The Striped Bass: A Detective Story

In Part One of this inquiry into the character of the striped bass, the investigator followed a trail extending from Chesapeake Bay in Maryland to Bar Harbor, Maine. He had been surf casting and boat fishing, had interviewed Mr. L. L. Bean, proprietor of the famous Maine hunting and fishing equipment store, and Associate Justice William O. Douglas of the Supreme Court.

But he had seen no stripers.

The investigator decided to invade an abiding place of truth, the halls of science. He changed at Boston from Northeast Airlines to Mohawk and soon was sitting across the desk from Dr. Edward C. Raney in Room 206D of Fernow Hall on the campus of Cornell University at Ithaca. Dr. Raney, coordinator of all current striped bass research for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, showed the investigator a number of striped bass specimens in bottles, gave him a sheaf of scientific papers for his attache case and expressed regret that he could not spare his only copy of the classic study of the striper by Dr. Daniel Merriman of Yale University. How, in unscientific terms, to explain the hypnotic charm of the striper? Dr. Raney thought for a minute and then said:

"Men like to catch big things, and the striper grows to be big and handsome and he can be taken close to shore."

In his office at the Bingham Oceanographic Laboratory, of which he is director, Dr. Daniel Merriman of Yale University agreed to lend the investigator one of his two remaining copies of his own Life History of the Striped Bass. He wrote this paper as his graduate thesis after two years' intensive study of the striper in the field.

"A beloved and a beautiful fish," said Dr. Merriman, his eyes glowing with affection. "A graceful, hardy and courageous fish. A nifty fish, indeed."

When it was suggested that there had been some disparagement along the investigative trail of the striper as a fighter, Dr. Merriman shook his head.

"I have fished for them all and I say that the striper at from five to 10 pounds is as tough as any game fish, pound for pound. He is not as spectacular as the salmon or the bluefish or the trout, but he is a plugger and will make you work like the very devil."

As for eating him?

"The broiled filets of a five-to 10-pound striper are the tastiest eating I know of," said Dr. Merriman warmly. "Good heavens, my wife and I lived on them for two years while I was writing my paper!"