The Striped Bass (Rockfish)

In honor of my home location, I will satisfy your yearning for learning and start off on the right foot, which is the left foot, with the Striped Bass, commonly known as the Rockfish.

Common Name: Striped Bass

Binomial Name: Morone saxatilis

Official State Fish of Maryland


Rockfish are a pretty common species of fish. Named for the 8-9 stripes on either side of their body, the striped bass can be found nearly anywhere along the Atlantic coast of North America and are known for the great fight that they put up. Rockfish can get in the 5 to 6 foot range for total length, with a total weight exceeding 100 pounds. There is a minimum size requirement of 21 inches to keep the fish within trophy season. To get a citation, you need to catch a 40 incher(only 36 if you are in freshwater). The usual size of these fish is in the 20-30 inch range with a couple exceeding 30 on a good day. I believe there is a limit to 2 fish per person per day when fishing in the Chesapeake Bay in season, but you are going to have to check me on that.

Rockfish, in recent years, are beginning to become more scarce. While still able to be caught, they are not nearly as abundant as they used to be. Many believe this is caused by a variety of problems, the most obvious being overfishing. However, pollution, low dissolved oxygen(DO), water temperature fluctuation in spawning grounds, salinity, pH changes, and acid rain have all played a role in decreasing the overall population and overall life expectancy of the Rockfish population.

Methods of catching these fish can vary from trying to find a school of breaking Rockfish to trolling channel edges to running a chum slick for hours; I tend to use the latter. Laying down a chum slick, after anchoring of course, is the best option for attracting Rockfish because it is hard and very rare to find a school of breaking Rockfish. Also, the smaller Rockfish tend to break at the top of the surface with the larger swimming somewhere underneath. While you can try to cast a heavier jig out there and have it sink down in hopes to get one with some kind of fight in it, it is not likely to happen. So after laying out the chum slick, which is just ground up fish bits frozen in a block and placed in a mesh bag for displacing, just take a circle hook and attach a reasonable chunk of alewife(generally found at your local tackle supply shop).

So, now that you know the basics and have the facts, you can go out there and do it yourself in four easy steps:
1) Find/Purchase a fishing rod and some circle hooks.
2) Purchase a block of chum and 2-3 alewives.
3) Purchase a nice fishing boat somewhere in the 19-20 foot range for maximum comfort and affordability. You can find one around the $30,000 mark at a boat show price.
4) Find a launch point, get that boat in the water, and have yourself a fun time. And once you catch a couple Rockfish, let me know. I didn't mention it above, but Rockfish are extremely tasty when they are grilled/broiled.

Blue Marlin Random Fact: The world record for the Atlantic Blue Marlin, which was caught off the coast of Brazil, is 1402 lbs, 2 ozs. However, Gail Choy-Kaleiki caught an estimated 1800 lb blue marlin off the coast of Oahu on June 10, 1970.