Another Early Start to Striper Fishing

I’d like to start out by asking you all, whether you read this entire column or not, to jump down to the bottom and follow the directions to offer your input to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission on implementing emergency striped bass conservation measures. Thank you.

I ask you to do that because it is looking like we are going to have another outstanding striped bass fishing season — so let’s all soak that up and do our part to keep it going.

For the second year in a row, good numbers of “keeper”-sized stripers, up to nearly 20 pounds, have showed up in our waters by opening weekend. Bass are being caught regularly from both the ocean surf, along the entire stretch from Moriches to Montauk already, and in the bays, by boats targeting porgies and weakfish (which also are present in abundance already).

While hot April fishing is not unheard of, it’s traditionally been a fairly scattered occurrence — with fish over 30 inches typically not showing up until early May.

For one, we just don’t get hard winters anymore. Water temps in the spawning rivers are hitting the sweet spots earlier in the spring, and the conditions by which baitfish regulate their migrations are shifting.

Second, the surge in bunker populations of the last decade definitely is reprogramming the striped bass migration schedule that most of us have only ever known. Bunker schools are stinking up the water as far out as the South Fork by late March. The bass squeezing into the New York Bight to head up the Hudson in March and April can smell them, and the first ones to emerge after spawning seem to be beelining east as soon as they reach the salt.

There is another theory, too. Last year, as happens from time to time, we saw lots of fish that had big roe sacks in them in April and May. Some took this to mean that those were fish that had yet to spawn and were headed to a spawning site somewhere north of us.

While fish experts I’ve talked to think that is unlikely, there are some documented spawning rivers in Massachusetts, Maine and Nova Scotia. Maybe one (or all?) of them is seeing a spike in spawning productivity and has boosted the numbers of fish heading north early in the year.

Keepers also are especially abundant these days because of the large number of stripers from the very large year-class that was born in the spring of 2015. Those fish, at 8 years old now, should be averaging about 28 to 30 inches now and, not coincidentally, should be starting to spawn themselves.

But because the keeper slot starts at 28 inches, we anglers are catching, and keeping, a lot of them.

In 2022, recreational anglers took home more than double the number of stripers than they did the year before. That’s a lot of happy anglers and full bellies.

But this is not all good news. The striped bass stock is overfished, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is required by the Magnusson Stevens Fisheries Management Fisheries Conservation and Management Act to manage the stock to be rebuilt to target levels by 2029.

The problem is that the bulk of the striper stock is made up of the fish from just a couple of year-classes: the 2011 year-class that is driving the amazing fishing for fish over 35 pounds we’ve enjoyed the last several years, and the 2015 year-class.

The slot limit adopted in 2021 protects those big fish. They grew to old age through the benefits of large numbers of fish before them from the several good spawning years in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which meant fish being killed came from across the spectrum.

But their numbers are still gradually declining from post-release mortality, commercial bycatch and, of course, natural causes. When they are gone, the 2015s will be all we have left — and since we can only keep fish 28 to 35 inches, they are getting hammered.

When federal fisheries managers set the 28-inch minimum for the slot limit, they were responding to the pleas from a certain subsection of anglers and tackle stores and party boat owners who wanted to ensure that their customers would have a reasonable chance of going home with the some fish for dinner.

But what they miscalculated, or under-valued, was that with the 35-inch cap and 28-inch minimum as the 2015 year-class grew into keeper size, just a couple of years down the road, it would be the focus of a lot of mortality.

So, earlier this winter, federal fisheries scientists told the ASMFC that the chance that the stock will rebuild by 2029 is now less than 15 percent. Another year of mortality like last year and that chance will dwindle even further.

The ASMFC does not have a very good track record of acting smartly when it comes to striper management over the last 20 years, but eventually the law is going to force their hand — and if we haven’t found a way to reduce mortality gradually, they’re going to have to do it fast and rough.

The ASMFC meets next week. A lot of sportfishing groups are calling on the commission to take action, immediately, to get fishing mortality under control as soon as possible. Could that mean changes to the rules like the slot range this year? That’s unlikely, simply because it would be too difficult to enforce. They could force an earlier end to the season — something that would have a big impact if imposed upon the New Jersey coastline in late fall or early winter — or maybe change rules for the winter fishery around the Chesapeake Bay.

The ASMFC will discuss the future of stripers on Tuesday, May 2, from 8:30 a.m. to noon. Public comment will be accepted and can be made virtually or by email to comments@asmfc.org. If you’d like to tune in or offer your comments in person, there will be a livestream of the meeting at attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8336694404906038107 (if you’re reading this in the newspaper, go to 27east.com/sports and look for the “In the Field” page, and you can copy-and-paste that into your browser), and also a call-in option, at 914-614-3221.

Please, do whatever you can to reach out to the ASMFC and ask them to take whatever steps are necessary, now, to get things back on track.

Thank you. And, in the meantime, catch ’em up. See you out there.

The Eastern Suffolk chapter of Ducks Unlimited will host its annual family barbecue on May 21 at the Water Mill Community House on Nowedonah Avenue in Water Mill. Doors open at 3 p.m.

As always, this fun filled event will feature coolers filled with beer and soft drinks, heaps of food – including some of the best local wild game recipes you’ll ever find – and tables piled with raffle prizes that will make any waterfowler or outdoorsman drool with anticipation of winning one. Decoys, hunting and fishing gear, shotguns and more will be up for grabs in one of many raffle options.

Tickets and early bird raffle packages – get ‘em before they are gone – are on sale now at www.ducks.org or you can call ESDU’s event chair Thea Fry at 631-276-3435 to register in real life.