward.

Whatever may come, I intend to fish through it all.

(Note: Francis O’Boyle is a pen name for a very real, though middling angler who was born in Connecticut and resides in Outer Borough, New York City.)

WHERE TO START

For the launch of Fishing on Fire, I present a five-part series, “The Quest for No. 1”, tracking my feeble attempts to catch my first fish of the year.

I recommend beginning with the fifth and final installment here, though you can find links to each trip report below.

Skunking my way into the New Year on thin ice | Quest for No. 1 Part I

This park (and this month) is full of skunks | Quest for No. 1 Part II

Can a New Jersey wild trout save my month? | Quest for No. 1 Part III

Last-ditch, Hail Mary trip for winter stripers | Quest for No. 1 Part IV

A fish of many firsts (and the first fish of 2024) | Quest for No. 1 Part V

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