Chesapeake Bay Spring 2014......(March - July)
By most accounts, the spawn was not great compared historically to other years.....the most common responses I heard from Capts and seasoned anglers was the cold Winter affected the early movement of the fish into the river spawning areas.......
Those who were fishing around the time of the spawn (remember that Maryland now has a closed season in the Bay during the time frame spawning is most likely to occur) have told me that they felt the fishing was slow.....
1. It seems to them that less large bass (Citations) were caught and recorded this year....
2. And there was concern among some of them that there are gaps in certain striped bass year classes.
Down in that area, they also reported a lot of smaller fish...which is something we have not seen as much up North...more on that in the
"NJs resident bass why have they abandoned us" thread...
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...y-abandoned-us
** Remember that with the 2011 year being relatively good, we should be seeing greater numbers of small bass, coastwide, because of that.....however, 2011 is
one solid year class, and
not a specific indicator of the relative health of the striped bass fishery.