Brief History of Stripers

Striped Bass are native to the east coast and is the state fish or state saltwater fish for several east coast states including Maryland, Rhode Island, and New York. Unlike sunfish (largemouth & smallmouth bass to name a few), stripers are true bass and can live for 30 years and grow to nearly seven feet in length and have been recorded weighing up to 125 pounds. They can live equally well in both fresh and saltwater and can be found in many rivers and lakes across the country. 


Luckily for us on the west coast, stripers were brought via rail car from New Jersey to the San Francisco Bay in 1886. Since that time, people have been catching stripers on the west coast as well as the east coast--after all, why should the east coast people have all the fun?! Unfortunately, the striped bass fishery was not restricted to sport fishing and commercial fishing nearly caused the extinction of this great fish. Like him or hate him, President George W. Bush signed executive order 13449 to preserve stripers as a protected game fish. 


Stripers are not well known for their fighting stamina but instead for the amount of force they hit the bait with and given their size, this shouldn't come as a surprise. There is almost nothing as exciting as when a good sized striper boils up to take a topwater lure--they are supremely fun to catch!