Also
known as striper or rockfish. They get their name from the seven or eight dark,
continuous stripes along the side of its body.
-
The world record Striped Bass Weight is 78.8 pounds.
New World Record Striped Bass Caught
- 81.8 lbs
-
The largest striped bass ever recorded was a 125 pound female from North Carolina, 1891.
-
The Oldest Striped Bass ever recorded was 31 years of age.
-
A Striped bass
tagged in the Chesapeake Bay was recaptured in Canadian waters, over 1,000
miles away.
-
A Striped Bass tagged and released in the Saint John River, New
Brunswick Ca., was recaptured 36 days later in Rhode Island, 503
mi away! Average 14 miles a day.
-
The first free public school of the New World and pension funds for the
widows and orphans of men formerly engaged in service to the Colony were
also funded, in part, through moneys derived from the sale of striped bass.
-
In colonial times Striped bass were so plentiful that at one time they were used to
fertilize fields which led to the first conservation law of the new world in 1639
forbidding the use of striped bass as fertilizer.
-
Striped bass are anadromous, which means they live their adult life in the ocean but
travel up freshwater rivers and creeks to spawn.
-
No one paid any attention to Striped Bass in fresh water impoundments until the
late1940s when
Santee Cooper Lake
System was impounded in South Carolina. When that lake was
impounded, it trapped some striped bass that had gone up river to spawn. These fish not
only survived, but thrived on the large number of shad present in Santee Cooper Lake. This
created a popular open-water trophy striper fishery for the lake.
-
Fisheries biologists in S. Carolina and other states took note of this development and
began experimenting with stocking stripers in various lakes to increase fishing diversity.
In some of the larger reservoirs with good forage — usually shad — the stockings
were tremendously successful and created a fishing opportunity for open-water anglers.
-
The average 6-year-old female striped bass produces 500,000 eggs
while a 15-year-old can produce over three million eggs.
-
In 1879
and again in 1881, 135 yearling striped bass (1½ - 3 inches long) were seined
from the Navesink and Shrewsbury Rivers near Red Bank, New Jersey by
Dr.
Livingston Stone, at
the urging of S.R. Throckmorton of the California State Board of Fish Commissioners, and
transported by train in wooden barrels and milk cans across the continent to San Francisco
Bay.
-
Female striped bass can mature as early as age 4; however, it takes several years (age 8
or older) for spawning females to reach full productivity. Once a mature female deposits
her eggs, they are fertilized by milt ejected from a mature male (age 2 or 3).
Spawning is triggered by an
increase in water temperature and generally occurs in April, May and early June.
-
The fertilized eggs need to drift downstream with currents to hatch into
larvae. A flow velocity in the river of approximately one-foot per
second is required to keep the eggs afloat. If the egg sinks to the
bottom, it's chances of hatching are reduced because the sediments
reduce oxygen exchange between the egg and the surrounding water. This
need for flowing water to hatch is the reason
-
Striped Bass don't
naturally reproduce in fresh water Reservoirs and lakes across America and must be
stocked by the Fisheries Department of each state where Striped Bass are
located.
-
Eggs hatch 29 to 80 hours after fertilization, depending on the water
temperature, The larvae's survival depends primarily upon events during
the first three weeks of life.
Eggs and newly hatched larvae require sufficient turbulence to remain
suspended.
The larvae begin feeding on microscopic animals during their downstream
journey. The mouth forms in two to four days.
The larvae are nourished by a large yoke mass. Eggs produced by females
weighing 10lbs or more contain greater amounts of yolk and have a
greater probability of hatching.
Larvae begin feeding on their own about five days after hatching.
-
Striped bass larvae feed primarily on zooplankton in both larval and
mature stages, and cladocerans (water fleas).
Juvenile stripers eat insect larvae, larval fish, mysids (shrimplike
crustaceans) and amphipods (tiny scavenging crustaceans)
-
Adults are piscivorous, or fish eaters. soft ray fish like shad make up
their primary diet. They do not like to eat spiny fish
and therefore are not a threat to other species of fish like Black Bass
and Sand Bass or Crappie.
-
Shad being consumed by striped bass has also been
shown NOT to adversely affect the population of competing fish in
freshwater lakes and reservoirs.
-
The rumors that Stripers deplete the population of other fish is just a
MYTH and has not been verified by any biological study or survey.
