Hooked on a feeling: Why striped bass are so fun to fish

This story is from this week's episode of the new CBC podcast Good Question, P.E.I.

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Here's what this week's CBC P.E.I. podcast question is NOT: Why would anyone sit for hours on the water's edge at a beach on a cool April evening?

That answer is too easy for Wayne Murphy of Kensington, and anyone else who fishes striped bass on P.E.I.

"It's pretty relaxing, quiet even. And you can watch the sunset and then you see the stars and sometimes you'll see a satellite go by or something," he said.

"And then if you get a bite, of course, it goes from being pretty relaxed to, you know, pretty intense all at once."

What Murphy asked for this week's episode of Good Question, P.E.I., is more about the striped bass itself. Or, as he puts it:"What's the deal with striped bass?"

14:27All about that bass (the fish kind)

The broad question piqued the interest of podcast host Nicola MacLeod, not just because angling season opened last week on P.E.I.When she was a kid, she rememberedseeing people arrive at the beach at the Cousins Shore while everyone else was leaving. Odd, she thought.

Coincidentally, Murphy may have been one of the people she saw. He's been fishing there for years, and like every good fisherman, he has a story about the one that got away.

'We'll have a good laugh about it'

It was last year. He was teaching his daughter how to fish. With his line still in the water, Murphy set down his rod for a second while he baited his daughter's hook.

Of course, that's when his rod got tugged out to sea by what he says must have been at least a 10-pound striped bass.

"I ran into the water but it was gone," he recalled."I said at the time ...you know, this isn't really all that funny now because it was about 230 bucks to get hooked up again with the new set.

"But I said sometime this coming winter, you know, we'll be having a beer in the pub in Kensington, we'll have a good laugh about it."

If it's any consolation, Murphy likely would have had to release the fish back into the ocean anyway.

Under Fisheries and Oceans Canada's conservation rules, fishers can catch up to four striped bass a day, but they have to be between 50 and 65 centimetres.

There's a good reason for that.

You get a good, I don't know, let's say seven or eight pound bass on there, you got a battle on your hands. Wayne Murphy

In 1995, there were as many as 75,000 fish in the Miramichi River estuary in New Brunswick, where all the striped bass from our region returned to spawn. The next year that number dropped to 5,000, and no one knows exactly why.

It led to a moratorium on fishing striped bass that lasted more than a decade. The population rebounded spectacularly and in 2012, the fishery began to reopen.

In 2022, DFO estimated the striped bass stock at more than 470,000.

"I've heard some anglers complain that there are actually toomany striped bass now and that they're eating the other fish they're trying to catch," said Cindy Breau, a research scientist with DFO.

"People have to realize that it's a native species and we're lucky that it's rebuilding."

Murphy is glad the bassstock isrebuilding. He plans to spend some evenings fishing at Cousins Shore this season, but he'll be sure to keep both hands on his rod.

"Pound for pound, I would say they're pretty good fighting fish, and maybe that's what attracts people to them," he said.

"So you get a good, I don't know, let's say seven or eight pound bass on there, you got a battle on your hands and they'll take a good run and usually it's after dark and so the whole team comes together and, you know, if you're lucky, you'll reel them in."

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