ASMFC Winter Meeting – February 4-6, 2020 Will Striped Bass Win Or The Anglers

Today the ASMFC starts their annual winter meeting. You can listen in on the webinar. For some states it is just business as usual setting limits for several species. Striped bass is the main concern this year with Maryland’s at the forefront. Striped bass seems to be the main concern all the time, yet not much ever gets done to actually protect the stocks. Striped bass will be discussed from 11:30 AM to 3 PM today.

Delaware will be asking for a 28 to 35 inch slot limit and one fish per angler. This will allow us to keep our summer slot season, a popular season for many anglers. More than likely this will be approved for Delaware, It has already passed the technical committee. So I anticipate any issues for it passing. Delaware is allotted such a small amount of the coastwide overall catch limit it is laughable that we even have to have a limit, but necessary. If we didn’t have limits everyone would just come here and fish. One thing we won’t see for a while are pictures of large dead breeder bass in Delaware. Which should be the goal of all the states.

Leave the breeders alone if you want more fish. Anglers can point fingers all day at each other, but everyone is responsible and a part of the problem. I don’t care if your mortality rate is 2% or 9%. Killing either 2 out of a 100 fish, or 9 out of a 100, a dead fish is still a dead fish. Catch and release needs to be practiced better. Leave the fish in the water, skip the look at me picture, and let the fish go immediately. Unless you are killing it for food, best to let it go.

Maryland is a whole different story. I don’t even know where to start, so I am just going to kick back and listen to the webinar today and see what happens. There are a few camps of thought and wants for Maryland’s striped bass fishery, mainly concerning the Chesapeake Bay.
Many seasoned anglers feel the issues of striped bass are repeating themselves as they did back in the days before the moratorium. I’m talking the old salts that went through the moratorium, not the young anglers of today. Many who weren’t even alive back then.
There are many anglers fishing today that don’t even know that occurred. I went through it as a kid in the 80’s, we just fished for something else. While listening to the old salts back then complain about the declining numbers, and blaming everyone else but themselves. They and those fish are gone now, but the problem lives on and is repeating. If I were to describe the issue today compared to then, Deja Vu.
If you want a good read on the striped bass moratorium issues,check out Striper Wars, by Dick Russell.

ASMFC Main Meeting Materials

Supplemental materials for the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s 2020 Winter Meeting

ASMFC … As a reminder, Board meeting proceedings will be broadcast daily via webinar beginning at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, February 4th and continuing daily until the conclusion of the meeting (expected to be 12:30 p.m.) on Thursday, February 6th. The webinar will allow registrants to listen to board deliberations and view presentations and motions as they occur. No comments or questions will be accepted via the webinar. Should technical difficulties arise while streaming the broadcast the boards/sections will continue their deliberations without interruption. We will attempt to resume the broadcast as soon as possible. To register, please go to https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3853611638258510347.