Witnessing Striped Bass Spawning

Type: Chesapeake
Region: Eastern
Location: Choptank River

I was fortunate enough to witness a striped bass spawn on the Choptank and Nanticoke Rivers on April 15th and 16th. The male fish seem to be so intoxicated with hormones that they were bumping my canoe. My guess is that they felt the displacement of water of the canoe with their lateral lines and thought my canoe was a gigantic female striped bass. Male striped bass often bump the bellies of ripe female striped bass as they fin in the current; to encourage them to release their eggs so the male striped bass can fertilize them. This is the second large spawn I�ve witnessed this month; the first was the 4th through the 7th of April on the same two rivers. There are reports that the Potomac River in the region of Fort Washington to above the Wilson Bridge and the upper Patuxent went off at the same time. The striped bass from this latest spawn should be making their way out into the bay by the middle of this week if not sooner. I would expect another noticeable spawn once we have a few days of warm weather again.