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Infusion of BIG fish in MA

2K views 10 replies 6 participants last post by  Greg Pavlov 
#1 ·
Well it seems to have happened... both sides, thru the canal, outer beaches and offshore shoals and bait-rich areas offshore.

As a recent convert to healthy foods, I also noticed that fresh blueberries are now coming domestic and dropped to 2.99 / pint instead of almost $4 per half.

The cherry blossoms did not let me down again, as consistent as could be. I would venture that domestic blueberries mature at about the time the big girls reach our beaches.

Now Craig must be lonely in the 40+ club... we'll have to change that! :)
 
#4 ·
Sean,

I agree storms shuffle the deck right when it's stacked for a winning hand when there is any migration component in the air. This is especially true in the fall when I have had my heart broken many times when a honey hole went dry after a storm.

However, one never knows there might be an even bigger push for us in the next wave coming out of rhody :lildevl:
 
#5 ·
juro said:
However, one never knows there might be an even bigger push for us in the next wave coming out of rhody :lildevl:
Juro,

This brings up an interesting question I have had running through my brain the last few years. Simply put, I am not sure we see the same fish. I have no data to back this up but I personally think the Cape sees more Chessapeake fish and Rhoddy gets the Hudson and CT river system. My logic is that we basically see the migrations kick in almost instantaneously along the Rhode Island and Southern Cape shorelines when the water temps reach the 50 degree mark in the spring and similar fall schedules as well. Now when I say Rhoddy I mean South county and the beaches, Narragansett bay etc...I do think Newport and BI see the Cape bound fish. I think the geography plays a key role. Just looking at the routes and shortest distances to travel would lead me to believe that most stripes wouldn't migrate in to Rhode Island and then up around Newport and on to the Cape. Now presence of bait and other factors may create seasonal variances but it would be interesting to see if there is any tagging data out there to confirm/disprove my theory.

Sean
 
#6 ·
I agree there is a lot of unknown still within the migratory behavior, my intent was to razz the Rhody flotilla soon to be added to!

In fact I believe there is some evidence to support routes through Cuttyhunk and the Elizabeths, and surprisingly far offshore in the middle of nowhere.

That being said I have a decade's worth of direct uncontestable evidence about some migratory routes that I have shown my fellow forum brothas, and while some may go long others are running the short crossing routes along the shore like clock work.

I have caught several large tagged Hudson fish on cape over the years as well, I hate when they tag them in the abdomen like that :mad: But that says nothing about the large scale trends of which you speak and you could very well be right.

You make a good point, worth a little study. I have spent a lot of time studying this but only in a smaller focused sense... I guess I just wanted to know where / when / how they pass by my spot on the sand :D
 
#7 ·
juro said:
You make a good point, worth a little study. I have spent a lot of time studying this but only in a smaller focused sense... I guess I just wanted to know where / when / how they pass by my spot on the sand :D
I think this is where having a boat has really complicated things for me. With so much more water available making a choice of where and when to go is that much more difficult. Yeah I know life's tough:lildevl: . But that has left me with two choices. Boat alot of areas at different times of the season or boat certain areas in a given season and figure out those patterns. I have for the most part chosen the latter, partly influenced by gas prices. Knowing the migration patterns better would certainly be beneficial in making informed decisions about whether taking the rig on the road makes sense though.

Sean
 
#8 ·
Sean -

Here is a high-level view from MA DFW...

http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dmf/recreationalfishing/stripedbass.htm



Pretty useless for this discussion but it would imply loosely (at least as I perceive it) that there is really no direct correlation as such but there may be a more likely occurrence of Hudson fish (less traveled) over Chesapeake fish (wanderlusted) in Rhody because Hudson fish are believed to stop around the Cape where CB fish go as far north as the Bay of Fundy CA.

BUT since it does not compare the size of each population or the percentage of CB fish with wanderlust, we can only guess and quantify by small samplings like tags and thru anecdotal beliefs (e.g. this conversation).

In other words if CB produced 10 times more fish and only 10% traveled far, then 90% of them would outnumber the HR fish on the cape 9:1, etc.

So I have to wonder if we as practitioners can do much more than focus on what they do to our areas of influence and move on to the next challenge which is to lock into their moods and behaviors when they arrive, and as they pass in spring and fall.

Did you notice the differences in the striping among them? I have to believe there is a correlation between that and origin...
 
#9 ·
Interesting that the map doesn't show anything going via LI sound which is surprising since the North Shore produces consistently and in good numbers, Sufficient to suggest we get our share of migrating 'big-ones'. Maybe not statistically significant? An intuitive guess would say we generally see Hudson fish in LI Sound but I know better than to make intuitive guesses about this sort of thing. Who's to say the fish that show up in the Housy in April haven't made a circuit via Montauk, Fishers Island and the Race? Seems totally improbably but ......

I too abhor the tagging fo fish in the abdomen. Why oh why do people do it this way? Whatever the pundits say, every fish I have found tagged like this has developed infected lesions around the tag point. An infected fish makes a very poor statistic. I wonder how many die never to reveal the their origins? Personally I would rather forgo the data. Killing undersized fish is against the rules in most states. Enough said?

My $0.02c
 
#10 ·
Smcdermott said:
Juro,

This brings up an interesting question I have had running through my brain the last few years. Simply put, I am not sure we see the same fish. I have no data to back this up but I personally think the Cape sees more Chessapeake fish and Rhoddy gets the Hudson and CT river system. My logic is that we basically see the migrations kick in almost instantaneously along the Rhode Island and Southern Cape shorelines when the water temps reach the 50 degree mark in the spring and similar fall schedules as well. Now when I say Rhoddy I mean South county and the beaches, Narragansett bay etc...I do think Newport and BI see the Cape bound fish. I think the geography plays a key role. Just looking at the routes and shortest distances to travel would lead me to believe that most stripes wouldn't migrate in to Rhode Island and then up around Newport and on to the Cape. Now presence of bait and other factors may create seasonal variances but it would be interesting to see if there is any tagging data out there to confirm/disprove my theory.

Sean
Sean, that's loosely what I have thought about this since moving to CT in early 2000. Although there isn't much data to support it, I tend to follow your line of thinking here.
 
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