BASS DERBY GOES SWIMMINGLY

2011 (June)Location: Shubenacadie River Attendance: 138Bass caught: 4Held late in the year, live bait was not permitted to be used by non-aboriginals. The derby is now held the last weekend before bait season closes. No li-cense was required because this part of the river is Tidal Waters.

2012 (May)Location: Stewiacke RiverAttendance: 258Bass caught: 77

2013 (May)Location: Stewiacke RiverAttendance: 421Bass caught: 113

In 2012 & 2013, the bait season was open to everyone. No li-cense was required, though this part of the river is considered to be Inland Waters; special per-mission was granted by Depart-ment of Fisheries and Oceans Canada and Inland Fisheries. A “scientific day” for the species, the Striped Bass Research Team was on-site to gather data from the bass caught.

Through the years...

Lea-Ann Julian,Volunteer, Shubenacadie First Nation Annual Striped Bass Derby

INSIDE THIS ISSUEStudent Profiles: Freya Keyser: 2 Striped Bass Movement Julia Whidden: 3 Minas Basin At-Risk Species

From the Angler Surveys: 4 Popular Baits & Lures

Striped Bass Stewardship 5

Help Monitor Striped Bass 5

Research & Fun at Weir 6

Bramber Bass Bonanza 6 Recap

Community Partner Profile: 7 Darren Porter

The Story of the Old Striper 7

Stripers on the Annapolis: 8 A historical perspective

the official newsletter of the Striped Bass Research Team at Acadia University issue 1 spring 2014

Enjoying the Shubenacadie Bass Derby. (Photo Credit: Lea-Ann Julian)

For years, an annual striped bass fishing derby was ‘just a thought’ for Keith Julian. Keith hails from the Shubenacadie First Nation (Indian Brook) in Nova Scotia where he is an elected of-ficial to the Shubenacadie Band Council. His hometown First Nation is the home of the 1752 Treaty. Keith is very knowledge-able in his treaties and he also has an impeccable understand-ing of the tensions between Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal people when it comes to fishing. In 2011, Keith presented the idea of a derby to the band council and together they agreed that only good could come from it. The primary focus of this derby is “Community Relation-ship Building” - bringing all people together, if only for a day. Information sharing is the key component in achieving or focus at each derby. Keith has always been an avid fisherman taught by his father, Stephen Julian, and now passes that down onto his children today - including myself. One of the most important lessons I received from my father was not to play, waste or abuse: take only what you will eat, or what someone has requested you catch for them. Over the past 10-15 years, Keith promotes the idea that gaining knowledge leads to understanding. This process is necessary for our communi-ties to move forward together. The first derby was held on the banks of the Shubena-cadie River in June 2011. It was

a very cold and rainy day which forced him to close it down early and carry it over to the next day for a total of 12 hours of derby time. There were only 4 Bass caught over 2 days (12 hrs). The longest being only 20 inches! In 2012, Keith broadened his search for sponsorships and location. In doing so, otherorganizations jumped on board to take part in this very unique event. After speak-ing with other anglers in the area, he decided that having the event earlier in May and on the Stewiacke River would be

/see DERBY on page 2

DERBY cont.more suitable for everyone. Last year, 2013, has been our best year yet - growing from $3,000 in our first year to over $10,000 in sponsors! We consistently promote outdoor living in terms of the prizes. Canadian Tire (Truro) offers us tremendous discounts for most of the prizes. We’ve al-ways had at least one canoe

for the grand prize, but last year we had a canoe and a Jon boat, among other great prizes. The Shubenacadie First Na-tion Annual Striped Bass Derby is a non-profit event; it is free to enter & is open to all ages. Priz-es are awarded in various catego-ries throughout the derby. Members of DFO, Striped Bass Anglers Association of Nova Scotia, Natural Resources,

Freya Keyser,Acadia Centre for Estuarine Research, M.Sc. Candidate, Acadia University

A tidal energy turbine test site has been established in the Minas Passage (between Cape Split and Parrsboro) of the Bay of Fundy, and turbine deploy-ments are expected as early as 2015. The passage, however, is also used by migratory fish species, including the endan-gered Bay of Fundy striped bass population. The purpose of my project is to identify movement patterns of this population that help to assess the potential risks of tidal energy development and to inform future conservation efforts.

To identify striped bass movement within the Minas Passage, near-shore areas of the Minas Basin and at the spawn-ing grounds in Stewiacke River, an acoustic tracking system was used. Eighty-five striped bass were tracked using surgically implanted acoustic transmitters, and bottom-moored acoustic receivers. When a tagged fish swims within the range of a re-ceiver, the receiver records the depth and identification code of the fish, as well as the date and time. At the end of each deploy-

STUDENT PROFILETemporal and spatial movement patterns

of striped bass in the Minas Passage

Mi’Kmaq Conservation Group and of course Acadia University participate in this event; bringing lots of information and helping hands with them! We’ve hosted anglers from all over Atlantic Canada - from New Brunswick, PEI, Cape Breton, HRM, Yarmouth & Digby. We’ve had a lot of nice compliments, the most memo-rable one being from Mr. Greg

Stevens from DFO – “I have to admit to you Keith, I never thought this would fly, but I take my hat off to you now, great job.” If you are interested in sponsoring or participating next year, please contact:Keith Julian,Shubenacadie First Nation Band Council Member902-805-0145

Spatial distribution of detections from December 2012 to May 2013 of striped bass tagged in 2012. The size of each circle is proportional to the number of detections at each location. Transmitter identification codes are given above each plot; codes beginning with “S”, “G”, and

“K” correspond to individuals tagged in Stewiacke, Grand Pré, and Kingsport, respectively. (Figure Credit: Freya Keyser)

ment period (May-December 2011 and May 2012 – April 2013), receivers were recovered, and downloaded to a computer for analysis. Of the 85 striped bass tagged, 56 were detected (64%). During the May-No-vember 2011 deployment, there was no clear seasonal pattern of striped bass movement in Minas Passage. During the 2012-2013 deployment, larger individuals were often detected in the pas-sage, especially in the winter months. Striped bass generally occupied the top 40 m of the water column, with some large bass using a wider range of depths. Interestingly, individual striped bass made multiple crossings of the Minas Passage

and many passed through the turbine test site at proposed tur-bine heights. While this could be of concern, it is possible that striped bass will be able to detect and avoid the turbines once in-stalled; this ability remains un-known and will require further study. Currently we are analyzing data collected in the Minas Basin and Stewiacke River, and trying to better understand the winter activity of striped bass in Minas Passage. This information will further strengthen our knowl-edge about the endangered Bay of Fundy population and the specific migratory groups within the population, and will benefit conservation and management efforts.

Freya holds a striped bass measuring 65.6 cm (fork length) that was detected 830 times between June 19 and October 17, 2012, at 28 differ-

ent locations in the Minas Passage and Minas Basin.(Photo Credit: Jeremy Broome)

I am a Masters student in Dr. Trevor Avery’s research lab at Acadia University as a mem-ber of the Striped Bass Research Team, and I have been working under his supervision for almost 3 years. I began my research in 2012, studying Little skate and Winter skate in the Minas Ba-sin. Both species are considered at risk. We sampled and tagged skates at Darren Porter’s weir in Bramber, NS, in order to esti-mate skate population size in the Minas Basin and to determine important baseline information about these species. Since there is currently no commercial or recreational fishery for skate in Canada, there has been little ef-fort – up to now – to assess them in the Minas Basin. My research expanded to include striped bass in 2013 and I will continue study-ing all three species until 2014*. Myself and my tagging partner, Danielle Quinn, will be hard at work this spring and summer tagging and studying stripers and skates in Minas Basin and con-ducting community outreach. Beginning in April 2013, we collect skate and striped bass population data, tag fish at the Bramber weir, and spread aware-ness about our research through community events across the Maritimes. This past February, Danielle Quinn and I worked in partnership with the Mi’kmaw Conservation Group to put on striped bass and skate tagging workshops to First Nations groups across the province. We travelled to Millbrook, Indian Brook, Glooscap, Annapolis Valley, Pictou Landing and Fort Folly (New Brunswick) and we were completely blown away by

the response! Over 75 people participated, with a great mix of young, old, male and female anglers interested in striped bass conservation and how they can be of help. We had many open discussions about what to do if you catch a striped bass (see below), how to tag a fish, safe handling practices, our current research efforts, and how to be-come a member of the Striped Bass Research Team. While not everyone was interested in get-ting their hands dirty, we truly enjoyed the opportunity to meet and ‘talk stripers’ to people with experiences far different from our own. We thank the Mi’kmaw Conservation Group for or-ganizing these events, as well as everyone who came out to learn! However, getting commu-nities engaged is just one piece of the puzzle in expressing why this research is so important. The dynamic tides of the Bay of Fundy make it an ex-tremely unique environment, and the biodiversity in its depths has learned to adapt to this chal-lenge. However, a variety of marine organisms in the Bay now face additional threats that put their populations at risk. My project looks at 3 different fish species in the Minas Basin that share similar threats such as overfishing, habitat loss, and the installation of tidal power turbines. Little skate, Winter skate, and striped bass are all valuable contributors to the ma-rine ecosystem, and in order to effectively conserve these spe-cies so that they are available for anglers for generations to come, we must collect accurate information about their popu-

lations to compare against fluc-tuations in future populations. Conservation action works best if more people are in-volved. For all those who love to fish stripers, keep an eye out for small, brightly coloured tags sticking out of the dorsal spine area of your fish! There are several research teams tagging striped bass across the Mari-times and each team uses differ-ent tags. Some are very expen-sive acoustic tags that transmit a fish’s location using satellites, while other tags - like ours - are just individually-numbered plas-tic tags that essentially give each fish a unique name. Our striped bass tags are about 3 inches long, bright yellow, and have “ACA-DIA BIOLOGY BASS####” on one side, where “####” represents a 4-digit number, and

our research website, “www.trackmyfish.ca” on the other side. Skate tags are pink with a similar numbering scheme. If you catch a striper or skate with a numbered tag, the infor-mation (tag colour, number) can be uploaded to our tag-tracking database at www.trackmyfish.ca. You will receive instant feed-back on where and when your fish was first tagged, and will be sent updates as soon as your fish is recaptured by another angler. This website, and an accompa-nying mobile phone app, will be up and running by summer 2014. In the meantime, information on any tagged fish can be sent to stripedbass@acadiau.ca – just visit our website for more details!

*The current striped bass and skate research project is funded until 2015.

Julia Whidden,M.Sc. Candidate, Acadia University

STUDENT PROFILEConservation of At-Risk Fishes in Minas Basin

Acadia University Masters Candidate Julia Whidden holds a skate at Darren Porter’s weir in Bramber, NS. (Photo Credit: Danielle Quinn)

FROM THE ANGLER SURVEYS The input of anglers is in-credibly important to the con-servation of species targeted by recreational activities. In 2011, our research team prepared an Angler Survey for striped bass anglers, with questions ranging from fishing habits and equip-ment to regulation feedback to

the economics of fishing. Every year, more anglers com-plete the surveys, providing data to paint a better picture of the striped bass fishing community’s influence across the province. Below are some figures demon-strating preliminary results from completed surveys. Thanks to

all who have participated! If you or someone you know fishes striped bass in the Mari-times, and not yet completed our Angler Survey, it is avail-able both on our website, and in print. If you, or someone you know, would like one in print, please contact us.

CONTACT INFOwebsite: www.stripedbass.ca

e-mail: stripedbass@acadiau.ca phone: 902 585 1873

The data presented in this issue all relate to fishing gear

and equipment used when fishing Striped Bass.

STRIPED BASS STEWARDSHIPTrevor Avery,Striped Bass Research Team, Acadia University

What is stewardship? How can stewardship help striped bass? Who is involved in stew-ardship? These questions are often asked of the Striped Bass Research Team when they head to the field, fishing derby, or out-reach meeting. A basic under-standing about what stewardship is will help you understand some of the articles in this newsletter. In a basic way, stewardship is the “people” side of conservation. But what, then, is conservation?Conservation is about the long-term protection of a species. Conservation should not be confused with ‘preservation’ which, in ecology, is most often the term applied in a last-ditch effort to keep a species from extinction. To ‘preserve’ is to maintain something in its exist-ing state, whereas to ‘conserve’ is to protect something from harm or destruction. The distinction is

important. When biologists speak of con-servation, they are often con-cerned with populations; that is, groups of individuals distinct from other groups of the same species. Often populations occu-py specific areas and can overlap in space or time. Habitats are an important component of stew-ardship and usually the ‘easiest’ way to protect a species is to protect its habitat. Species, habi-tat, and conservation are tightly linked. Stewardship is the activity of protecting and being responsible for something, and stewards take up this charge. The Habitat Stew-ardship Program (HSP) provides funding to support programs designed to enlist volunteers to become stewards, train stewards in stewardship activities, and measure the outcomes of these activities. The goal is to create a

self-sustaining program that will ultimately conserve a species. But conservation has another goal; to continue to allow activi-ties in conjunction with a spe-cies. In this case, conservation of striped bass conserves striper populations, but does so while retaining recreational angling.Striped bass stewards include people from Federal and Provin-cial agencies, academics, com-mercial fishers, and recreational anglers all working towards striped bass conservation. Stew-ards can protect the habitat with-in which striped bass reside, or protect stripers directly through activities like catch-and-release, safe fish handling, or simply fol-lowing fishing regulations. Being a steward requires participation, knowledge, an open mind, and a willingness to try new things. Stewardship programs require more than just stewards. Environment Canada sup-

ports projects on habitat stew-ardship through two programs: HSP for Species At Risk and Aboriginal Fund for Species at Risk (AFSAR). In 2013, the Striped Bass Research Team at Acadia University, the Mik’maq Conservation Group, and the Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance were all awarded funding to sup-port monitoring, surveys, out-reach and awareness, and human impact mitigation of stripers. These groups have the help of many volunteers (these are the stewards!). This newsletter is one avenue to provide news about these projects and to provide a forum for striped bass conserva-tion, historical information, and other research being conducted on this majestic species! For more information about the Striped Bass Research Team, projects and research on striped bass and stewardship, please vis-it: www.stripedbass.ca.

HELP MONITOR STRIPED BASSSana Kavanagh,Research and Education Officer, Mi’kmaw Conservation Group

Are you an avid striped bass fisher?

Do you want to learn more about striped bass in Nova Scotia?

If so, you can help monitor striped bass while you fish. Over the next two years, Mi’kmaw Conservation Group (MCG) and Dr. Trevor Avery of Acadia University will monitor striped bass. We need help from MCG community members to make this project a success. Volunteer-ing is fun and it’s a way to show respect for and give back to a fish that has given so much. Every time a striper is caught, there is a chance to learn more about this feisty fish. If a few scales are carefully removed from the fish, they tell a story. Each scale has DNA that shows

how groups of striped bass from one area are related to an-other. Other info like length and weight can also inform us about the population. Volunteers will learn how to collect scales and keep them safe. One of the coolest parts of this project is tagging. We will teach fishers how to put a small tag on the striped bass before releasing it. When tagged fish are re-caught, we can learn how striped bass move around Nova Scotia. There will be workshops on tagging, scale samples, and other skills. There will also be regular meetings for striped bass fishers and events to involve the youth. A lot of important information about striped bass comes from

people who fish. If you fish for striped bass, you are the volunteer we’re look-ing for! If you’d like to volunteer or learn more about this project, please check out our website, email me at or call the Mi’kmaw Conservation Group. We look

forward to working with you - thanks!website:www.mikmawconservation.cae-mail: skavanagh@mikmawcon-servation.caphone: 902-895-6385toll free: 1-877-892-2424

Tagging Research and Fun Collide at WeirWilliam Roberts,Striped Bass Research Team, Acadia University

It was a hot sunny after-noon when I made my first trek out to the fish weir of Darren Porter in Bramber. The winding backroads had disoriented me entirely but when we arrived at the rocky, reddish beach, the all-too-recognizable form of Cape Blomidon was visible through the haze across the reflective waves of the Minas Basin. I was there to assist Julia Whidden, a new Masters student in Acadia’s Biology program. For months, she had been vis-iting Darren’s weir at low tide, day and night, tagging fish and collecting data as part of on-go-ing research projects. For each alive skate, sturgeon and striped

bass, Julia records lengths and some weights, then affixes each with an identifying FLOY tag. These tags, often yellow, blue or pink, feature a unique ID num-ber and contact information for the research team. This year, in addition to ID numbers, Julia’s tags also display the text www.trackmyfish.ca, a new website created to streamline the process of reporting tags. These tag IDs are used for population estimate studies for recaptures, but when reported by commercial and rec-reational anglers, they can help create migration paths. For years, Darren has gra-ciously allowed Acadia students to visit the weir and collect data

for their projects, tagging and releasing species that he does not catch and sell as bait to local anglers. I was surprised to dis-cover that Julia and I were not the only visitors to the weir that day. It has become common-place for both locals and tourists to join Darren’s team at the weir, either walking along the mud-flats or hitching a ride by trac-tor. While Darren’s team works efficiently to process and sort their catch, the public is free to roam the shallow water, excited to see which species were caught this time, trying to catch fish by hand and admiring the diversity of our ocean neighbours. As a research assistant, I am

no stranger to wrestling feisty sturgeon, being squirted by scared squid and getting down and dirty in the name of science. It was, however, really great to see so many people – dozens of adults and children alike – in-terested in biodiversity, learning about conservation and helping out with data collection and re-search. Without the help of the public, our efforts wouldn’t be as successful. A big thank you to those who get involved in conservation and rescue projects, and a big thank you to Darren Porter for allow-ing and helping the public to ex-plore the ocean floor for them-selves in exciting, natural ways.

BRAMBER BASS BONANZA RECAPJulia Whidden,M.Sc. Candidate, Acadia University

The 1st annual Bramber Bass Bonanza couldn’t have received a warmer welcome, from both the anglers and the weather! The even took place on the 12th and 13th of July, with the scorch-ing sun bringing out both an-glers and bass of all sizes! Six-teen bass were entered over the course of the weekend, ranging from 28” to 40”. Anglers were able to fish all over the county, returning to Darren Porter’s lot in Bramber with their keepers for official measuring and pho-tos. The weekend also featured striped bass awareness outreach from myself and field partner Danielle Quinn, focusing on our tagging program, promot-ing Acadia Biology’s new fish tracking website trackmyfish.ca, and encouraging safe practices for handling and releasing bass. The weekend concluded with a filleting demonstration by Wil-fred Ogilvie and Darren Porter. A crowd gathered to watch the

fishermen expertly prepare their fish and share recipes. A gener-ous angler even donated a piece of his bass to me! Having never tried it, I instantly accepted his offer and proceeded to barbecue and enjoy this beautiful – and tasty - fish. The winning bass of the bo-nanza was reeled in by 10-year-old Hunter Heart, at a whopping 40 inches and 9 kg. The cham-pion may have needed his dad’s help to hold up his prized fish, but he was generously rewarded with a free mount of his bass, donated by Duncan Crawford of Charlottetown, PEI. Other prizes were awarded for the smallest bass, at 28 inches, and the second and third largest bass, at 36 inches and 34 ¼ inches, re-spectively. Two draws brought some last-minute luck to Randy Parker and Craig Pickrem, who each won a high-quality bass fishing rod donated by Darren Porter.

Ten-year-old Hunter Heart with his winning bass, weighing in at 9kg and measuring 40 inches long. (Photo Credit: Danielle Quinn)

COMMUNITY PARTNER PROFILE: DARREN PORTERJulia Whidden,M.Sc. Candidate, Acadia University Darren Porter says his pas-sion for fishing can be traced back to his childhood, recalling it has always being his dream. At the age of 16, he was finally able to gain his first fishing license – a free license for clams distrib-uted out of Dartmouth. Soon after, he sought bigger adven-tures, sitting on every wharf in the county, begging to be hired by any fishermen. After many unsuccessful attempts, he began his first business selling clams at about 80$ a tide, enough to sus-tain himself at that time. As his family grew, he gave up fishing to work at a mill in Hantsport. Five years later, he was offered a job by a clam fisher and moved to PEI to be engulfed once again by his passion for fishing. While his re-emergence onto the fishing scene had him living in an 18.5 foot trailer on PEI for 7 months of the year for 6 years, he was eventually able to begin collecting fishing licenses. Across his fishing career, Darren has owned and operated oyster and mussel aquaculture farms

in both PEI and Cape Breton, as well as shad, gaspereau, eel, clam, and smelt licenses in Nova Scotia. It was only three years ago that he was able to purchase his current weir license off of Rusty Linkletter. Now two years deep into the weir, Darren attracts thousands of guests – both cu-rious fish and people – each season. To him, the game of commercial fishing is one of constant evolution. As he seeks to fish new species, he also opens his weir to biologists like myself, generously offering up his piece of the ocean floor as our summer office of explora-tion and discovery. Darren’s understanding of the importance of scientific re-search and education has provid-ed Acadia University’s biology department with an invaluable resource. We thank he and his crew of Donna Dowe, Erica Porter, and Noel Geser for be-ing so unbelievably welcoming to biologists and the public alike.

The top bass! Bamber Bass Bonanza 2013 - Biggest CatchesL to R: Mike Smith (31”), Pam Chandler (30”),

Jamie Leopold (29.5”), Danielle Pickrem (28.5”), Kim Heart (30”), and Hunter Heart (40”) (with his father) (Photo Credit: Danielle Quinn)

The Story of THE OLD STRIPERCompiled by Trevor Avery,Striped Bass Research Team, Acadia University

Background Striped bass have been tagged several times over the past 30 years by various researchers and agencies. If you catch a striped bass (or any fish) with a tag in it, record the number or, as a last resort, pull the tag out and return the information to the ad-dress on the tag, or (even easier) to www.trackmyfish.ca – and we’ll be sure to get the informa-tion to the owner and put your name in for a prize draw!! Here is a story about a striper tagged almost 30 years ago! In May of 2010, a large striped bass was caught in a net during the gaspereau drift net fishery in the Shubenacadie River. Maja Reinhartsen, then a Research Assistant at Acadia, collected information on this fish when it was landed and returned the tag to Trevor Avery who found out the following information upon contacting Roger Rulifson (as per the tag address). Two scales were taken for aging and genetic stock determination. The scale age contradicts age at sea, but it has been demonstrated that age from scales underestimates ac-tual age in larger stripers.

StatisticsYears at Sea: 24 years, 7 months, 7 days since releaseApproximate age (based on age-at-tagging plus years-at-sea): 27-28 years

Scale age: growth rings on scale in-dicate 15 years (by M. Dadswell, J. Broome, M. MacLean)

Tagging InformationDate caught: 3 October 1985Tagged by: Roger Rulifson, Senior Scientist/Professor, Institute for Coastal Science and Policy/Biol-ogy, East Carolina University Location: Caught and tagged in Gerald’s Weir, Five Islands, Nova ScotiaTag number: DMF BOX 769 MHRD. City, N.C./R.R. 00828-C, (Department of Marine Fish-eries, North Carolina)Length: 396 mm FL (39.6 cm) or 15.6 inches FLBody Depth: 100 mm (10 cm)Pattern: Broken linesAge: 3 years (approximated by size and scale aging)

Recapture InformationDate recaptured: 10 May 2010Recaptured by: Randy Blake and Maja ReinhartsenLocation: Caught by Shubena-cadie River Fisherman’s Asso-ciation gaspereau drift netters in the Shubenacadie River. Maja was conducting a by-catch sur-vey for striped bass at the time.Length: 107.95 cm TL (105.41 cm FL) or 42.5 inches TLWeight: 16.27 kg or 35.8 lbsEntrapped: Entangled by the dorsal fin and spines.Condition: Healthy, until taken as a keeper (before tag was noticed)

Dart tag retreived from striped bass in the Stewiacke River, over 24 years after insertion at Five Islands.

(Photo Credit: Steve Mockford)

In this issue, we begin a series on striper fishing along the Annapolis River with angler accounts of the recre-ational fishery in this area followed by statistics from the angling records kept

at Dunromin Campground (eds.).

STRIPERS ON THE ANNAPOLIS: A historical perspective

Nicole Oliver,Annapolis River Resident,formerly with the Clean AnnapolisRiver Project (CARP)

Like ripples in the wake of a canoe, we leave evidence of our journey on the world around us. We harvest natural resources, build our communities and grow our economies. It is with good intentions that we progress, but there are always consequences that cannot be predicted. For anyone with knowledge of the species, it is obvious that there has been a significant reduc-tion in the striped bass popula-tion on the Annapolis River. In the 1960’s a causeway was built between Granville Ferry and Annapolis Royal to replace a previously existing bridge. The causeway is an important transportation link for the area, as well as a safeguard for 1740 ha of dyked land upstream by controlling the flow of headwa-ter through sluice gates. In 1984 Nova Scotia Power, making use of the causeway, installed the first modern tidal power gener-ating station in North America on Hogg Island. To this day, the tidal power station continues to generate power on the ebb tide. There have been a wide range of scientific studies on the Annapolis River focused around the tidal generating sta-tion and threats it may pose, or contribute, to fish mortal-ity, recruitment and passage. Though no single influence can be identified as the source for the decline in striped bass populations on the river, there are strong indicators for what contribute to its fragility.

In this issue, we feature:Doug Parker

As a young man, Doug Parker would spend the sum-mers fishing for striped bass in and around Annapolis Royal. “Every summer, 3 or 4 other boys and I would fish for striped bass in Allain’s Creek, a tributary of the Annapolis River. One of the boys’ homes was backed by a stream which connected to Al-lain’s Creek, where we’d put our rowboat in. Every day in July and August, on the incoming tide, with a rod and reel each boy would catch at least half a dozen

18-24” bass or “bake-able” size.” “If we wanted to catch big-ger fish, we would go to the bridge, which spanned the river, between Granville Ferry and Annapolis Royal. Early in the morning, we would go to Cum-mings’ Grocery Store and buy frozen herring. Then we’d cut it up and put it on hand lines with a weight and fish the outgoing tide. It was not unusual to count 20 people fishing off the bridge.” “Although it was summer, it was chilly fishing on the bridge so early in the mornings. I re-member one time trying to land

a fish with cold hands. I’d pull up the line and bring the fish up to the rail and almost flip it over before losing my grip. I had to repeat the process several times before I finally landed it. It was well worth the effort, as the fish ended up weighing in at 14 lbs.” Fishing was good at this time and Dunromin Campground was establishing itself as apre-mier striped bass fishing desti-nation in Nova Scotia. Currently, Doug lives along the Annapolis River, above the causeway, but does not see stripers or striper anglers like when he was a boy.

“A big fish from the late 80s. Our oldest daughter and my wife are trying to hold the brute while I got the shot. Although not weighed, 50lbs+ would be a reasonable estimate.”

- Bruce Day’s account will be featured in our next issue.