Here is something to chew on for all New England kayak anglers. Here it is. 37 Days into the commercial Striped Bass Season in Massachusetts and the numbers are at 624,802lbs with the 2008 Quota set at 1,107,828lbs. Up till 2007 the quota has been reached 30 days into the comm season. Here it is over 30 days and only 56 percent has been taken. Last year it was stopped early of the roughly 1.1 million lbs quota....If I remember right that was at the 45th day, give or take. That balance was transfered over to this year.

I wonder what will happen this year and 09? I can't see Mass Fisheries carrying over let's say 300,000 lbs to 2009 season. I mean the averages have gone down this year:

29 Jul 13 - Jul 19 164,138
30 Jul 20 - Jul 26 120,875
31 Jul 27 - Aug 02 139,816
32 Aug 03 - Aug 09 113,996
33 Aug 10 - Aug 16 75,608
34 Aug 17 - Aug 23 9,077

Total: 624,802


Who knows...Is it the gas prices that kept comm anglers off the water or is there another problem? Hmmmm....right now the wholesale price is 4.00 bucks up here in Boston. Thats some money right there with a hefty load of 30 fish.



Needless to say it's going to be interesting to see what happens.

http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dmf/commercialf...quota_index.htm