This week brings the start of The Fishing News for summer 2025. I hope you've already been out on the water plenty, because the season has started hot...
Big striped bass have shown up to start Cape Cod's fishing season. That's a great thing for anyone who loves the tug of a lunker on the line or wrestling a line-sider beast to shore. But for fishery managers? Not such a happy story.
In the past, as the fishing season ramped up, anglers typically would be running into plenty of juvenile bass — "schoolies" — those quick and feisty forerunners of the larger, older spawning fish. Not so much, this year.
Kevin Blinkoff of On The Water joins us to explain why the striped bass spawning classes of the last half-dozen years have been underwhelming, and what that means for the population.
Where the fish come from
Cape Cod's striped bass generally migrate up from the south, and many of them spawn in early spring in the waters and tributaries of Chesapeake Bay.
The spawning seems to be dependent in part on weather conditions. A cold, rainy spring is most favorable. But the Maryland region hasn't seen a prolonged one of those in some years. Which means fewer new striped bass are being born to swim along behind our big bass — and eventually, to replace those big bass.
Fishery managers are pondering more changes to the catch rules, to protect the species, including potential seasonal closures. But that's still in the future.
For now, a reminder: striped bass in Massachusetts continue to caught under a "slot" limit. To keep a bass, it must be between 28" - 31". And only one striper per day per fisherman.
My take? If you like your stripers, catch them, and then enjoy letting them swim away. Here's hoping we'll have plenty more in years to come.
Listen to this week's The Fishing News for tips on where to find your big bass, and also talk of the great black sea bass bite.
