My View of the 2008 Northeast Season

For three years running, my end of the season report has been pretty glum. Well, I'm sorry to say my 2008 report is more of the same. But let me start with least one positive note. Bluefish numbers and size are increasing. That's a very good thing considering that the other fish we seek are all down. End of the good news. Atlantic bonito and Little tunny (false albacore) barely made a showing in New England. They have been on the decline in our waters for many years, and the 2008 season was the worse yet. If you haven't yet caught one of these rocket ships, you may be in for a long wait. Not good. Striped bass were also down again this year. The only good report in the Northeast came from Cape Cod canal. Everywhere else in New England the action was slow to down right abysmal.

The steady downturn in striped bass is clearly a huge and growing concern. So where is this robust population of bass the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries believes we have? Recently we've heard of a big sting in Maryland. It involves 6 years of undercover operation by both federal and state agents. If 6 years of work sounds like this was a complex operation you're right; this is a big bust. Apparently a number of waterman were illegally taking mountains of striped bass. The number of fish involved was such that fish plants were opened after hours to process all the illegally killed striped bass. This fish were then shipped all over the place. Click here to read some news articles.

The time to make striped bass a protected game fish is long overdue. This large scale illegal slaughter of striped bass must end. Waterman such as the ones caught in this bust are driven by an all consuming greed. And with dollar bills filling their eyes they are wrecking the resource day and night. Contact the ASFMC and tell them in no uncertain terms that you want the Maryland commercial striped bass quote for 2009 to be reduced by the number of stolen bass found in this sting. Reach them at 202-289-6400 or fax at 202 289 6051, or e-mail at comments@asmfc.org, or write a letter to them at 1444 Eye Street, NW, 6th floor, Washington DC 20005.  Then contact your state's representatives to the ASMFC Striped Bass Management Plan, you can find them by calling your Fish & Game Department . Give those people the very same message. By the way if you live in Massachusetts, for the first time in history a bill has been enter into the legislature to stop commercial striped bass fishing in your state. Call your local representative and ask them to support this important bill. and if you don't already belong to Stripers Forever, join right now. Its free!