The Guide Post

Capt. Cody Rubner is joined by Kyle and Grizz, two friendly faces and good souls leading the charge for Soul Fly Co. Their mission is simple: bring people together in an event made by the people, for the people. We'll see you at Soul Fly Boston later this month!

The Menhaden fight grows louder, but unfortunately for the resource, the discussions grow murkier. A massive error in the stock assessment has changed the entire management picture. In this episode, Tony Friedrich, Mario Campo and Jake Hardy break down why the Bay Cap, the coastwide TAC, and the push for reallocation all demand your nuanced attention right now if you care about forage fish, stripers, ospreys, whales, or the future of the fishery. In episode 220, we break down how a corrected natural mortality estimate from a 1960s tagging study helped expose an overharvest problem that has quietly added up to hundreds of millions of pounds. This episode translates the mortality math into plain English and explains why the current management response is still not enough. With additional biological and policy context, it’s hard to deny why a coastal stock issue cannot be solved by shuffling quota from one region to another.

The striped bass fishery has collapsed, the data accounting is warped and the biggest warning signs are being buried in plain sight. Here’s everything you need to know about the immediate future of striped bass management…

The old stock assessment models, with fixed effects and oversimplified assumptions, have failed to capture the true biological and spatial complexity of striped bass populations. Now, a cutting-edge model called WAM (Woods Hole Assessment Model) promises to deliver a far more realistic picture — but only if we understand its potential and pitfalls.In this episode, we dive into the heart of the debate: Can the new WAM model address longstanding flaws like fixed mortality rates and unreliable data inputs? In this episode, scientists and anglers unpack how the transition from traditional catch-at-age models to probabilistic, spatially explicit frameworks could reshape our understanding of recruitment, natural mortality, and spawning stock biomass. We explore the limitations of basic assumptions—like constant mortality across fish sizes—and reveal how outdated science has misled managers, impacting regulations and future conservation efforts.