[Kevin Smith]

At the attached link is the results of Stripers Forever Striper Fishing 2008 Survey. They are concerned about the fishery in trouble.

http://www.stripersforever.org/Info/Stripers_BBoard/I01110ECB.2/Key Comparisons 2003,4,5,6,7,8.xls

It would be interesting to hear what you guys think based on your striper fishing results this year. Please provide you comments on what you think and why?

Kevin Smith
Weekend Mistress

 

[Waynesboro]

Interesting - but incredibly vague - likely on purpose.

If 60-70% of people are saying the fish are smaller - for the past 5 years - just how small have the fish become?

Same could be said with the rest of the categories.

Instead of more fish/less fish per hour - why not actually calculate number of fish divided by hours fished - at least that is a number that can be compared year to year. Of course, nothing scientific, as more rods would likely mean more fish.

As for me specifically - I haven't been that many times (would love to sneak in another trip or two before the season ends).

So I went three times - twice caught my(our) limit (small boat - 5 rods - two people), and once (by myself) got skunked. Attribute the skunk as much to the conditions, as to weeds on lines and not checking them often enough.

So for me - I consider this a great year - lots of fun, and a 25 pounder as my largest.

I have only fished two fall seasons - this was way better than last fall, and the weather was much worse.

 

[gparsley]

striper season 2008

well I am not affraid to say I have had a bad year we caught some fish an the ones we caught had empty stomachs.But what I dont understand is where all the bait is in the middle part of the bay.We have been running to other parts of the bay va /md line an they have fish an bait we have been to cape charles an they to have had fish an bait. I personally feel we have a water quality issue in the middle part of the bay.we had fish for a short period of time an they left we had bait an it to left too.we have had little to no bird action this season an I fish alot.we have had charter captians not moving because of no fish to catch. so would smoeone tell me what ive have missed this season an where all the bait went. our water temps are close to md an close to cape charles.

 

[rivah2c]

I agree with you gparsley. This years fishing was very poor compared to the previous several years. We were able to stay with the fish as they moved the past few years because we able to find the bait and when you found it, you found tons of bait. I thought in the middle of November it may be an off year because the temperature fell into the 50 degree range so quick and I hope this is the cause of the poor fishing instead of declining fish populations. I never saw the birds feeding at any point this year and saw very few birds at all. I never saw the huge balls of bait either. We fish the middle bay area from 59A down to 36 and all along the R2/41A area. The largest fish I caught was a fat 36" fish and I caught that fish at the 5 marker in the Piankatank. I got so frustrated this past Wednesday trolling 5 hours and not 1 knockdown, I winterized the boat yesterday and I have called it quits for this year. Hopefully next year will bring better fishing.

 

[rwferr]

We also did not have a very good year. I am not as experienced as most of you but I did go out with very experienced people the last four weekends and we were skunked four weekends in a row, fishing the cut channel twice and up the Rapp the other times. I too went ahead and winterized yesterday.

 

[Mike-JacksonCreek]

I fish out of Reedville, since 1 Oct I have put 112 hrs on by engine so thats quite a bit of trolling time. I keep records of what I caught, where and when, and this year is for certain different than years past. I have caught less than ever before, but did manage to catch 32 fish over 15 lbs (30") plus lots of smaller ones. I chummed at the NNK reef in Oct, thats how I got all the smaller ones. Most of my larger fish came from the Smith Pt area, and last wed and thur I had 6 nice fish at 64, in Md waters. I also have friends who are local charters amd many of their fish came from Smith Pt and up. Last year majority of my fish were from 62 down to the middle cut, Ghost Hole, and 59a area's. So I agree there is a void in the middle bay area of bait, and no bait no rockfish. The water temps are still above temps this same time last year, and the guys in the northern part of the bay are still catching alot. Those fisghwill move south and for a few days there should be good fishing in our area as they move south. I plan on fishing 27-31 dec, if wind permits so hopefully I'll catch them moving. If I don't guess I'll trailer up and move to the lower bay for a day or two.

On reasons why there is no bait in our area...I don't buy the water quality suggestion, but I do believe the Reedville Omega flet devastates the menhaden. On many days during the week I saw their 9 boats with spotter plane in the middle bay area pulling tons and tons of fish out. Why does our Va legislation allow this, why does bill after bill putting limits on this fishing get killed every time. If there were manhadden there would be rockfish. The ocean schools follow the menhaden all their lives.

 

[Jenna]

I have been skunked since Tday weekend......fishing has been bad but I am not willing to give up yet. This past weekend was unfishable for me...I tried to get out Sat but it was too rough. I will be fishing til the 31st.

 

[optimystic 10]

Plenty of fish

:fishing2:The fishing in the Rapp has gotten better and better for the past 5 years. I didn't think it could get any better than last year but I was wrong. I have caught over 300 fish since Thanksgiving. Just yesterday I caught 40 plus fish and had 8 fish between 20 and 32 POUNDS. One of which was a release citation. I think alot of people think the big fish are way down river but that is not the case. Most of my big fish have been caught between buoys 11 and 13. That was the case yesterday and most days:bigfish: