STRIPED
BASS FACTS
Did you know the recreational
harvest of striped bass on the East Coast was nearly 2 million fish and
the total catch by recreational fishermen was approximately 18 million
A
7 pound female striped bass can produce 500,000 eggs a year. A 50 pound
female can produce 3 million eggs a year.
The first public school in North
America was paid for with profits from the sale of striped bass way back
in 1669.
The world record striped bass weighed 78 1/2 pounds and was caught
in 1982 from a jetty in Atlantic City, NJ.
A 24" striped bass is
4 to 6 years old and a 28" striped
bass is 5 to 8 years old.
Striped bass from the Navesink River in Monmouth
County N.J. were shipped to California by train in the late 1800's to
begin that fishery.
The largest striped bass ever caught weighed 125 pounds
and was taken in 1891 by a commercial fisherman.
Striped bass are anadromous
which means they migrate from saltwater to brackish /freshwater to spawn.
In
1989 a striped bass was tagged in Delaware Bay that was 23 " long
and weighed 4 pounds. 11 years later it was caught in Massachusetts Bay
and measured 47" long and weighed 36 pounds.
Stock assessments for
the Atlantic Coast striped bass population for fish 3 to 15 years old
is about 40 million.
The State of N.J. declared striped bass a game fish
in 1991 making the sale of striped bass illegal.
Striped bass can live
to be 30 years old.
Studies have shown that using non offset circle hooks
can reduce mortality on released fish by over 90 %.
Most fish over 40
pounds are females.
November and December are considered the best months
for catching large striped bass.
The highest concentration of stripes
bass spawning in the Hudson River is around the West Point area.
Striped
bass prefer water temperatures of 55 to 68 degrees.
Morone Saxatilis is
the scientific name for striped bass which in Latin means dwelling among
rocks.
Striped bass can swim up to 20 miles per hour.
As of 2002, the total population
of striped bass was approximately 59 million fish.
Striped bass are capable
of swimming 500 miles in a month at an average of 16 miles a day.
Since
1985 392,000 striped bass have been tagged by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service using external tags. So far fishermen have returned 72,500 of
these tags.
Female striped bass reach sexual maturity at 4 years of age
and males reach sexual maturity at 2 to 3 years of age.
Striped bass inhabit
the Atlantic Coast from the St. Lawrence River in Canada to the St. Johns
River in Florida.
Tagged hatchery reared striped bass released in Chesapeake
Bay have been caught over 1000miles away in New Brunswick, Canada.
More
research money is spent studying the life cycle and habits of the striped
bass than any other species on the Atlantic Coast.
In 1936 California
made striped bass a no sale fish. Other West Coast states soon followed
suit.
Numerous studies along the Atlantic Coast have proven that striped
bass contribute far more money to the economy as a recreational fish
than as a commercial catch.
The practice of catch and release of striped
bass by sport fishermen assures that these fish will continue to produce
economic value many times over.
Way back in 1639 a law was passed in Massachusetts
making the sale of striped bass for fertilizer illegal.
New York as well
as Massachusetts prohibited the sale of striped bass during the winter
back in 1776.
Striped bass was one of the first natural resources to be
regulated using conservation methods during the colonial era.
For over
100 years the striped bass has been the most popular game fish on the
East Coast.
Striped bass swallow their prey whole and crush it with pharyngeal
teeth which are modified gill arches in their throats.
Rockfish, Greenbacks,
Linesiders and Stripers are some of the names fishermen use when talking
about striped bass.
There are more than 3 million recreational striped
bass anglers. They outnumber commercial fishermen by 800 to 1.
Did you
know that www.stripedbassmounts.com with over 30 years experience, has
finished more striped bass mounts for their customers than anyone else
in America.
Efforts are under way to make striped bass a no sale game
fish along the entire Atlantic Coast.
If wild striped bass were made a
federally protected no sale game fish it would add more than 6 billion
dollars to the economies of the East Coast states.
In New Jersey the striped
bass is called Jersey Gold because of the money it has brought to the
state's economy.
Studies have shown that striped bass caught and released
during colder weather have a much higher survival rate than those caught
during warm weather.
Some states along the Atlantic Coast have done research
that shows elevated levels of potentially harmful contaminants such as
dioxin, pcb's, chlordane and mercury in striped bass causing them to
issue Do Not Eat warnings.
Out of 600,000 eggs an average striped bass
lays, only 600 hatch. Out of that only 3 will reach the age of 2 years.
The
first striped bass fishing club was organized in the 1860's just after
the Civil War and used pigeons to correspond to each other.
Striped bass
tagged in the Hudson River have been caught as far north as Nova Scotia
and as far south as North Carolina.
Striped bass are true bass. Largemouth,
Smallmouth and Rock bass are all in the sunfish family . Striped bass
are cousins of the White Perch.
Striped bass eggs take about 2 days to
hatch and the young grow to 6 inches in a year.
Although striped bass
are found along the entire Atlantic Coast from Canada to Florida studies
have found only three migrating populations. They are from the Hudson
and Delaware Rivers and Chesapeake Bay.
Some striped bass never migrate
to the ocean. They spend their entire lives in the same river.
Studies
have found that adult striped bass migrate separately from juveniles.
The
Hudson River and Delaware Bay striped bass populations have made dramatic
recoveries due to pollution clean up. Oxygen levels were so low that
fish could not swim through these areas to get up river to spawn.
From
November to April 10,000 to 25,000 striped bass are tagged in the Hudson
River. Over 400,000 have been tagged as of 2004. Most are between 7 to
12 inches long.
Striped bass are opportunistic in their feeding habits
taking small fish, eels, clams etc. but the most important forage species
is the Menhaden. This forage fish provides striped bass with a feeding
source throughout its life cycle and range. Fisheries managers now realize
how very important Menhaden are to healthy game fish populations and
are beginning to address the problem of over fishing of Menhaden by commercial
fishermen.
If commercial fishing for striped bass was stopped along the
Atlantic Coast of the United States and replaced by farm raised fish
it would boost the economy by adding over 15,000 jobs for coastal communities.
Recent
studies have shown that recreational anglers fishing for striped bass
spent over $2.5 billion dollars and supported over 60,000 full time jobs.
More
than 11 million angler trips are made each year by recreational striped
bass fishermen.
The stock assessment for striped bass in 2005 was estimated
to be around 65 million fish.
Catch and release angling for striped bass
has become so popular that many fishermen are releasing trophy fish ,to
fight again another day, then having a beautiful, high quality reproduction
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a very long time and will never have the problems that are common with
skin mounts. Another reason reproductions are so popular is time. They
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mounts can take up to a year or more.
Farm raised striped bass are becoming
more popular among seafood stores and restaurants because they are available
year round, whereas wild striped bass availability is limited by seasons
and restricted bag limits.
On the East Coast some of the largest striped
bass caught come from areas where the tide funnels through rock piles,
reefs and shoals.
Large striped bass will more ofter be found below the
smaller more aggressive fish.
In 1623 the Plymouth colonists used their
only boat to net enough striped bass to feed themselves for that summer.
Colonist John Smith hailed the striped bass as an excellent eating fish.
In
1635 William Wood detailed catching striped bass on hand lines using
lobster tails as bait.
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