Let me start this off by saying that I find the notion that our supposed overharvest in 2022 requires such swift and absolute action to be a little heavy-handed. In my experience sea bass have been almost impossible to get away from over the past five or so seasons. I catch them on blackfish rigs, I’ve caught them on eels in the surf, I have friends who have caught them on poppers in all-out sea bass blitzes in Buzzards Bay, I even caught a particularly impressive specimen on a 9-inch Tsunami swim shad while jigging the Canal a few years ago. These things are not scarce and they will eat just about anything. As a result of this abundance, they have become a very popular target species for recreational anglers across our region.
My transgressions on this subject don’t come without some trepidation; the optimistic segment of my brain hopes that these precautions will give way to a healthy sea bass population for decades to come. We are living through the consequences of protracted mismanagement of other species as we speak, and the resulting corrective actions come with their own sets of rippling consequences. These actions are particularly costly for the party and charter fleet that relies on healthy fisheries to attract customers to board their boats and pay for a day of fishing, with the promise of taking home a few fillets at the end of the trip.
You might remember that there were several options available to the states that were deemed acceptable for correcting last year’s recreational overharvest. Some of them included cutting days off of the season, others would increase the minimum size limit and/or decrease the bag limit. Another option was a strategic two week closure during what would normally be open season.
It was interesting that we saw two approaches to this issue in New England. Rhode Island and Massachusetts elected to keep their recreational seasons and bag limits essentially the same but bumped the minimum size up to 16.5 inches. Rhode Island added a footnote for the party and charter fleet, leaving their regulations unchanged from last year. If I was forced to guess, I’d say they did this to keep things a simple as possible, the only thing a recreational angler would need to know is that the minimum size had been bumped up a half-inch.
Connecticut took a different approach. After sitting in on a few of these meetings, there was a strong opinion among the many in attendance that 16 inches was already a pretty big sea bass and bumping the minimum size up another half-inch would only serve to make it more difficult for recreational anglers to catch a few keepers. So, Connecticut chose to impose a two-week closure while leaving their limits the same.
The word ‘closure’ strikes fear in the hearts of recreational fishermen, it’s something we’ve been programmed to resist, because it feels like our right to enjoy something that seems like it should be inalienable, is being taken away. But, if you ask me, choosing the two-week closure was the right call. Yes, it is a little hard to stomach because it falls during two of the biggest boating weeks of the summer—the start of school vacation and the week of the Fourth of July—but taking this 14-day rest from sea bass fishing has allowed Connecticut to keep their bag and minimum size limits the same. Which translates to catching more keepers during the rest of the fishing season. And I’ll admit, when that decision was first made public, I didn’t like it… but with time, I have seen the light.
I’ll say it again, I think these corrective measures were more than just a little heavy-handed, but after reviewing the choices of our three southern New England states, I think Connecticut made the best of a strange situation. They even worked it out so that the party and charter fleet can continue to fish through the closure. This closed period in Connecticut waters will begin June 24 and fishing will resume on July 8th, with a limit of five fish per angler per day and a minimum size of 16 inches.
