THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 17, 1996 TAG: 9610170513
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C10 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Fishing Forecast
SOURCE: Bob Hutchinson
LENGTH: 35 lines
This is it! Today is the day! The striped bass season is open!
The season opened at 12:01 this morning, when stripers became legal targets for anglers in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries.
It'll run through the remainder of the year. The basic rules: A 2-fish-a-day bag limit, an 18-inch minimum and no maximum size limit. Anything goes.
And as good as the fishing is right now, at least in most spots, it'll only get better, especially along the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
Reports of striper encounters around piers, docks, pilings, rocks, bridges and other structures have been mounting daily for several weeks. But until now, anglers have been required to release their catches.
If history repeats, and there is every reason to believe it will, the fish should become larger and more plentiful as the season wears into November and early December.
With balmy weather, stripers could be around at least until Christmas, perhaps even the New Year. Most veteran striper fishermen agree that some fish remain active until the water temperature drops to 40 degrees.
There are scores of spots in the lower Chesapeake where stripers can be caught. But nothing compares to the four artificial islands and almost countless pilings of the bridge-tunnel. It attracts stripers like a magnet attracts iron. MEMO: For complete text of forecast see microfilm. ILLUSTRATION: Color map by CNB