What was striped bass fishing like?

[Stripercoast1]

Late 60's, the Norwich Striped Bass Club is out on Nantucket.
There's 10 fishermen and 1 10 year old. The buggies are lined up on the beach, nose to tail and spread just enough to keep other rigs from getting in between them, or get an easy look at the guys standing in the surf.
Prior to this the members were spread out on the sand looking for fish, reading the surf, looking for cuts in the bars. The flash of the headlights signaled someone found them.
All the other rigs crank up and head for that spot.
It was a feed of sand eels in the wash of a narrow cut, and the feed was confined to a short section of beach. 10 guys lined up, 10 feet apart, fish on virtually every cast. What was the 10 year old doing? Every time a Bass was thrown up on the sand above the wave line, I would run over, take it by the gills and drag another 35 pound or up Bass to the buggies, and bury it in the sand, placing a stick at the head of the hole to mark it's location.
I would also keep the look out for other vehicles coming down the beach. When 1 came down, I would yell out, and when the truck got close enough to see, the guys with fish on would drop their rod tips and allow the Bass to run, until the other fisherman left.
When the bite ended, shortly after sunrise, the Bass were pulled from the sand, washed and stacked on the beach. Final tally? Over 3 cords, yeah!, CORDS, of Bass. More than a dozen in the Fifties, 90% of the rest were over 40.
Makes me want to cry now.

[plugcrazy]

When the bite ended, shortly after sunrise, the Bass were pulled from the sand, washed and stacked on the beach. Final tally? Over 3 cords, yeah!, CORDS, of Bass. More than a dozen in the Fifties, 90% of the rest were over 40.
Makes me want to cry now.

wow that must have been some experience for a 10 year old. I couldn't imagine seeing that many bass in one place at one time. You are lucky to have lived through that, and seen such abundance. No offense intended.... but with all the guys talking now about conservation, I guess back then guys didn't know any better either?

[dogfish]

The Smithsonian did an article talking about the catches just 50 years ago. No striped bass in the Keys, but I thought it was worth posting. There are a new group of marine biologists like this Lauren McClenachan, they are worth listening to. And her name sounds Irish or Scottish, so she can't be all bad.







1957: A half century ago, tourists in Key West routinely caught goliath grouper (the big fish with the big mouths) and large sharks (on the dock).
Monroe County Library Collection

• Science & Nature

Our Imperiled Oceans: Seeing Is Believing

Photographs and other historical records testify to the former abundance of the sea

• By Laura Helmuth
• Smithsonian magazine, September 2008

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[IMG]http://media.smithsonianmag.com/images/76*60/seeingisbelieving_sept08_2.jpg[/IMG] Our Imperiled Oceans: Seeing Is Believing

Laura Helmuth on "Seeing is Believing"


Megan Gambino



Related Links

Census of Marine Life


Related Books

The Unnatural History of the Sea

by Callum Roberts
Island Press (Washington, D.C.), 2007



Whether it's a mess of bluegill hooked with a cane pole, a rare trout snagged with a fly or a sailfish suitable for mounting, people like to have their pictures taken with the fish they catch. They beam, proud and pleasantly sunburned, next to their prizes.
Loren McClenachan searches historical archives in the United States and Europe for such photos, and she found a trove of them in Key West, Florida, in the Monroe County Public Library.

One set allowed her to look at fish caught by day-trippers aboard boats over the past 50 years. The first Gulf Stream fishing boat started operating out of Key West in 1947; today Gulf Stream III uses the same slip. Tourists' hairstyles and clothes change over the years, but the most striking difference is in the fish: they get smaller and fewer, and species disappear with the passage of time.

McClenachan, a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, is part of a new field called historical marine ecology. Its scientists analyze old photographs, newspaper accounts, ships' logs and cannery records to estimate the quantity of fish that used to live in the sea. Some even look at old restaurant menus to learn when certain seafood became more costly, usually due to scarcity.

McClenachan's study and others are part of the Census of Marine Life, a ten-year effort sponsored by foundations and governments worldwide that aims to understand the ocean's past and present, the better to predict the future.

The historical records reveal astonishing declines in most fish stocks. University of New Hampshire researchers, for instance, studied thousands of water-stained pages of 19th-century fishing port log books to determine that 150 years ago, there was 25 times as much cod off New England and Nova Scotia as today.

Archaeologists in Europe have analyzed discarded fish bones going back 14 centuries. They conclude that milldams blocked salmon from swimming upstream in the 1100s; freshwater fish became scarcer over time; Europeans started eating more fish from the sea in the Middle Ages; and saltwater fish got smaller and smaller.
"Unfortunately, history has repeated itself again and again and again, to devastating effect," says Callum Roberts, a marine biologist at England's University of York. "People like food in big packages," he says, and they catch the biggest packages first, whether it's turtles or whales or cod or clams. And then they catch whatever is left—including animals so young that they haven't reproduced yet—until, in some cases, the food is gone. To break out of this spiral, Roberts says, "it is vital that we gain a clearer picture of what has been lost."

The basic remedy for a decline in fish—less fishing—has been clear since World War I, when a blockade of the North Sea shut down fishing for four years; afterward, catches doubled. In the past decade, marine reserves in the Caribbean, Hawaii and the Great Barrier Reef have allowed fish populations to increase not just in the protected areas but also in nearby waters, where fishing hauls are now more profitable.

In Key West, McClenachan analyzed photos from the three Gulf Streams and another boat, the Greyhound, as well as articles about trophy fish from the Key West Citizen newspaper. At scientific conferences earlier this year, she reported that she had identified and estimated the sizes of 1,275 fish from 100 photographs.

In the 1950s, people caught huge grouper and sharks. In the 1970s, they landed a few grouper but more jack. Today's main catch is small snapper, which once weren't deemed worthy of a photo; people just piled them on the dock.

In the Keys, "the vast majority of commercially fished species, especially snapper and grouper, are badly overfished," says Brian Keller, NOAA's science coordinator for the Gulf of Mexico. Protection of endangered species and no-take zones in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary have allowed some big fish, including the endangered goliath grouper, to begin a comeback. McClenachan's studies, he says, give fisheries managers "a better concept of what a restored ocean might look like."

The Gulf Stream and Greyhound, whose all-day outings cost about $50, including bait and tackle, cater to a wide variety of anglers, including McClenachan herself. "It was poignant," she says, to see so much excitement over catching fish. "The people on the boat don't have any sense that it's changed so much so quickly."

Laura Helmuth is a senior editor at Smithsonian.


http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scienc...believing.html#

[hookedonbass]

"Unfortunately, history has repeated itself again and again and again, to devastating effect," says Callum Roberts, a marine biologist at England's University of York. "People like food in big packages," he says, and they catch the biggest packages first, whether it's turtles or whales or cod or clams. And then they catch whatever is left—including animals so young that they haven't reproduced yet—until, in some cases, the food is gone. To break out of this spiral, Roberts says, "it is vital that we gain a clearer picture of what has been lost."

He's right on with that, people don't realize how much they overtax a resource until it's gone. Alll you have to do to prove that is look at the examples of the carrier pigeons or the buffaloes. Thanks for posting this.

[i bd fossil]

I fished the south shore of LI in 69-72 and I guess that I practiced Catch and release even then. The fish were plenty, not counting the skunk nights, but the dealers I sold to only paid for 30#+ fish. They were were the only ones I kept.
Fossil on the side.

[BassBuddah]

Late 60's, the Norwich Striped Bass Club is out on Nantucket.
There's 10 fishermen and 1 10 year old. The buggies are lined up on the beach, nose to tail and spread just enough to keep other rigs from getting in between them, or get an easy look at the guys standing in the surf.
Prior to this the members were spread out on the sand looking for fish, reading the surf, looking for cuts in the bars. The flash of the headlights signaled someone found them.
All the other rigs crank up and head for that spot.
It was a feed of sand eels in the wash of a narrow cut, and the feed was confined to a short section of beach. 10 guys lined up, 10 feet apart, fish on virtually every cast. What was the 10 year old doing? Every time a Bass was thrown up on the sand above the wave line, I would run over, take it by the gills and drag another 35 pound or up Bass to the buggies, and bury it in the sand, placing a stick at the head of the hole to mark it's location.
I would also keep the look out for other vehicles coming down the beach. When 1 came down, I would yell out, and when the truck got close enough to see, the guys with fish on would drop their rod tips and allow the Bass to run, until the other fisherman left.
When the bite ended, shortly after sunrise, the Bass were pulled from the sand, washed and stacked on the beach. Final tally? Over 3 cords, yeah!, CORDS, of Bass. More than a dozen in the Fifties, 90% of the rest were over 40.
Makes me want to cry now.

That was a great read, Stripercoast. The way you described it I felt like I was there. Makes me think back to a different era. I wish I could go back there for one day.

[jigfreak]

When I was a kid, we used to walk across Little Egg Harbor Bay on the backs of the Stripers to get to school on the mainland.

'Course, that was before they built the causeway, so we really didn't have a choice.

Funny stuff. I actually think that was true at one time in the history of fishing, maybe in the early 1800s. I just found this thread. Fascinating reading. Thanks for the stories fellas.

[strikezone31]

Wow, what an interesting walk through history. Thanks for sharing, I learned a lot from these posts.

[dogfish]

You would fish at the cape, and need wheel barrows to haul the fish away. Now the only thing you can haul away in a wheel barrow is the seals, welcome to modern fishing.

[finchaser]

You would fish at the cape, and need wheel barrows to haul the fish away. Now the only thing you can haul away in a wheel barrow is the seals, welcome to modern fishing.

Tree hungers interfering with nature just like the dogfish which have practically taken over the sea

[dogfish]

just like the dogfish which have practically taken over the sea

Hey are you talkin to me??? I resemble that remark, put your dukes up!!!! True, the dogfish are another problem, they multiply faster than cockroaches. Does anyone have any idea of all the baby striped bass, cod and groundfish a dogfish can eat? And they are protected? Give me a break.

[storminsteve]

I bumped this up because a guy asked in another thread where the small fish are. Good reading, dark and co.

[surferman]

Glory days of 1992 to 1998

You only have to go back 15-20 years to see what fishing used to be. By Bob Popovics

[captnemo]

Outstanding action, thanks for posting.

[baitstealer]

Wow, thank you.

[basshunter]

Excellent video surferman thanks for posting.

[clamchucker]

Glory days of 1992 to 1998

You only have to go back 15-20 years to see what fishing used to be. By Bob Popovics

I was looking at my logs and remembered this thread. The striped bass recovered quickly once they were protected. By 1989-90 the stripers were not only back to normal levels,but the fishing was outstanding. There were scores of places you could choose from to catch them from shore. There were daytime blitzes in the spring as well as the fall.

When the bass moved up the coast after the spring spawn, you had a few weeks of fantastic fishing. The bunker bill helped that as well. However it was more than that. There were vast schools of herring, bunker, spearing, and rainfish that were all along the coast. The bass and moved in sync with these schools of forage fish.

You could pick and choose where you wanted to fish. You could go in the morning and catch. Then run some errands or work during the day. When you went back for the end of the day bite you could still find vast schools of bait moving up or down the beach, and plenty of stripers and bluefish following them. Just like that video above, but on a daily basis for weeks at a time.

[surferman]

Awesome read than you gentlemen.

[Rip-Plugger]

Late 60's, the Norwich Striped Bass Club is out on Nantucket.
There's 10 fishermen and 1 10 year old. The buggies are lined up on the beach, nose to tail and spread just enough to keep other rigs from getting in between them, or get an easy look at the guys standing in the surf.
Prior to this the members were spread out on the sand looking for fish, reading the surf, looking for cuts in the bars. The flash of the headlights signaled someone found them.
All the other rigs crank up and head for that spot.
It was a feed of sand eels in the wash of a narrow cut, and the feed was confined to a short section of beach. 10 guys lined up, 10 feet apart, fish on virtually every cast. What was the 10 year old doing? Every time a Bass was thrown up on the sand above the wave line, I would run over, take it by the gills and drag another 35 pound or up Bass to the buggies, and bury it in the sand, placing a stick at the head of the hole to mark it's location.
I would also keep the look out for other vehicles coming down the beach. When 1 came down, I would yell out, and when the truck got close enough to see, the guys with fish on would drop their rod tips and allow the Bass to run, until the other fisherman left.
When the bite ended, shortly after sunrise, the Bass were pulled from the sand, washed and stacked on the beach. Final tally? Over 3 cords, yeah!, CORDS, of Bass. More than a dozen in the Fifties, 90% of the rest were over 40.
Makes me want to cry now.

now that's a spot I would love to have been in!
great story.

R-P

[storminsteve]

Yeah I can't even imagine some thing like that! Back then it seems it wasn't note worthy unless it was over 25 pounds. Now on the internet when the fish is 25 inches you hear all sorts of comments like "great job!" and "nice fish!". What a difference a few decades makes.