The other day I came across a post on Facebook that asked the striper-fishing public if they thought the 2023 Emergency Action that imposed the current 28- to 31-inch slot limit for striped bass had made a difference. As you might expect, the responses ran the gamut from utter ‘doom and gloom’ to those who believe everything is all sunshine and rainbows.
The algorithm, doing what it does, then spoon-fed me several other posts on the same subject and on some of these other posts the responses were quite troubling; one angler claiming that both stripers and bluefish were “more abundant than ever before” and positing that maybe the real reason for a downtrend in catches was that most people weren’t as good at fishing as he was. Then there were some real foiled neophytes who seemed to really believe that we’re being overregulated thanks to some deep state conspiracy designed to stop people from fishing.
Before you fire up your Underwood typewriter to send me a strongly-worded nastygram, I am aware of the bill on the table in Oregon that seeks to criminalize hunting and fishing, but my research indicates that Oregon reps from all sides of the political spectrum are running from this bill as if it carries with it a guaranteed case of Ebola. And if you were going to write me a note about that deep state conspiracy, save the ribbon.
But we’re getting off track.
The question at hand here is whether or not the slot limit is moving the needle for striped bass, how the fishing public is perceiving these changes and how that public perception falls into place beside the true purpose of the emergency action. Believe it or not, the slot limit was not imposed to yield better fishing in real time. The hope was to maintain or increase the Spawning Stock Biomass (SSB) – which is the estimated number of mature striped bass in the fishery – these are the fish that we’re relying upon to produce the next generation of stripers. With five years of low recruitment numbers (at the time of the emergency action, it’s now 7 years in a row) the idea was to end the harvest of the most fertile fish with the hope of sending those spawners up the rivers to reproduce every year and if/when perfect conditions arise, we’d have the most spawning age stripers heading up there to produce a massive crop of baby bass. So far, that has not happened. So, in that sense, the slot has not helped… yet.
However, catch and release fishermen have reaped the benefits of nothing over 31 inches being legal to harvest. From New Jersey to Massachusetts, the 2026 spring run has been one that none of us are likely to forget. The numbers of 38- to 45-inch stripers reported this spring seemed to be endless. Our social media feeds were loaded with pictures of healthy bass, our reports section told stories of incredible catches all along the “Striper Coast”. Unsurprisingly, this brought the dissenters out to declare that the slot limit was unnecessary, “we’ve never caught so many big stripers! Why can’t we keep them?” And it’s hard not to have some level of sympathy for the anglers that feel this way, because, at the surface level this line of thinking seems to carry weight.
But the bigger issue is the gaping holes in the fishery. In my response to the original Facebook post, I cited the fact that the spring of 2026 marked the first time in my 30 years of striper fishing, where my catch of 45-inch fish in May exceeded my catch of sub-28-inch fish during the same time span. I saw some comments that “using methods that target bigger fish will cull out the smaller fish” and there is some merit to this, but even when I fished smaller baits I didn’t catch smaller fish. And most of the anglers I keep in regular contact with share those observations and experiences. Furthermore, on the days I fished on friend’s boats or on my kayak, the electronics told more of the same story, small marks were outnumbered by big marks by a figured that I’d modestly estimate to be at least 50 to 1. And I’m not talking about Southwest Ledge at Block Island, I’m talking about backwater rivers, tidal estuaries and Narragansett Bay. The epic schoolie feeds that we could count on in the 2000s and twenty-teens just aren’t a reliable occurrence in the mid-2020’s. It has gotten to the point that in my circle of fishing friends we’re actually talking about it when one of us finds a decent hit of sub 25-inch fish, like it’s something notable, because it’s become so rare. Not a great sign.
So I suppose, when the question “Has slot limit worked?” is asked, the answer depends on what you want out of the striped bass fishery. If you want great fishing now and you’re willing to roll the dice on how the future of the fishery pans out, then yes, it has worked very well. If you find yourself hanging on the YOY numbers when Maryland and Virginia release them each fall, crossing fingers and toes, praying for a big number… it has only set the fishery up for success with a robust SSB. So far, we’ve fielded a great team, but the wins just haven’t come.
It’s a complicated issue with a lot of interests holding a stake, we’ve come this far, at this point, I think, we have to see it through. And yes, I’ll be crossing every ‘crossable’ extremity when the numbers come out later this year, because our striped bass really need a win.
