WHAT DO STRIPED BASS FISHERMEN REALLY BELIEVE?

 

When the striped bass management debate heats up, and managers debate the need for more restrictive management measures, various special interest groups within the recreational fishery come to the fore, each one claiming to speak for the striped bass angler.

We saw this in the recent debate over Addendum III to Amendment 7 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Atlantic Striped Bass. 

It is difficult to forget the comments of Michael Waine, a spokesman for the American Sportfishing Association, at the December 16, 2024 meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board, when the addendum was first proposed.  At that meeting, Waine tried to discredit the many comments made by anglers who supported management measures that would have protected the large 2015 year class during the 2025 season, while saying that he, the American Sportfishing Association, and its members would generate comments from other anglers who might constitute a silent majority who did not agree with those who put their thoughts on the public record:

“I look at the public comments and I know there are millions of striped bass anglers out there, millions, and I’m only seeing 25-2800 comments from a lot of the same people that we know have been commenting.  As an organization, we’re going to work with our members to try to get more people integrated into this process.

“We know that the recreational fishery is very diverse, and I don’t feel like the public comments really are a good reflection of that diversity.  Where is the opportunity to get those individuals into this process?  Where is the opportunity to give folks the chance to get involved and engaged?..

“I challenge the Board to go the addendum route and reach out to the constituents that they haven’t heard from.  Don’t talk to the same folks that you’ve been talking to the same all the time.  Find the people who care about the resource, and value it in a way that their voices should be heard too…”

Then, in the written comments sent in ahead of the October 2025 Management Board meeting, we saw the American Sportfishing Association joined by the Boat Owner’s Association of the United States, the Center for Sportfishing Policy, the Coastal Conservation Association, the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, and the National Marine Manufacturers Association as signatories to a letter opposing the 12% harvest reduction that had been deemed necessary to rebuild the striped bass spawning stock by 2029, which declared that

“We represent the entire recreational fishing and boating community, including businesses that serve all anglers, regardless of economic background or preferred fishing technique.  [emphasis added]”

Of course, they never quite explained exactly who appointed them to represent us all, nor why they believe we all consented to such representation?

When you consider that four of the six named organizations are trade associations serving their member businesses rather than anglers, and a fifth, the Boat Owner’s Association of the United States, is also closely tied to the boating industry, having entered into an agreement to

“exclusively promote West Marine’s boating equipment to Boat Owner’s Association members,”

in return for West Marine promoting

“services offered by Boat America and memberships in the Boat Owner’s Association of the United States (an affiliate of Boat America which was not acquired [when West Marine purchased other Boat America assets, which included its retail, catalog, and wholesale operations])”

it certainly seems like such groups are representing their own interests, and aren’t all that concerned with what striped bass anglers might want.

The sixth signatory, the Coastal Conservation Association, is an “anglers’ rights” organization with, at best, a trivial presence in the states with a striped bass fishery, having only a very small chapter in New Hampshire and small chapters in Maryland and Virginia.  Although it once had chapters throughout much of New York and the coastal New England states, those chapters faded away, largely due to the national organization catering to its large Gulf Coast membership and exhibiting little consideration for northeastern concerns.  The fact that the current CCA website states that

“by 1985, chapters had formed all along the Gulf Coast.  By the early ‘90s, the South- and Mid-Atlantic regions had CCA chapters, in 2007 Washington and Oregon chapters were formed and in 2015 the CCA California chapter was created,”

without mentioning the five (four now defunct) northeastern state chapters at all pretty well says all one needs to know about CCA’s presence and involvement with anglers on the striper coast.

But recently, a contingent of recreational striped bass fishermen have been given a chance to speak for themselves, as part of a study by researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and other academic institutions, the results of which were published in the paper “Understanding beliefs, perceptions, and attitudes of anglers in the Striped Bass recreational fishery along the Atlantic coast of the United States,” which appeared in the November 2025 edition of the journal Marine and Coastal Fisheries.

The researchers explained that

“The online survey launched on May 1, 2023, and was open for responses until October 15, 2023, coinciding with the Striped Bass angling season along the Atlantic seaboard.  Recreational anglers 18 years and older who had experience targeting Striped Bass along the Atlantic coast of North America, spanning from the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada to Georgia in the United States, could take the survey.  The survey was administered through the Qualtrics online survey platform, and the methodology was approved by the University of Massachusetts Amherst International Review Board…Survey distribution was carried out by a range of angler organizations (i.e., American Saltwater Guides Association), industry groups (i.e., Cheeky Fishing, Patagonia Fly Fishing), nonprofit organizations (i.e., International Game Fish Association, Keep Fish Wet, Stripers Forever), and fishing clubs (i.e., Cape Cod Salties, Cape Cod Trout Unlimited, Osterville Anglers’ Club, Cape Cod Flyrodders) that shared the survey via social media platforms (i.e., Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), Facebook), email, and e-newsletters.”

The survey results provide an insight into how anglers view the state of the striped bass stock and the efforts made, or not made, to conserve it.

One of the survey’s more interesting findings was how anglers perceived the current health of the striped bass stock.  68.3% of the anglers who fished with spinning or conventional gear were “somewhat to extremely satisfied” with their current fishing experience, although only 57.2% of fly fishermen shared that view.  The researchers noted that

“Fishing quality was mostly rated as fair to very good from the 1990s to present, although respondents reported a significant decline in angling quality from the 2000s to the 2020s.”

It was also interesting to read that

“Anglers with fishing histories dating back to the 1970s generally ranked fishing quality in the 2000s and 2020s lower than anglers with shorter fishing histories.  This suggests a loss of intergenerational knowledge transfer and possible ‘shifting baselines’ phenomenon, where more experienced anglers have witnessed a decline over time while newer anglers might lack the reference points for previous conditions. [citation deleted]” 

As someone who caught his first bass in 1960 or ’61, and who was at least a once-weekly participant in the fishery by the summer of ’67, and who fished just about every day that I wasn’t attending classes in high school, college, or law school during the 1970s, I don’t find that surprising at all. 

The survey also explained why angler satisfaction can be a deceiving metric.

“Overall satisfaction with fishing quality varied by gear preference, with anglers using conventional tackle being generally more satisfied than fly anglers.  This may be driven by spin anglers reporting higher angler catch rates than fly anglers.  Fish often aggregate in preferred habitats, and technological advancements, especially for boat-based anglers, enable more efficiency locating fish.  This can mask signs of overexploitation, as catch rates remain stable despite actual decreases in fish abundance, a phenomenon known as hyperstability.  Their seasonal nearshore migrations and fidelity to specific spawning grounds allow Striped Bass to be reliably targeted by anglers across diverse environments and with various tackle types, making them particularly vulnerable to hyperstability.  Further, angler perceptions of good fishing quality may be skewed by the fishery’s current reliance on the last robust year-class of 2015.  Biological assessments reveal that this perception of good fishing quality is misleading because of the limited success of specific spawning events…  [citations omitted]”

Despite the perception held by many anglers that fishing quality remains fairly good,

“Concern about the state of the fishery was generally high among anglers and increased as anglers became more committed to fishing.  More dedicated anglers often develop a stronger connection to their environment and are more attuned to ecological issues and changes within the fishery, resulting in a heightened sense of stewardship among experienced anglers.”

Given that concern, it’s not surprising that anglers are largely supportive of regulations intended to conserve the striped bass resource.

“In Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, the majority of anglers considered the slot limit for Striped  Bass to be either appropriate or too loose while they viewed the one-fish bag limit and the gear regulation (i.e., only inline circle hooks when fishing with natural bait) as appropriate.”

The study noted that surveys conducted a decade ago in Massachusetts and Connecticut found less support for the one-fish bag.  What it did not acknowledge was that, prior to 2015, a two-fish bag limit had been in place for two full decades, so going to a one-fish bag represented a substantial new restriction on recreational landings; after ten years (eight years at the time the survey was taken), anglers have become used to the smaller bag limit, and probably no longer consider it a serious imposition on their ability to harvest striped bass. 

The survey suggests that the seeming current acceptance of the one-fish bag limit

“could be reflective of an increased proclivity towards catch and release among our surveyed demographic driven by sampling bias from our distribution methods, though a strong catch-and-release ethic exists among anglers that target trophy-sized Striped Bass, stemming from concerted management and angler efforts during the stock collapse and moratorium of the 1970s.  Alternatively, as harvest regulations have become increasingly strict, mandating more fish be released, the angler attitudes captured in this survey may be evidence of a shift towards an increased catch-and-release mindset compared with previous studies conducted a decade ago.  [citations omitted]”

When all of the information was tallied, the researchers were able to conclude that

“Considering that the majority of respondents acknowledged the necessity of regulations and expressed a desire for those regulations to be grounded in scientific research along with the strong support of the ASMFC emergency action, it is clear that at least a subset of Striped Bass anglers along the eastern seaboard are highly invested in the stewardship of this fishery.”

The question that still needs to be answered is just how large that subset of anglers dedicated to stewardship might be.  The researchers openly admit that

“it is noteworthy that over 70% of responses stemmed from anglers primarily fishing in New England, particularly Massachusetts…Although virtual snowball sampling schemes [which this survey apparently was] depend on participants sharing the survey within their networks to increase sample size, which can introduce sampling bias, this geographic distribution of respondents is not surprising given the majority of Striped Bass angling effort is concentrated in New England.  [citation omitted]”

However, that latter statement is inaccurate, as a slight majority of striped bass angling effort has, at least in recent years, been concentrated in the mid-Atlantic, which was responsible for about 52% of the directed striped bass trips in 2021, 59% in 2022, 56% in 2023, and 53% in 2024.  So it is at least possible that, if a more representative number of mid-Atlantic anglers had been sampled, the results of the survey might have been somewhat different.

The researchers also admit that

“our findings may be subject to sampling bias as responses could be skewed deeply involved (i.e., avidity bias) and conservation-minded anglers.  This can likely be attributed to the highly specialized and conservation-oriented angler organizations…fishing companies…and nonprofit organizations…that aided in distributing the survey link.  This may have resulted in an overrepresentation of fly fishers in our survey population compared with the overall fishery.”

Another possible source of bias, which the researchers didn’t acknowledge, was that the sample of anglers surveyed probably included a higher percentage of anglers with some sort of post-secondary education—91.92% of the respondents had at least “some college,” while 71.36 had either a bachelor's or post-graduate degree—than would be found in the general striped bass angling population, a factor that also could have skewed the results toward support for striped bass conservation and science-based management policies.

So, the study’s findings can certainly be challenged

Still, it at least provides a look into how one subset of the striped bass fishing community views the health of the striped bass stock and the value and direction of striped bass management.

And for that insight alone, it will help to inform the management debate.