NJ DEP Gear Rules for Stripers and Sharks

[bulletbob]

Handling Bass populations with kid gloves is an absolute must in this "modern age".. Thats it, nothing else out there to fish for in March and April... No Stripers? Not much else to fish for unless you want Blackfish in April, and the last thing they need is more pressure because the Bass populations have dropped. Sad its come to this but here we are.. As I have written here a few times,Stripers were totally MIA for decades, but there was such great year round fishing for so many other species, they were scarcely mentioned, and not really missed very much.. Now they are back strong, and EVERYTHING else is MIA.. If they go, not much else left to catch .

Sharks I don't understand ... I wonder why the populations are still dropping?.. Are that many killed by sports??... Are weird countries still finning them at sea, mercilessly for their fins, so a few rich Chinese businessmen can serve them in a flavorless cartilage filled soup at their daughters weddings?.. I didn't think that was still a thing.. I thought sharks were being left alone these days for the most part....bob

[duranautic al]

Everything is MIA because the stripers are eating them all… winter flounder, ling numbers have all plummeted since the resurgence of the striped bass…time to start harvesting more of these behemoth killing machines

[duranautic al]

Dogfish as well

[dfish28]

Originally Posted by duranautic al

Dogfish as well

HELL YES!!!

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by duranautic al

Everything is MIA because the stripers are eating them all… winter flounder, ling numbers have all plummeted since the resurgence of the striped bass…time to start harvesting more of these behemoth killing machines

Yeah, I don't buy that for a second.. Honestly, you think Stripers are the reason everything else is absent??.. For every Ling a Striper eats, I bet they eat 1,000 menhaden, herring, etc.. Predatory fish go for readily abundant, and easier to catch prey- always. They will grub and forage when they need to, not because they want to. Not to mention they are programmed by their Creator to have a preference for food thats more oily, fatty, denser in calories.

Most actively feeding Stripers will feed on abundant oily baitfish that are packed in dense schools before they will go rooting in the mud looking for flounder... Just my uneducated opinion for what little its worth...

[Capt Sal]

Originally Posted by duranautic al

Everything is MIA because the stripers are eating them all… winter flounder, ling numbers have all plummeted since the resurgence of the striped bass…time to start harvesting more of these behemoth killing machines

You are ridiculous! Took decades to bring the stripers back and you think we should deplete the stock by over harvesting? GET REAL!!

[bulletbob]

I am certainly not an expert on salt water fisheries, and their cycles of abundance.. However, in the years when Stripers were scarce, Bluefish were incredibly abundant.. I mean everywhere, all day and all night from April until the last of them in late November or so... Massive schools of 8-12 pound Weaks as well, that were perfectly capable of eating Ling/Flounder/Porgies/Sea Bass/Whiting/ small Fluke/Whatever... When we cleaned those big predators that were ocean caught in those days, we didn't see target species for rec fishermen in their guts.. We found the same thing that are in Stripers for the most part, today.. Smaller speciemens might have a lot of Sand Eels.. Various Herring type fish, most what we call Bunkers... Bay and river caught fish were more likely to have things like Silversides, very small small Sea Robins, and various little things that looked similar to rainfish.. that sort of things.. I just never found too many "game fish" in the stomachs of predators.. In both salt water and fresh, they are more than likely to go for oily, soft rayed fish if available, and lets face facts, they usually are.. I doubt stripers are killing off desirable bottom fish.... I would blame cormorants and commercial draggers before I blamed stripers...

[Broad Bill]

Originally Posted by duranautic al

Everything is MIA because the stripers are eating them all… winter flounder, ling numbers have all plummeted since the resurgence of the striped bass…time to start harvesting more of these behemoth killing machines

Completely disagree with this post. For those fishing in the 70's and 80's, winter flounder, ling, whiting, cod, mackerel, blackfish, weakfish, stripers, bluefish etc. were all extremely healthy stocks and there were more bass back then than there are today. Domestic trawlers killed the winter flounder fishery period, domestic and foreign trawlers and our own federal government killed ling, whiting, cod and mackerel stocks trading our ocean's resources with Russia and other European countries. Bluefish were overfished and bass were absolutely pulverized during their migration south and by southern states during their spawn. Stocks were depleted with complete disregard of the economic, recreational and environmental impacts and impact on the overall food chain. Weakfish were destroyed by purse seiners in the fall during their southerly migration as well and by the recreational sector targeting tide runner breeders in the spring in Delaware Bay. Blackfish were destroyed by the increased demand in live market sales, commercial potting and too much pressure from the recreational sector along with no protection to all these species during their spawn.

The theory bass have been the cause of these declines is simply untrue and not supportable. Striper's primary forage is bunker and the bunker populations as we all know has exploded over the last decade as measures have been put in place to better manage the stock and restrict Cooke Inc. and Omega Protein from pillaging that resource.

Nature will always find a balance as long as humans don't interfere and @$%! it up which we have for years.

[NoLimit]

Originally Posted by duranautic al

Everything is MIA because the stripers are eating them all… winter flounder, ling numbers have all plummeted since the resurgence of the striped bass…time to start harvesting more of these behemoth killing machines

Interesting theory but 25 years ago when there was lots of flounder, there was also lots of bluefish and they are bigger killing machines