The latest on Menhaden and Striped Bass

[Shady]

From CCA MD:

Good News: The Commonwealth of VA has withdrawn their appeal on menhaden.

Also, ASMFC's Striped Bass Management approved Maryland’s proposal to mandate circle hooks and reduce the size limit to 19” from May 16th-dec 15th 2018 for striped bass. Now the state will begin a regulatory process to institute new hook regs for bait fishing.


Thoughts on 19" minimum for 2018?

[RavensDfense]

For kayak fisherman and/or the weekend boat warrior, it likely wont make that much difference besides being able to catch a legal fish a little easier. Although, I am sure after a while, the bay will be filled with 18 7/8" fish just like 19 7/8" fish could dominate some days last year.

In talking with a friend at the NRP, he said the 1 inch reduction was being discussed (and expected) for several months and was primarily put in place to reduce the mortality rate associated with the commercial fleet. This applies to mainly the live lining fleet that complained the 20" minimum size limit resulted in their clients catching upwards of 30, 18-19" fish just to catch one legal one. Assuming many of the captains catch their clients' limit and leave, in theory (at least in the short term) this should reduce the number of undersized fish caught (and by default, the mortality rate). The addition of in-line circle hooks is also HUGE for the survival of these fish.

[bignose]

I absolutely agree with the above comments.
I felt that we caught, and most likely killed, way too many slightly undersized fish last year on the charter boat.

The mindset of a charter captain, as a businessman, is to put fish in the cooler, and for what the clients are paying, it is understandable.

The change to circle hooks is a further sign of progress to help sustain our stock. It'll take a change in fishing techniques to adjust to them, no "Set the hook" screams by the first mate (which is good thing). Of course, it will be my fault every time a client yanks and pulls the hook out of the fishes mouth. Lol

Now, the next thing is to ban planer boards.....a pet peeve of mine.

[yakscientist]

Definite progress. I would love for striped bass to be considered sport fish, but that will never happen. Perhaps in a few years, the trophy season will have a slight limit placed on it, say 5 fish max per boat, but still with a large min size of 35" or so? I doubt females will ever cease to be harvested, but putting a cap on the number of large breeders brought in per boat would certainly help. It would certainly hurt the charter industry however, though from working on a boat myself, I know that 5 large rockfish is plenty of meat for even 10 people.