It is also worth mentioning that the ASMFC last week took Emergency Action in regards to Striped Bass Regulation. Due to a large 2022 harvest and fear of not rebuilding the fishery by the goal of 2029, the ASMFC mandated states north of the Chesapeake that the slot had to be adjusted from the old regulations of 28”-35” to the new regulation of 28”-31”. The thought is this smaller slot will protect the strong year class of 2015. There is a lot of debate out there whether this new slot is appropriate to protect the age classes that need protecting. There is debate if the new regs are too hard on the charter boats and lenient on Commercial fishing. There is debate whether the counting methods (MIRP) are accurate, whether the assumptions are accurate, whether we should have a moratorium, whether we should adjust the slot to a smaller size saving the 2015-18 year classes (my vote) but I hope we can all agree, conversation/debate is good and thinking about the future of the fishery is paramount. Most importantly though, the ASMFC did not put its head in the sand and made an adjustment. They also put themselves in a position next year to adjust again, depending on how this year goes.

We say all this not to be negative, but to educate. We want anglers to fish, but we want anglers to abide by the regulations and to do their part in helping to make sure our fishery continues to improve. Please also consider always crimping your barbs and moving towards single hooks. Unfortunately we do sell lures with treble hooks at the shop, largely because the manufacturers/industry has not moved away from this, but if consumers pay attention we are heavily supporting island X, Rapala X rap and the many other lure companies that are making the inline/single hook an option.