Striped Bass Cooperative Anglers Program

New York State would like your help!

Do you want to have a more active role in the conservation and management of striped bass? By joining the NYS DEC Striped Bass Cooperative Anglers Program (SBCA), you can take part in an effort to help manage and maintain a healthy striped bass population.

New York State is required by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) to supplement the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP) with additional information from our recreational fishery. We satisfy this requirement with the help of New York State volunteer recreational anglers.

We provide volunteer anglers with logbooks to record information about their fishing trips, scale envelopes to take scales from striped bass, and instructions on what information is needed and how to properly collect it. The logbook information helps us determine the catch per unit effort (CPUE= fish caught/hours spent fishing) or fishing success for striped bass in New York waters. Scale samples are used to determine the age of the fish.

Striped Bass Cooperative Angler Newsletter

At the end of the year, all of the data is analyzed and presented in an annual Striped Bass Cooperative Angler Newsletter (PDF) giving you an inside look into how striped bass fishing was that year. In addition to the newsletter, all anglers that send in scale samples will receive a report documenting the ages of those fish.

Participate in the Striped Bass Cooperative Angler Program

By providing information about your fishing trips and the fish you catch, we can better understand and manage the striped bass fishery together! If you would like to participate in the Striped Bass Cooperative Angler Program and fish for striped bass in New York waters south of the George Washington Bridge, please contact the Diadromous Fish Unit at [email protected] or (631) 380-3320.

Note: If you primarily fish for striped bass north of the George Washington Bridge, the DEC has a separate Hudson River Cooperative Anglers Program.

Online Logbook

DEC has developed an online logbook for participating anglers to electronically log their trips using the Survey123 App from either a smartphone or computer! This survey has been designed to make entering data more efficient and user friendly, and we need participants to help us test it!

If you are interested in using the SBCA Online Logbook, you should first review the SBCA Online Logbook Instructions for Installation and Completion (PDF) and detailed instructions on how to download the application and send in trip logs.

Note: This online logbook is in a preliminary stage and we encourage anglers to keep a hard copy log book as well.

Did You Catch a Tagged Fish?

Please refer to the image and table below to report the tag to the appropriate Agency or Organization.

A printable Guide to Striped Bass Fish Tags (PDF) is also available.