2023 was an "interesting" year. I continued to do my normal fishing in the estuaries, using a Creek Chub Striper Strike 2500 95% of the time, and didn't do any bait fishing, nor trolling, so the data can be directly compared to previous years. I caught 328 stripers this year, down from 355 in 2022, on 105 Stripeah Sorties. Mean (25.66") almost identical to Median, (24.50"), up a couple of inches from 2022, and that is most distressing. The past 5 years' poor spawns are patently obvious in the histogram , especially considering I only caught 5 bass less than 20" this year!!
Got my Maine Personal Best at 37" this year, that was one of 41 fish 28" or better, with 34 falling into the 28-31" slot. Out of those 34 "Keepahs", I kept 10, and was trying really hard as of late for one more to try a new recipe I got using pomegranate molasses. There's always next year.
Hope you all had a satisfying season too - R7
