Bad news about Hudson River striper year class

Jim Hutchinson Jr. , editor of the Fisherman magazine, had bad news to pass along today. According to the NYDEC chart, the 2023 striped bass young-of-the-year iindex is significantly below the long-term average, indicating that last year may go down in the history books as one of the worst recruitment seasons for striped bass since the 1980s.

“NYDEC’s Hudson River striped bass YOY index value provides an estimate of annual recruitment for striped bass in the Hudson River. This index is generated through a beach seine survey at 13 sites along the lower Hudson River conducted bi-weekly from July to November.  In addition to the Hudson River seining efforts, NYDEC also collects striped bass data in the Western Long Island (WLI) survey. This survey captures predominantly 1-year-old fish and is used in striped bass stock assessments.” I’ll have more about this tomorrow.