Word on the street is the striped bass population is in serious trouble for future year classes. Index numbers are way, way down.

We have been watching this on our bay here over the past 10+/- seasons. It is a very subtle change. Some seasons (May – October) on our waters on the MA coast, we get the feeling that something isn’t quite right. The Spring Blitz seems slow with few fish, but then in other parts of the coast it is on fire and you shrug it off. “Bass follow the bait.” Other times, the bass appear to “stop short” in the migration due to massive schools of pogy in RI, CT, NY, NJ and you shrug it off again. Then there are days where everything looks perfect on our bay – and it is. But then other “perfect conditions” days your jaw drops as you cover 15 miles and can’t find fish.

 The biggest change I have seen as a working guide over the past 30+ years on our bay is the slow drop in the Spring and Fall Blitz. May/June and September/October time frames. I can go back in my daily fishing logs and read of days where you could go in one direction all morning and run into school after school of striped bass. I remember one fall morning with Dr. Weeks when we estimated the striped bass school was five miles square. I can also remember one year in September where we had hundreds of acres of fish, non-stop, every single day, for three or four weeks. And another day when we came across a school of striped bass that was one mile long and a half mile wide, that was on a topwater feed all day long.

Here are some other numbers of note: These are RECORD CATCH DAYS only. All catch and release striped bass, almost all of them on single hooks, on the fly and light tackle. May 30, 1998: 100 fish. October 3, 1998 97 fish. May 27, 2014 100 fish. May 21 2015 115 fish. May 15, 2012 82 fish. June 4 2015 115 fish. June 12 2015 87 fish. September 3, 2015 82 fish. June 8 2016 201 fish. May 2017 105 fish. May 30 2017 102 fish. June 26, 2017 116. June 28 2017 95 fish. June 28, 2017 95 fish. August 15, 2017 132 fish. September 13, 2017 402 fish (All Time Record On My Boat set by Al Uhler & crew). September 9, 2019 273 fish. September 27, 2019 177 fish. August 28, 2020 115 fish. September 2020 106 fish. June 20 2021 121 fish. September 1, 2021 117 fish. June 21 2022 119 fish. June 29, 2022 90 fish.

These number do not reflect days of ZERO fish, or days of 2-10 fish, or days of 20-50 fish. Those above numbers are HIGHS over a 26 year period of guiding. Most of those Big Catch Days were with pro level anglers on fly or light tackle. And the fish were very cooperative and not on selective feeds. Most days we average 15 fish +/-. But here is my point: We have not had a 100 fish morning since June of 2022. That is two years ago and I have been fishing hard July through October 2022, and all of season in 2023 and 2024, May through October. The Spring and Fall Blitz was always a given. Big schools of striped bass pushing through our waters on their migration to or from the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, and the Hudson. The Chesapeake has always been the major winter over waters and breeding waters of the striped bass.

The Spring and Fall Run still occurs in our waters as it always has. But way fewer fish of recent years. And way fewer small schoolies and way fewer big striped bass in the 30-50lb+ class. Keep in mind, I specialize in shallow water striped bass on fly and light tackle. MOST of our fish are landed and released in 1-8 fow! Some days we fish 25-45 feet but those days are very, very few. I am a shallow water sight and structure guide. All this said, the overall numbers of fish and the current size of fish are way down. It has been a slow process to get to where we are at and as I mentioned, it is so slow that it often goes unnoticed until every hard core angler and guide begins to realize something is wrong with the fish populations. It takes many, many years of fishing to come to this consensus.

So, we have finally arrived, late as usual, several years behind, and playing catch up to manage a dwindling striped bass population up and down the coast, and especially here on the Massachusetts coast where I have fished all my life and have been guiding for more than thirty years.  There is currently talk of closing the striped bass season all together for 2025 – no fishing for striped bass. That is a drastic proposal that I actually agree with, but it is not the best management approach for anglers, guides, bait/tackle/fly shops, etc. as we will all go out of business. It is great for the bass, bad for the people. So, there has to be a logical balance to bring the striped bass back into balance, that has to be 100% science based on facts alone.

I should note that not everyone agrees that striped bass stocks are in trouble based on “Eyes On The Water” and what they are seeing. I have friends on both ends of the east coast saying fish numbers are insane and are very strong. An example is the Miramichi River in Canada, that has had a major striped bass population explosion over the past recent years. The striped bass are destroying the wild salmon fishery there, eating the eggs and fry of salmon in the river. Another example is New York waters where I follow guides that have had amazing BIG fish catches of recent years. But the majority of anglers and as well as what I have been seeing in the past 10+/- seasons on our bay here on the MA coast, tells me bass numbers and sizes has been slowly dropping for many years. My personal “eyes on the water” as well as my daily fishing journals tell the story locally.

So in conclusion, the managers of the striped bass fishery are considering all options on the table as of this moment. Something will be done and needs to be done for the 2025 season and beyond. Watch your social media and I will also post changes here once they are put into law and the new regulations are set in stone.

One last comment: For the past 31 years of guiding, I have proposed in writing, that managers should managed the striped bass as follows: One fish 36″ inches or greater, from Maine to Virginia, for five years. This proposal has never been met with kind words.

Sincerely,

Capt. David Bitters, Baymen Guide Service, Inc. www.baymenlife.com 31 Years Guiding The Bay.

Soli Deo Gloria!