Maryland striper season, limits same as last year – Outdoor News

Harrisburg — Maryland’s recreational and commercial striped bass fisheries are set for the 2025 season.

While uncertainty remains around future spawning potential for the species given recent population declines documented in juvenile surveys, Maryland is maintaining the recreational seasons, limits, and the commercial quota instituted last year based on the overall 2024 coastwide Atlantic striped bass stock assessment.

The following is what anglers should know about the status of this emblematic species in the Chesapeake Bay and beyond.

Fishing rules unchanged

Anglers who fished for striped bass, also known as rockfish, in 2024 won’t need to break out their Maryland Guide to Fishing and Crabbing to learn the rules. Striped bass regulations are the same going into the 2025 fishing season.

In 2024, Maryland enacted emergency regulations extending two periods already closed to targeting striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay and on the Susquehanna Flats. These rules were made permanent after a period of examining data, receiving public comment, and seeking regulatory approval.

The early season closures are intended to protect striped bass as they migrate through the bay and its tributaries to spawn.

For the 2025 season, targeting of striped bass will be prohibited from April 1 to May 15 and July 16 to July 31. Specific tributaries used for spawning also will be closed in March and through the end of May.

For the Chesapeake Bay recreational fishery, which includes charter boat fishing, the slot size limit is 19 inches to 24 inches, and the bag limit is one fish per person daily. For the ocean recreational fishery, the slot limit remains 28 inches to 31 inches with a coastwide daily bag limit of one fish.

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DNR reports on striped bass population status

For anglers who enjoy this fishery, the news coming from the department’s study of striped bass the past few years has been sobering. While there remain enough adult striped bass for spawning and harvesting, weak spawning success is evident in surveys. Biologists in other states have observed similar trends.

Fisheries scientists don’t need to count every young or adult striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay to know how the population is faring. Equipped with robust and well-tested survey methods that have remained consistent for decades to ensure comparability over time, biologists sample striped bass at different life stages throughout the year in the entire Chesapeake Bay.

Scientists and fishery managers conduct two primary sampling surveys for striped bass in Maryland’s portion of the Chesapeake Bay. The annual Young of the Year survey investigates whether the number of fish that hatched in the estuary that year was above or below average using the juvenile index.

This survey samples 96% of the known areas of the bay in which they spawn.

The 2011 young-of-year juvenile index indicated a very successful spawn. Four years later, more than 50% of the striped bass sampled in commercial pound nets were 4-year-old fish, verifying the juvenile index findings.

Additional fish community health surveys collect samples in bay tributaries not included in the Young of Year survey to ensure that there are no overlooked areas.

The adult spawning stock survey is used to characterize the age, size, sex structure, and other attributes of mature striped bass.

Biologists also gather and examine data about fish caught recreationally and commercially each year. This information serves as a test of whether measures of specific year class strength were correct (they typically are) and estimates how many fish are removed from the population each year through fishing.

Each input into this matrix of fishery data allows scientists to corroborate trends they identify in any given survey. Armed with this double and triple-checked information, fisheries managers make recommendations for the long-term sustainability of striped bass.

Environmental factors affect bass population

Temperature, dissolved oxygen, water flow and available food are some of the factors that can determine life or death for fish. These environmental conditions can heavily impact striped bass, especially in the early stages of life.

Warm conditions in winter and low water flow continue to negatively impact the reproductive success of striped bass. Striped bass spawning is triggered by water temperature as spring arrives.

Source: https://www.outdoornews.com/2025/03/24/maryland-striper-season-limits-same-as-last-year/