A team of New England researchers recently completed a study evaluating the conservation benefit of circle hooks in the recreational striped bass fishery. Funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a Sport Fish Restoration Grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the research found no significant difference in mortality between any of the circle hooks used in their study and the j-hooks.
“This suggests that the validity of the coastwide mandate requiring recreational anglers to use only circle hooks when baitfishing for striped bass can be questioned,” the researchers concluded. They did however stress the importance of how the coastwide circle hook mandate when baitfishing for striped bass also prevents anglers from using baited treble hooks (aka, snag and drop) which was once common practice that is now banned.
“The post-release mortality associated with baited treble hooks is currently unknown, and we encourage future research to investigate whether this mortality differs from that associated with the currently allowed circle hooks,” the researchers added. They also went on to report that a follow-up study is currently underway which suggests both bait fishing and treble hooks cause more injury than lures with single hooks.
After a long, drawn out public process in 2021, all Atlantic Coast states implemented circle hook regulations for striped bass anglers who use natural bait; specifically, bait was defined as “any marine or aquatic organism live or dead, whole or parts thereof. This shall not apply to any artificial lure with bait attached.” Thus, if you’re livelining or chunking bunker, or tying on a clam or worm, you must use a non-offset circle hook; bucktailing with pork rind or trolling tube and worm rigs is still allowed by regulatory definition.
And now, 3 years later, science tells us that this mandate hasn’t done much to improve the post-release survival of striped bass. “We estimated the discard mortality rate to be 10% for striped bass caught by using baited circle hooks,” the researchers noted, adding “This is similar to the 9% rate estimated by Diodati and Richards (1996) using a variety of natural baits and artificial lures.” That Diodati/Richards work from ’96 is the basis of the 9% mortality rate assumption used by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) to determine how many stripers die after being released by anglers.
“The finding of no significant difference in mortality rate or condition score between striped bass caught on circle hooks and those caught on j-hooks was surprising,” the researchers said in their final analysis. Digging a little deeper into the findings, they found a significant decrease in stomach hooking when using a circle hook with a much narrower gap width (11 mm) than the J-hook (18 mm) used as a control. “Interestingly, during the present study, slightly more stomach-hooked fish were observed with the smaller and larger circle hook models compared to the medium-sized circle hook and the j-hook,” researchers added.
As you’ll read in my rather lengthy article (ASMFC Does It Again: Yet Another Striper “Emergency”) we’re heading back down that bumpy striped bass management road with an eye on new regulatory changes for 2025. Expect a lot of finger-pointing and acrimonious debate in the weeks and months ahead, particularly between those who wish to ban all recreational harvest to preserve an exclusive catch and release only striper fishery, and others who wish to maintain a legal harvest allowance for striped bass. Yet as science shows, striped bass conservation clearly warrants more open dialog, not discord.
We’ve just lived through one of the most bitter and spiteful presidential elections in U.S. history; let’s not continue this rancorous debate on striped bass into another New Year. Based on the science and available data, the conservation solutions lie somewhere in the middle, amidst sensible discussion among all concerned striper fishermen, working together, openly and honestly, to find common ground.
