Statement issued by MA Dept of Fish and Game

[thetroutwhisperer]

The MA fish and game expects the  number of stocked  trout on Cape Cod to exceed the number of the wild bluefish and striped bass combined for the spring and summer of 2017.

[lowaccord66]

Stripers not surprising....I've sadly seen those numbers in my own fishing drop...lets hope this years YOY index is a good one.

[Steve H.]

Time to sell my CC?  Frickin' sucks.  Need to make stripers a federal gamefish.  No commercial, no-kill C&R rec.

[Jetmec89]

I agree stripers should be C&R for sure. Proper C&R I might add. I see so many undersized gut hooked or gill damaged fish floating by me when I'm on my boat in the Merrimack or down at the mouth in old saybrook its sickening. I've watched guys rip hooks from the stomachs or out of the gills and just toss them back without making sure they are healthy first. Bluefish I'm on the fence about because more often than not later in the season as opposed to earlier I've caught more of those while targeting stripers, fluke, weakfish, sea bass, etc. on my outings than the targeted species I was after. However, with the advancement of tackle (lures) and equipment (rod & reel, and electronics) and the good old fashion internet with endless information on what to use, where to use, and how to use it its been hard for a striped bass to reach peak breeding age and size with all the pressure put on them. It really doesn't take much effort anymore to catch a keeper sized striped bass even though their numbers are in decline. If you got the time and ability I see it all the time, guys with Walmart surf casters pulling in a 30 incher with clams or bloodworms from shore which is great you know I get it I would likely do that too if I consumed them. You know with the ability to reach them from shore easier with micro diameter braid and advanced fishing lines also some of these lures are so lifelike its insane its like these fish don't have a chance. Don't get me wrong I love all this new technology and it totally makes my life a whole lot easier by really downsizing my gear as well as the new sonar on my boat which is ridiculous but it has definitely put the hammer down on these fish over the years. Now I go online to confirm my suspicions instead of getting off I disagree like I used to. I used to get reports by talking to people, observing the ocean, trial and error once the forsythia's or serviceberry's bloomed also had to use big clunky rods and reels with limited sensitivity and all we had was basic mono or dacron. Idk my rant is probably not needed or annoying to some of you but they definitely have to do something about it. I'll continue to fish for these guys no matter what but I will always try my best to release them healthy. I'd rather eat a scup or a fluke than a striper any day.           

[s fontinalis]

Being new to Mass I was surprised that there wasn't a circle hook requirement when fishing for stripers and bluefish with natural baits... In Maine it is a requirement. Might help with gut hooking and people releasing dead fish.

[JDK]

Probably more seals on the outer Cape than stripers and bluefish also.

[westernmas]

Probably more seals on the outer Cape than stripers and bluefish also.

They recently estimated there is somewhere around 50,000 seals in and around Cape Cod.  The focus was mainly on Monomoy Island where the seals reproduce so that number could be much much larger.  Anyone up for some seal hunting?

http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20170406/cape-gray-seal-population-estimated-at-up-to-50k

[thetroutwhisperer]

I'm up for some seal hunting. Probably be easier to find them in this state than it is trout or stripers. The Cape continues to be stocked daily though. Good job MA.

[Fishermantim]

Many of the anglers that fish these MA waters do practice C & R.
I can't / won't speak for poaching, as that is not anglers but thieving scumbags.

Seals do a good job of clearing out any/all fish from an area because the eat fish, plain and simple.
Why they haven't addressed the seal problems, besides whatever lame "protected species BS" they spew is a joke.

As for the fish themselves, the only real similarity between stripers and blues is that they happen to inhabit the same waters during the summer months.
Blues breed out at sea and are not targeted as a species until they are (at least) large enough for tuna bait. Nobody is netting them pre- and post-spawn, aiding to the decimation of the YOY's from the various breeding areas.

Stripers face an uphill battle as soon as they leave the estuaries and begin to migrate.
How many stripers are netted out of season (as by-catch) and left to die as the netters continue their sweep across a given waterway?
How many of those fish are old breeding females, that when dead, remove millions of potential spawn over their normal lifespan?

We shore anglers (and many boat anglers as well) have already switched to circle hooks or single hooks on our bait rigs and lures, and we already practice C & R on a regular basis. If the stats continue to show a species decline it WON'T be because of us.

I would be willing to bet that if they stopped all recreational fishing for stripers there would be no change at all, and they would be left looking for some other scapegoat top blame!

[lowaccord66]

C&R of stripers only really hurts recreational fishermen and wont stop draggers from killing tons of stripers as bycatch.  Stripers that dont count towards the commercial quota.  Thousand and thousands of pounds.  I've seen miles of them dead being tossed as bycatch off the cape. 

Also they reduced the recreational harvest already.  Poor YOY indexes coupled with overfishing on both fronts commercial and rec is hurting the fish.  Keep in mind there was already one moratorium...we might see another in our lifetimes and no amount of rec C&R or circle hook usuage will stop it.  Overall reduction in harvest for recs and comms is needed.

Fishetmantim has obviously not been to the cape cod canal during a good run when there was a 2 fish limit.  I can tell you these eyes did noy see a lot of catch and release in dozens of those heavy feeds in the canal.  I did see hundreds if not thousands of anglers with 2 fish each...

I stopped keeping them myself a couple years back after seeing horrendous YOY indexes...

[westernmas]

Jon it might have looked something like the below picture. All of those white dots to the right of the bike path and left of the bikes are stripers. It was one of my first times down to the canal and I couldn't believe the amount of stripers being kept.

[zwiggles]

X2 Lowaccord

I feel it's not just one group, but human society as a whole. No one group is responsible rather we all are,
and it's going to take a group effort to fix it.

[CatchAndReleaseColin]

Yeah. Sucks that so many are kept. But I think it's mostly the commercial industry that drags things down for the recreational fisherman. Way I see it : seals have always been around, recreational fisherman have been around for at least hundreds of years - but the industrial removal of fish is the obvious new variable and biggest problem. Cut off the commercial catch and save it for the recreational fisherman (and seals I guess, lol)

[stripernut]

Looks like we need some good old PCBs to close the fishery and keep anyone from keeping them...
When I use to go to the hearing, back in the "Good Old Days", when they were talking about lowering the limit from 36" to 28", I said then, do that and you remove too many breeding fish (most 28" fish have not spawned once (At least back then)). Now with the Comm. season, draggers, seals, lower limits and increased, this is what we get.

[lowaccord66]

I lived at the canal for a couple years literally fished my brains out.  Best post I read in decades on the subject is zwiggles.  We are all responsible.  I am close friends with people who make an honest living commercial fishing for bass.  They follow the rules the report their catch they pay taxes hust like the rest of us.  I could never suggest its one group or the other.  That finger pointing hasnt gotten those poor stripers anywhere.  

Pat that is a decent representation...now imagine that on both sides all 7 miles.  I've seen it.  Ive seen guys ride with 30-40lb fish in their baskets for hours in June...your not eating that fish...so yes its more than any one group or any one cause.  

Out of all the fishing I do the stripers are nearest and dearest to me.  I used to take people who were struggling to catch them to the canal and we'd find them almost every night.  The fishing is now more cyclical..


Alan do you remember the fishing during the moritorium?  Guys only fishing for blues I hear.  I would hate to see that.  Also RE PCB's look at Lake O. there are tons of people paying for charters and bringing home kings and browns when for women and children its Do Not Eat. Even a brown over 20" is 1 meal a month for healthy folks!