Lots of big bass, but catching a 50 is still a rarity

Chuck Many specializes in catching big stripers from his Tyman out of Highlands, but even he often finds it hard to catch a 50 from among many 30-and-40-pounders. However, he finally added another to the Tyman’s substantial score from this fall’s NY/NJ Bight run on Tuesday with a 51-pounder.weight

Many has a 60-pound certified scale, and tags all of the boat’s stripers after recording length, girth and weight.

Fifty-pounders have always been hard to come by, and many great anglers have gone to their graves without ever catching one. In the old days, every 50 was weighed-in, and releasing them only started in recent years before new conservation laws required that anglers release all large bass.

The standard for determining striper weight has been a long-established formula — length in inches to fork of tail times girth in inches — divided by 800.

Unfortunately, many anglers use length to the tip of the tail in their calculations, which turn bass in the upper forties into fifties. The formula was developed when fork length was the standard measurement before a change to the tip of the tail when striper conservation started just a few decades ago. Anglers can correct that measurement by taking about four inches off their overall measurement.

One more on an eel for the Tyman

Monday’s forecast is for southeast winds at 10 knots.

The Golden Eagle from Belmar reported boat traffic made striper fishing tough on yesterday’s early departure trip. but they got a good shot in the afternoon on overs.