404 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



plenished the Massachusetts stock in 1936 and 

 1937 (p. 402). 17 



Some of these that reached Massachusetts in 

 1944 may have spread to Nova Scotia, also, for 

 the average catch was larger there from 1944 to 

 1946, than it had been for many years. But the 

 increase was not great enough to suggest than any 

 large recruitment had taken place from the south. 18 



Additional evidence that the bass of the Bay of 

 Fundy region do not intermingle to any great 

 extent with those of the western side of the Gulf of 

 Maine is that the fish ran so small in the Nova 

 Scotian streams in 1949 and 1950 (p. 397) when 

 there were so many very large ones in Massachu- 

 setts waters (p. 403). And the fact that those 

 caught in those years ran considerably larger in 

 the Annapolis River than in the Shubenacadie 

 River (p. 397) emboldens us to suggest that the 

 populations in the several Nova Scotian streams 

 are more or less separate; and separate also from 

 the bass of the St. John. 



It would, of course, be of the greatest interest, 

 to commercial fishermen and to anglers alike, to 

 know what determines that an abundant brood 

 of bass, or a poor brood is to be reared in any given 

 year. All we dare say is that the largest brood 

 on record (that of 1934, in Chesapeake Bay) was 

 produced when the parent stock was at a very low 

 ebb, which may prove a general rule, and that 

 studies by Merriman 19 and by Tiller 20 suggest 

 that very large broods are raised only in years 

 when the temperature of the water is lower than 

 normal, both before the spawning season and 

 after it. 



Importance. — Striped bass have not been plenti- 

 ful enough in the Gulf of Maine at any time during 

 the past 100 years to support a commercial fishery 

 of any great magnitude. Even in the good years 

 1944-1946 the reported value of the commercial 

 catches for Massachusetts as a whole was less 

 than $50,000 yearly. 21 But this does not take 

 into account bass used for home consumption, or 

 those sold in small lots. In the seasons of 1937 

 and 1938, when the yield of the year class of 1934 



17 Maximum reported catch for St. John River system tor period 1922-1943, 

 was 21,200 pounds in 1932. 



,! Average yearly catch, Nova Scotian rivers and coast of the Bay of Fundy 

 was about 3,355 pounds for 1922-1930; about 12,600 pounds for 1932-1943; about 

 18,300 pounds for 1944-1946. 



'» Fish. Bull. 35, TJ. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 1941, vol. 50, p. 14. 



*> Pub. 85, Chesapeake Biol. Lab., 1950, pp. 18, 28. 



='1944, $29,173; 1944, $34,543; 1945, $48,748; 1946, $34,643. 



was at its peak, about 30-40 percent of the re- 

 ported commercial catch was made by hook and 

 line, about 40^5 percent in poimd nets and traps. 

 But with the development of increasingly efficient 

 methods of trolling with hand lines from small 

 craft, the hook and line catch increased in impor- 

 tance to about 63-65 percent for the seasons of 

 1939, 1940, and 1943, 22 and to about 89-91 percent 

 for 1944, 1945, and 1946, while the pound net 

 and trap catches decreasing correspondingly. 23 



The striper is the leading game fish in its periods 

 of plenty all along our coast, from the outer shore 

 of Cape Cod to New Hampshire waters. The 

 number of anglers who cast for them in the surf 

 along the beaches of Cape Cod and northward 

 from Cape Ann to the mouth of the Merrimac and 

 at scattered spots elsewhere certainly is in the 

 thousands. Many party boats troll daily for bass 

 in Cape Cod Bay, some also along the Plum Island 

 shore and at the mouth of the Merrimac, while 

 many are caught by trolling, by live line fishing, 

 and even by still fishing in the various inlets. 



So far as we know, Shubenacadie River and 

 Lake, and the Annapolis River are the only waters 

 on the Canadian shores of our Gulf where the 

 striper attracts attention as a game fish (p. 397) ; 

 anglers visiting the St. John are far more interested 

 in salmon. 



So much has been written about the techniques 

 of surf casting, trolling, choice of lines, and baits, 

 that we need not delay; but it is interesting, in 

 comparison, to read, in Wood's New England's 

 Prospect, published in 1634 (p. 37), that "the way 

 to catch them is with hook and line, the fisherman 

 taking a great cod line to which he fasteneth a peece 

 of lobster and threwes it into the sea. The fish 

 biting at it, he pulls her to him and knockes her 

 on the head with a sticke". 



We should point out in conclusion, that the 

 recreational value of the striper is high; its money 

 return to the seaside commimities where bass are 

 plentiful is much greater than the price the fish 

 bring in the market, if the amounts spent for tackle 

 and bait, boat hire, lodging, guide service, and the 

 patronage of service garages, and gasoline filling 

 stations are taken into account. 



« No data are available for 1941 or 1942. 



« About 15-35 percent for 1939, 1940, and 1943; about 5-11 percent for 1944, 

 1945. and 1946. 



