[BIGGESTJACK]

I JUST READ MY "BOB EVER" SALTWATER SPORTSMAN.
RIP CUNNINGHAM HAS A GOOD ARTICLE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE STRIPER IN THE PAST AND WHAT MAY HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE.
WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS WE WERE BLAMED ALONG WITH THE COMMERCIAL FISHERMAN WHICH MIGHT BE TRUE IN PLACES. IN THE 50'S AND 60'S IN SOUTH JERSEY,FROM THE DELAWARE BAY TO ATLANTIC CITY WHO CAUGHT THESE FISH HERE AND WHERE WERE THE spots THAT WERE OVERFISHED.I WAS AROUND SJ IN THAT ERA AND NEVER SAW OR CAUGHT A STRIPER.I KNEW A LOT OF SPORT AND HEADBOAT CAPTAINS AND NEVER HEARD OF THEM FISHING FOR THEM.MY FATHER TOLD ME A FEW GUYS ON THE JETTIES FISH FOR THEM AND CATCH A FEW BIG ONES.WE TROLLED THE BAND AND INSHORE LUMPS FOR YEARS FROM SPRING TILL MID-OCT. AND THE BEACHFRONT WHENEVER THE BLUES SHOWED UP THERE.IF YOU THINK THERE ARE BUNKER NOW ITS NOTHING COMPARED TO THEN.
THEN AS RIP C SAID BY THE LATE 70'S AND EARLY 80'S THEY WERE GONE. WHAT I'M ASKING OR TRYING TO UNDERSTAND IS WHERE WERE THESE FISH IN OUR AREA.
I HAVE TALKED MANY TIME TO OTHER OLDTIMERS LIKE CHUNKING WHO LIKE MYSELF FISHED THE AREA FOR YEARS AND DIDN'T CATCH HIS FIRST STRIPER TILL AROUND 1990 ABOUT A YEAR BEFORE ME WHEN THEY EXPLODED. WHAT AM I MISSINGHERE?? WHEN DID YOU GUYS OVER 35 START CATCHING THEM.

 

[TSStriper]

I'm 25 and I caught my first striper in 1988 somewhere in Great Bay. We were not fishing for them though. I was 8 and it was about 28 inches.

 

[mch]

People up north used to fish for them & sell them by the pound, sometimes hauling in 200 - 300 lbs a night on rod & reel. My guess for the reason they weren't around here back then is because the Del & Hudson rivers were badly polutted back then & not the hotspots for spawning that they are today.

 

[Bob ECT]

My first bass was in the 70's. Coming in from an offshore trip we ran accross huge schools of them.

 

[upchuck]

I'm 58, caught my first striper three years ago. I've been fishing salt water since the age of 10.
I've heard stories of striped bass, thought they were a myth until I caught my first, what a thrill. I'd like to see the big weakies come back.
The reason I hadn't cought a stripper sooner, is I only fished the summer. Boy did I miss the boat.

 

[FISH TALE]

BiggestJack, I,ve got old pictures of me holding some of my grandfathers Bass that he caught back in the day. Some of the pics were dated 1962 so I was 6 yrs old. In the box there is a bunch of pics of him and his friends with bass, most of the fish were much bigger than I was. From what I remember being told he fished in the back bay of Ocean City. For myself, I did not get my first until 1987. I got it fishing from one of the jettys in OC. using a plug.

 

[flukenut]

1962 7 YEARS OLD MY FATHER WAS STRIPER CRAZY HE WOULD FISH 5 OR 6 NIGHTS A WEEK BEFORE GOING TO WORK
LATE 60S EARLY 70S BIG BASS WERE COMMON OFF SANDY HOOK

 

[CURIUS GEORGE]

My friend Richard has had a boat in Del bay since the early 60's. His first keeper was last year.I personally have caught 100's over the last several years but until just a few years ago I never seen so many frie (stripers) in the delaware river along the Phila. shore line. We also need to keep a eye on the abuse along the river. I personally have seen people keeping small striper as short as 6inches. To be honest with you they really dont know there doibng anything wrong. p.s. I made them throw them back!

 

[CJ]

1991 on the Partyboat Rainbow out of Wildwood in the rips. Fished the Cape May and Wildwood area from boat, beach and jetty through the 70s and 80s and never saw a striper.

 

[Stevelondon]

Biggestjack, I think you probably have to get past the GOOD AS GOLD., And as his teacher I will say you better start now! I taught him well!!!!!

 

[bountyhunter39]

I have been catching them since the early 80's around the C&D canal but nothing like now it ten times better now.

 

[striper2278]

Caught my first one in 1992 of the Wildwood Crest fishing pier! Caught the fish on a mullet rig fishing for bluefish...it was 38" and around 20lbs! Been hooked ever since!

A good way to get a idea of what happened to the stripers...is to read Eastern Tides!

 

[TWIN D'S]

In my early years the family didn't fish salt water. But, our neighbors did. I'm talking like the mid to late 1960's. I can still see the coolers of fluke and blowfish, and even heard them talkiing about weakies, but I never saw a striped bass. The first one we caught was at Floodgates in the late 80's.

The problem with history is that it's so easily rewritten.

 

[Bgsdad]

I remember my father bringing stripers home that seemed as long as the kitchen table from LBI & Ocean City areas. I also remember burlap bags full of mid 20" to mid 30" bass from the Mullica River and mouth of the Great Bay. That was in the early 60's

They might have been overfished back then but there was only a fraction of the number of people that were fishing for them compared to now.

 

[sweet release1]

striper2278 good read that book!,matt

 

[NJAngler Bill]

Lou Rodia has told me stories of striper fishing "back in the day" in Cape May - in the back bays and from Cold Spring jetty - that would knock your socks off. I'm sure it wasn't as good as what we've got now, but it was pretty darn good for those few anglers who really targeted them.

However, I think that great run of big bass in the 60's and 70's happened primarily from Barnegat Inlet north to New England. I believe this was Chesapeake Stock. I still think many of the bass caught in and around the Delaware Bay estuary these days are local fish, and I don't believe the Delaware River produced many striped bass in the 60's and 70's.

Bottom line is that the success of the Delaware River as a spawning area for stripers is the primary reason why the striper fishing is so good year-round in South Jersey. That's the difference between then and now. My .02.

 

[design]

when did Longreach Marina put the sign up for "Striper Captial of the World" ????? I know it's always been there. Just as Fortescue is the "Weakfish capital of the world" but...what is a weakfish????

Buddy of mine whom I learned all about stripers fished them in the 70's up in the Hudson River religiously. He asked, why don't you fish stripers in the bays and rivers here??? well, low and behold....

 

[Bawugna]

Being only 38 I can only offer information I have heard through the years. A boss of mine about 25 plus years ago,(yes that makes me 13 and I was a tank cleaning boy at a pet shop), told me of stripers resting in the winter months being harpooned by the ton.....by so called receational anglers. Another guy told me of a striper fishery that was similar to the bluefish fishery in methodology, location and numbers.

Stripers have been sought commercially since before the inception of this country. I guess it is the fact that it is a BIG inshore fish that falls victim to many modes of commercial fishing ad to all that the fact that it is a damned good eat and you have a recipe for a very important food fish that will be pushed pretty hard.

 

[BLUEFINN]

Originally posted by NJAngler Bill:
Lou Rodia has told me stories of striper fishing "back in the day" in Cape May - in the back bays and from Cold Spring jetty - that would knock your socks off. I'm sure it wasn't as good as what we've got now, but it was pretty darn good for those few anglers who really targeted them.

However, I think that great run of big bass in the 60's and 70's happened primarily from Barnegat Inlet north to New England. I believe this was Chesapeake Stock. I still think many of the bass caught in and around the Delaware Bay estuary these days are local fish, and I don't believe the Delaware River produced many striped bass in the 60's and 70's.

Bottom line is that the success of the Delaware River as a spawning area for stripers is the primary reason why the striper fishing is so good year-round in South Jersey. That's the difference between then and now. My .02.

I also beleive your correct on this Bill! I grew up in Essington And that area of the Delaware River was known as the Dead Zone Oxygen depleation and chemical polution had reached a point that every spring and summer there were massive fish kills.

During the mid 60's my father moved our charter boat a 38' Colonial BlueFinn III to 15 st marina Barnegat Light and we enjoyed the Good Old days,Filling galvanized trash cans with big strippers every trip,conservation was not an issue then and it was thought that the seas were an endless bounty of fish for the takeing. I also fished the sod banks behind Axels Duck farm on the causeway going into LBI my first introduction to the Striper from shore.

 

[CaptG]

I agree Bill, but why did they take away our producer status!?! I think the difference in the Delaware River as a spawning ground now as opposed to back then is the water quality. That river was so polluted from industrial waste, etc.. back then I don't any fish lived in it! Today, fisheries managers don't recognize the Delaware river stock as being significant, which is wrong. I caught my first stripers in the Rancocas creek back in the Mid 90's. Fishing for bass, usually w/ lures, but when we put some worm on a hook we started catching loads of baby stripers in that river tributary, and in the spring, we'd catch some decent sized stripers on the plugs meant for LMbass too. I beleive the Deleware stock of small fish in the river and our back bays is mistakingly underutilized.