What can an individual do to help conserve the Striped Bass population?

[DarkSkies]

Some folks make the all-encompassing statement that we should just eliminate commercial striped bass fishing.
As I have stated before, this becomes complicated when you consider the political forces at play:

"There are many political and financial factors at play that folks remain unaware of.

1. For example, IMO to Stop commercial fishing would be virtually impossible unless the Striped Bass Gamefish Bill became a reality. There are many inland states that push for the right to buy striped bass caught commercially, and the political battles over this one issue would be ugly.
2. I wonder if folks know that Frank Pallone has been "trying" to get the bass gamefish bill passed for years....but this is largely a ploy to continue to get fishermen to vote for him.....when he knows that bill doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of getting the support it needs......"







**I make these points to let folks know that it ain't that simple.
With all the fishermen Apathy out there, and the underlying competing political interests, it becomes virtually impossible to make any further progress on this Bill.
If anyone has further thoughts or suggestions to help continue Monty's initial thoughts, feel free to share.
Thanks for reading.

[cowherder]

This was in todays Al Ristori column, I agree!
Give pregnant stripers a break

Raritan Bay-area striper fishing looks as if it will be breaking open any day now, but the downside to the good fishing is that it’s mostly on females ready to spawn in a week or two.
Actually, almost all stripers over 20 pounds are females. The very occasional male that large will probably be easily identified as it leaks milt when lifted. There are fair numbers of amaller males and immature females around if you want a fish for the table, but it’s clearly a shame to take a bass bursting with eggs that will be rejuvenating the stock in just a few days. That’s especially the case in Raritan Bay where the Hudson River stock has been providing us with fine summer fishing after the southern spawners are long gone to the east.

Bob Bowden with an obviously pregnant striper released in Raritan Bay recently from Ty Man to spawn in the Hudson River next month.

[plugginpete]

Cool

[jigfreak]

Teach the immigrants to stop taking the short stripers and let them know no speaka da inglish is not an acceptable excuse. My .02