striped bass

Let the Slaughter Begin!

* Raising the daily bag limit for striped bass from two to six fish.
* Raising the possession limit for striped bass from two to 12 fish.
* Lowering the minimum size for striped bass from 18 to 12 inches.
* Establishing a “hot spot” for striped bass fishing at Clifton Court Forebay and specified adjacent waterways at which the daily bag limit will be 20 fish, the possession limit will be 40 fish and there will be no size limit. Anglers fishing at the hot spot would be required to fill out a report card and deposit it in an iron ranger or similar receptacle.

* Changes to the sport fishing regulations for the Carmel, Pajaro and Salinas Rivers to allow harvest of striped bass when the fishery would otherwise be closed.

DFG is also recommending an adaptive management plan that will help assess how the new regulations influence the fishery.

YOUR VOICE NEEDS TO BE HEARD ON THIS ONE. BE SURE TO BE AT THE ONE AND ONLY PUBLIC MEETING:

The scheduled public workshop at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8 will be held at the Rio Vista & Isleton Club, 295 South 7th Street, Rio Vista, 94571

The proposal and management plan will be presented to the Fish and Game Commission for consideration at its December meeting.

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If you like striped bass fishing, put this down on your calendar: The California Department of Fish and Game will hold a public workshop in Rio Vista on Tuesday, Nov. 8 to review its proposal to change sport fishing regulations related to striped bass.

The workshop will be held at 7PM at Rio Vista City Hall (One Main Street, in Rio Vista) and will cover the DFG’s new proposed reduction in minimum size and increased bag and possession limits.

UPDATE: Due to extensive interest in the issue, the scheduled public workshop at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 8 has been moved to a larger venue. The new location is the Rio Vista & Isleton Club, 295 South 7th Street, Rio Vista, 94571.

According to DFG, the proposal is supported by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries and is intended to help recover several fish species listed under the California and Federal Endangered Species Acts.

But here’s the rub: To get us here, the DFG was sued in 2008 by the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta (a misleading name for a group, considering it is made up of a group of Kern County growers and irrigators). They sued under the federal Endangered Species Act, seeking to require the department to apply for federal permits to enforce one of the fishing regulations that limits sport harvest of striped bass.

Basically, they’re saying that striped bass are the reason the salmon runs plummeted recently. As I see it, it is a diversionary tactic that attempts to cover up the fact that massive water exports will ultimately lead to the demise of all the Delta’s fisheries.

Of course, striped bass eat juvenile salmon — they’ve been doing so since their introduction in the mid 1800′s. However, both species have flourished simultaneously for decades so it is very difficult to for me to believe that stripers are at the root of the salmon’s decline (and oh, yea, by the way: salmon numbers in the Valley have been fantastic this fall!). Furthermore, noted California fisheries expert, Dr. Peter Moyle of U.C. Davis has written that there’s no evidence that stripers are having a major impact on salmon populations and, if you do attempt to irradiate them, you may be potentially making things worse with unintended consequences. For example, a new predator may take the top spot and do even more damage.

Using the Coalition’s logic, we better remove all non-native species while we are at it: all black basses, all catfishes, all panfish and all trout besides rainbows, to name a few. This is crazy talk. Let’s show up at City Hall and let ‘em know how we feel!

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