Striped Bass

In five weeks, Maryland's fall striped bass (rockfish) season will begin.W. Peter Jensen, the Department of Natural Resources' director of fisheries, said at a recent news conference: "Charter and recreational season will start Saturday, Sept. 24. Other than the change in starting date, everything else is the same."The size limit is still 18 inches or larger, creel limit is one fish daily for recreational anglers fishing from private boats or shore, and two fish daily for charter boat customers.

The Striped Bass Advisory Board met Wednesday evening at Matapeake and recommended that the state reopen the recreational striped bass season beginning tomorrow and Sunday and next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.The daily creel limit will be one fish per angler, and all size limits will remain the same. But the daily closing time has been pushed back to 6 p.m. instead of 8 p.m.Charter boats will be permitted to carry family and friends fishing but not run striped bass charters during the extended season.

State and federal investigators have broken up a black market involving watermen and fish dealers who sold millions of dollars' worth of striped bass, illegally taken from the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River, to shops and restaurants across the country, according to court documents filed in federal court this week. Four Maryland watermen, one Virginia waterman, two Washington fish dealers and an upscale Georgetown fish market have been named in criminal complaints, and officials said more are expected.

Many anglers consider the striped bass a fish of coastal rivers, bays and inshore areas of the ocean, but at Liberty Reservoir on the Baltimore-Carroll county line, the striped bass also is a prime game fish, and one that over the years has surprised both anglers and biologists.According to Ed Enamait, rivers and reservoirs manager for the state fisheries service, Liberty is one of a relatively few impoundments in the United States where striped bass, also known as rockfish, spawn naturally.

The Striped Bass Advisory Board had its Halloween party a day early this year.At a meeting in Matapeake, members discussed reopening the fall recreational striped bass season.Recreational anglers were permitted to catch two fish during fromOct. 9 to 26, an arrangement created after complaints surfaced that the 1990 season was closed before everyone had an opportunity to fish.Wednesday, one of the recreational representatives said he considered the first portion of the season great. He said that he had taken five trips with 20 different people and caught 11 fish.

The 1990 recreational striped bass season is over, the charter boat season ends tomorrow evening and the commercial season will start later this year.What happened?Why was the season so short? Who caught all the fish? How many fish were caught? These are but a few of the questions I'm receiving from both recreational and charter captains. Most have adopted a cynical attitude: "the state did it to us again." I disagree.I'll admit that I do not have any of the answers, but I have talked to the Department of Natural Resources staff I have known and respected for years.

The days of the fall striped bass slaughter on the southern Chesapeake Bay are over. It's pay the piper time. After six years of catching more striped bass than allowed and fearing possible regulatory repercussions, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission cinched up its belt and toughened its fall catch limits. Federal regulators set a summer and fall quota for the entire bay and Maryland, Virginia and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission divide it up. Virginia's share last year was 3.1 million pounds, split equally between its recreational anglers/charter boat fleet and commercial fishermen.

It's over! The 1991 recreational and charter boat seasons for striped bass are closed.Paul Massicot, administrator for the Tidewater Administration, said Thursday that the numbers for both the recreational and charter seasons were within 1 percent of their allocations, and that is where the Department of Natural Resources wanted them to be.The 1991 season no doubt will be rehashed when the Striped Bass Advisory Board meets next month. Some board members think the season was great, while others are shaking their heads.

Trophy striped bass fishing remains surprisingly good as I write today's column on the eve of the season's third week. Earlier this week, Captain Gibby Dean put Severn's Steve Scala, Odenton's Mike Dew, Lance Schiable and his father, Lee, as well as yours truly into steady rock fishing between Long Beach and Cove Point.We boarded Dean's Double A at Tilghman Island, and he gave us a choice of staying in that general area "and probably getting a lot of steady but undersized fish, or we can make the hour's run down to the area of Cove Point where they're getting fewer numbers of fish, but more trophy-sized keepers."

Will success spoil next year's trophy striped bass season? Some folks are wondering whether Maryland recreational anglers, already penalized for exceeding their 2005 quota, will be flagged again for taking too many fish in April and May during spawning season. There's no doubt thousands of folks had a blast this spring. Except for gas prices, what wasn't to like? The weather was good. The Chesapeake Bay wasn't muddied up by Susquehanna River runoff. And the scare about a dire new study on striped bass disease proved to be the product of the overactive imagination of a single reporter.