2003 - The Spring of the 50 Pounders
July 28, 2003

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What a long, long time it's been :-) Hours turn into days, days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months...wow. It's almost the end of July and the one thing that can be said about the Spring of 2003 in New Jersey is that there was an unprecedented run of LARGE stripers. They made the mistake of being part of an anomaly the like of which no one can remember! There were 25# to nearly 60# stripers in our waters for over 3 weeks. Everyone has a theory as to why they showed up like they did - some say it was water temp, others say it was the large schools of bunker and still others write it off as one of those things that just happens. You gotta wonder, were the LARGE bass inshore because there were large schools of bunker every day...or were the large schools of bunker inshore because the LARGE bass pushed them and kept them inshore? To the many guys who had phenomenal spring fishing, I don't think they really care which it was! Regardless of what the cause was, they were here...they stayed here...and they were caught primarily by the hundreds of boats that followed those bunker schools like a puppy dog and his chew toy. There were, to the best of my knowledge, no 50 pound bass caught on anything other than bait - either bunker or live eels. Between May 11th and June 19th, there were 6 confirmed surf caught 50 pound stripers - 1 from Maryland and 5 from NJ. Of those 6 confirmed shore caught 50's, 3 were landed by SOL members

C.Salp started the SOL members off this spring with his fifty-two and a half pound behemoth on May 11th on a bunker head. Not only was this outstanding critter Chris' biggest, it has also since been accepted as the Maryland Coastal State Record striper! The details of the catch and of the state record can be seen here - The Catch and The Record		Next up from SOL to land their first 50 pound plus striper was DaveS. Ironically, this critter also weighed 52 1/2#, just like C.Salp's fish from nearly a month earlier. As it would turn out, as these LARGE fish progressed through NJ and past NY on to RI, 52 1/2# was a size that we'd hear of more than once! Dave's fish ate a live bunker in the middle of the night...so much for live lining only being a daytime technique You can read the whole story here - The Catch
Then, just one day later than Dave's critter, Eeeels lands this 50# 9oz beast on Island Beach State Park - on a live eel. Three nights earlier, Paul Haertel had a 50# 10oz critter about 2 long casts from where Eeeels got his...and on a live eel as well. Hmmm...maybe there's more to this live eel thing that I've previously considered? You can read the whole story here - The Catch

These extraordinary fish moved slowly through NJ - it's impossible to estimate how many thousands of 20# - 40# stripers were killed, but it's probably not a stretch to say that it's more than the past 15 springs combined. As rare and wonderful as 20# - 40# stripers are in these parts in the spring, it's a shame so many guys felt the need to kill 2 each day per person while fishing 3 to 7 days a week. Next year when these beasts don't come back, they'll wonder what happened to those giant bunker eating bass they caught hand over fist for three weeks - and filleted as many as they could. I think it's wonderful that so many people had the opportunity to experience the thrill of landing such LARGE fish in NJ - and it's equally wonderful that so many could bring home some fish for the table and the freezer. These are all important parts of what makes up striper fishing. It just brakes my heart to hear about the same guys weighing in 2 fish over 30# day after day....or hearing about boats landing way over their limit of all LARGE fish. This anomaly of enormous stripers on the Jersey shore was a welcomed change after years of slow and miserable spring runs - lets hope either the fish or the anglers wise up before we do some serious damage to the fragile older end of the striper stocks. Kill what you are gonna eat, let the rest go - and please stop using treble hooks for livelining - they do nothing but destroy the insides of every fish you release...I've heard too many stories of precious LARGE bass being gut hooked with treble hooks. The internal injuries from that kinda "sport" fishing border on irresponsible angling. OK, the preaching is over ;-) It's hard for guys fishing a whopping 2 or 3 seasons to truly appreciate how rare an occurrence this spring was, but we all need to be diligent in taking care of all the fish we plan on releasing - a dead LARGE striper in your cooler is one thing...a bunch of dead LARGE stripers floating around cause some chucklehead felt the need to gut hook them with treble hooks is entirely another.

Hopefully, this fall will see the return of these beasts...only much fatter. And hopefully, they won't eat during the day and they'll only take plugs and jigs and flies and teasers :-) Hey, a guy can hope, can't he?

Tim Surgent