The striped bass is once again plentiful and fun fare for anglers of all ages
The striped bass is currently one of the hottest gamefish on the East Coast. Both freshwater and saltwater anglers are targeting the striped bass, and anglers from the Easton area have stripers that they can pursue in the Delaware River.
Thirty years ago, the situation was different. Strict management of the striped bass fishery has made the striper what it is today – a modern-day success story.
The History of the Striped Bass
When American settlers first came to the Northeast, they saw thick schools of striped bass everywhere. One settler commented that they were so thick that “you could walk across their backs.” As America entered the Industrial Age and commercial anglers began using stripers for food, fertilizer, and anything else they could think of, striper stocks declined greatly. Conservation efforts around the turn of the century helped to replenish the number of stripers, but environmental pollution and heavy commercial fishing once again hurt the striper stocks in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. By 1980, there were not many stripers swimming the bays, oceans or rivers. Stripers could be found, but the numbers were few and far between.
Suddenly, the striper was given quite a bit of attention. Studies of Hudson River stripers revealed that they were polluted. Fishing for stripers was banned altogether in some states. Minimum sizes for stripers caught shot up to 36 inches, and the bag limit for stripers in most states was set at one fish per day.
While these efforts began, some states, such as Pennsylvania, began stocking striped bass in freshwater. The striper can live in either water, making them adaptable to many situations. Often, stripers live in salt or brackish water, but will travel into freshwater to spawn.
The late 1980s saw the striped bass stocks beginning a slow rehabilitation throughout the coast. The numbers of fish were improving, but they were nowhere near the good ole days of the 1960s. As the number of stripers began to increase, the size of the linesiders also increased.
In addition to becoming more plentiful, striped bass have also traveled into freshwater. Stripers run up many rivers on the East Coast, including the Hudson, Delaware, Susquehanna and rivers through Maine.
Striped bass are back, as long as we make sure that we closely monitor the fishery and do not make the same mistakes that we did in the past. The stripers will surely have more challenges in the future, but they should endure. This modern-day success story can be attributed to strict management and solid conservation efforts. Anglers and sporting organizations should be proud of this success and strive for more instances where the fish recover fully so they can once again swim the waters.
