A big CONGRATULATIONS to Chuck Mills for placing THIRD in the FLY DIVISION of the Jamaica Bay Kayak Fishing Tournament this past weekend with a keeper sized Striper on the fly!!!! Chuck, you do us proud.  Keep those lines tight and we're looking forward to seeing you on our next trip.

Our friends at Stripers Forever sent this urgent CALL FOR ACTION:

We apologize for the short notice on this Call For Action, but it is a chance for you to have a positive influence on how striped bass are managed. All indications and data suggest that the coastwide recreational catch of striped bass has been declining since 2006 – an eye-popping 70% drop in just 5 years. Add to that the poor spawning year classes since 2003, and the resulting lack of recruitment of young fish into the population, and the future does not look very promising. The striped bass population is being propped up by the good year classes of late 1990’s, plus 2001 and 2003, but if these now legal bass are overfished, as they are being now, and are not replaced, we could witness an epic crash in the striped bass population over the next 5-10 years.

There are real problems with the fisheries management plan for striped bass and it all starts with commercial and recreational fishing mortality rates that are too high, and triggers for management board action that are unrealistic. Action by the Striped Bass Management Board is like turning an ocean liner – it takes forever. So while the population continues to decline precipitously, the Striped Bass Management Board appears to be unresponsive. All of this scares the daylights out of us at Stripers Forever, and is all the more reason why gamefish status for striped bass is critical.   

But there is something you can do to help – RIGHT NOW!

 The Chesapeake is the largest spawning area for Striped bass on the East coast. Targeting these fish just before and right after their spawn makes no sense. Until gamefish status becomes a reality, fighting against net harvesting will have to do. Please sign the petition HERE  Thank you for your support. What affects Stripers in their spawning grounds affects us all.