Striped Bass

You may have to do a little traveling or put some innovation into your techniques, but the striped-bass fishing continues to be good and promises to border on the terrific later in the month and into June.Last Monday morning, I fished the Chesapeake a bit south of Bloody Point with Capt. Gordon Haegerich (410-255-5792) and his brother, Bruce. I always enjoy fishing with Gordon, because he is a professional who truly loves to fish. In fact, this was his day off, so naturally he went fishing.

Maryland's spring trophy striped-bass (rockfish) season has passed through the approval process, and now all that remains is for area anglers to get out on the Bay, beginning May 1, and have a ball.During the monthlong season each fisherman is allowed up to three rockfish, each measuring no less than 34 inches.To participate in the trophy season, anglers will need a current Chesapeake Bay sport-fishing license, plus a $2 striped-bass permit stamp.Stamps are available from these Carroll County locations: ACE Hardware or True Value in Hampstead; Fish Maryland, Eldersburg; Fritz's Radio-TV, Taneytown; and K mart in Westminster and Sykesville.

ANNAPOLIS -- Maryland's first striped-bass season in five years opened a couple of hours before dawn yesterday with some anglers expecting a bonanza and others wondering whether the season would be shut down before it had run its five-week course.Based on reports from charter-boat captains and recreational fishermen, Day 1 of the sportfishing season was neither boom nor bust.Prime spots on the bay and its tributaries were, however, crowded."I have been fishing the bay for a long time, and I never have seen anything like it," said Capt.

The Department of Natural Resources has submitted its plan for seasons and bag limits during Maryland's 1990-91 waterfowl hunting season to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is expected to approve the plan as submitted.Under the DNR plan, the Canada goose season will be 51 days with a bag limit of one goose per day in the first 16 days of the season and two per day for the last 35 days.The first session of Canada goose season will open Nov. 14 and run through Nov. 23. The second session will run from Dec. 3 through Jan. 12, with no hunting on Sunday, Dec. 9. The two-goose limit will take effect on Dec. 10.The initial proposal made by the DNR's Forest, Park and Wildlife Service called for a 47-day split season.

ANNAPOLIS -- Monday night in a conference room at the Department of Natural Resources, the Striped Bass Advisory Board convened another in a series of work sessions intended to formulate recommendations for the 1991 striped-bass season or seasons in Maryland waters.3 1/2 hours of discussions and deliberations, the eight board members who were present decided one point and seemed to backtrack on several others.a meeting on Oct. 1, the advisory board announced that it had reached a consensus on several tentative recommendations dealing with a late-spring fishery for striped bass, including separate charter and recreational seasons and a May trophy season.

ANNAPOLIS -- The charter-boat season for striped bass will close Saturday at 8 p.m., William P. Jensen, director of fisheries for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Tidewater Administration, said yesterday."

A St. Mary's County fish wholesaler who authorities say is at the heart of the largest striped-bass poaching case in Chesapeake Bay history pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to falsifying Maryland catch reports and interstate trafficking in illegal fish. Robert Lumpkins, owner of Golden Eye Seafood in Piney Point, admitted that from 2003 to 2007, while acting as a commercial check station for the state Department of Natural Resources, he and his employees falsely recorded the amount of striped bass, or rockfish, that fishermen caught.

Fisheries regulators who oversee Maryland's annual striped bass quota should delay any punishment until the conclusion of a state and federal undercover sting operation that broke up a major commercial black market, state natural resources officials said. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission begins its winter meeting today in Alexandria, Va., and the first item on the agenda is a discussion of the status of striped bass along the Eastern Seaboard. Traditionally, commission members have been quick to punish Maryland for infractions, most recently slashing the recreational allocation to compensate for overfishing.

President Bush traversed the Chesapeake Bay on an invigorating fall morning yesterday, announcing conservation measures for migratory birds while on the west side of the waterway and for striped bass on the east before getting in some fishing himself. At the national Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel, the president promoted policies he said would protect habitat for 800 bird species that need resting places as they fly south for the winter and return when warm weather returns. After a helicopter ride to St. Michaels, Bush unveiled an initiative to make red drum and striped bass, known locally as rockfish, more available to sport fishermen but less accessible as a commercial catch.

The spring day when Marylanders can start fishing for striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay is anticipated the way kids wait for Christmas and baseball fans yearn to hear "play ball." But on Monday, the fate of this year's striped bass season will be determined by a regulatory board. The 15-member Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission could decide to penalize Maryland for catching too many striped bass in each of the past two years by restricting the state's allocation to a level so low that it, in effect, cancels this season.

From spawning fish to deer birth control, it's all about mating. That's what drives species management, as practiced by humans on other life forms. How important? We had three cases last week. The Young of the Year striped bass survey, which the Department of Natural Resources has used for more than a half-century to measure spawning success, showed a slight decrease this year from the long-term average. Biologists placed the index at 7.9; the average is 11.7. Tom O'Connell, director of the Fisheries Service, calls it "a decent year" that is "well within the normal range of expectations."

Just a week after the successful conclusion of a statewide fishing contest and a two-year hair-tearing but ultimately rewarding review of management policies, it seemed as if the fisheries community was finally getting its act together. But Monday night's hearing on proposed regulations for commercial striped bass fishing was a dilly of a performance that was more "Scary Movie" than the second coming of Hitchcock. Where to begin? Take the opening scene, in which a state fisheries official explained that allowing Chesapeake Bay watermen to increase the length of the gill nets they carry on board from 2,400 yards to 3,500 yards was to "help harvesters increase efficiency and improve the ability to catch their daily landing limit in a shorter period."

The suspense didn't last long during the grand prize drawing for the state's annual fishing contest Saturday. With the rip of an envelope and a whoop of delight, the first of five contestants on stage at Sandy Point State Park converted a 40.8-inch striped bass into an 18-foot Tracker boat and trailer combination. David Wilhelm, a 37-year-old auto shop owner from Perryville, took top honors at the Maryland Fishing Challenge, an event that attracted nearly 1,500 entrants from 17 states.

Barry Marseglia of Solomons writes: "I've been catching rockfish in the mid-bay region with red sores and red rashes all over the skin. These sores have an odor. Also, in the Calvert Cliffs area, I've caught rockfish with a yellow tint. ... If there is a problem on the skin of the fish, it seems to me it's also in the cells or the flesh of the fish." Mark Matsche, a fish health biologist at the Cooperative Oxford Lab, replies: "Some striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay have a bacterial disease called Mycobacteriosis.

SOLOMONS - -The striped bass known as Diamond Jim and worth five figures continues to elude Maryland anglers as this year's annual fishing contest enters its final month. John Sparrow, a Waldorf fisherman, opened an envelope Thursday morning at Calvert Marina to see whether the tagged striped bass he caught earlier this month off Calvert County was worth $20,000 or an impostor worth $500. "It's an impostor," said Sparrow, as cameras clicked and TV cameras rolled. "Diamond Jim is still out there.

We are starting a new feature, "Ask Outdoors Girl," where my alter ego will find answers to your questions: historical, cultural, legal, epistemological. You may call it lazy. I call it a way to responsibly clean out my e-mail account. We'll kick it off here this week and then move online next week. If you have questions, e-mail them to me and Outdoors Girl will begin the search. George Sennett of Baltimore writes: "Where is Diamond Jim? The fish worth $20,000 must be in the [Chesapeake]

A St. Mary's County fish wholesaler who authorities say is at the heart of the largest striped-bass poaching case in Chesapeake Bay history pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt to falsifying Maryland catch reports and interstate trafficking in illegal fish. Robert Lumpkins, owner of Golden Eye Seafood in Piney Point, admitted that from 2003 to 2007, while acting as a commercial check station for the state Department of Natural Resources, he and his employees falsely recorded the amount of striped bass, or rockfish, that fishermen caught.

For seafood lovers, there's no more confounding dilemma than balancing the nutritional benefits of fish and shellfish against the ill effects of the environmental contaminants contained within them. The latest advisory issued by the state - a warning to restrict consumption of striped bass and bluefish caught by anglers off the coast of Maryland - is a depressingly familiar example. In this case, the problem is polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs, odorless and colorless compounds used by the electrical industry but banned by the U.S. more than three decades ago. PCBs have been linked to cancer and can cause damage to the human immune system and liver.

State officials warned Wednesday that people should restrict consumption of Atlantic striped bass - the state fish and one of the most popular with recreational anglers on Ocean City's beaches and charter boats, as well as with area restaurant diners. The Maryland Department of the Environment issued the advisory for striped bass, also known as rockfish, and bluefish caught in coastal waters because they contain high levels of a banned toxic substance. People should not eat the fish more than once a month, the state said.

Fifty-one striped bass are sporting the latest in outdoor apparel as they swim the waters of the Chesapeake Bay: thin, green plastic tags announcing that they are the money fish in the state's annual fishing contest, which begins at 5 a.m. today. One of the fish, nicknamed Diamond Jim, is worth $10,000. The 50 others are worth $500 each. "The Maryland Fishing Challenge" is in its fifth year, with Diamond Jim just one component of the event. Anglers also are encouraged to enter their catches of citation-size fish in more than 60 species - freshwater, tidal and saltwater - for a chance to win a boat, motor and trailer, a guided fishing trip or prizes worth $7,000.