Sea Bass Fishery Thrives After Crash
Pierre Affre visited from Paris last month, filming a report for French television on the health of the striped bass population in the United States contrasted with the steep decline in population of the European sea bass. (The European bass is identical to the striped bass, except it has no stripes.)
He arrived on Election Day with two bottles of Champagne, eager to engage in the political moment late into the night. The next morning, I introduced Affre to some old-timers in Connecticut — John Posh, Joe Haines and Fred Ward — who have spent much of their lives fishing for striped bass from the surf and from the boat.
They talked about the golden years of striper fishing (the 1960s); the number of fish more than 50 pounds they had each caught; the crash in the fish population in the ’70s and ’80s because of overfishing; and the miraculous resurgence of the population after the commercial fishery was shut down in the ’80s. The striped bass is one of the few great sea-fish recovery stories.
These fishermen showed us how they made wooden plugs and lures, and wrapped them with eel skins. They were men from another era, Yankee relics who foraged for bass and blues and eels, crabs and wild mushrooms, men who had kitchen gardens and went hunting for duck, turkey and deer.
