Stripers, also known as rockfish, tend to bring out a bit of craziness in folks this time of year. Part of this is because they appeal equally to fishermen and foodies—fun to catch and nice to eat. A sturdy fish with a torpedo-like body, iridescent blue and green and etched with dark stripes, the striper has the piscine equivalent of a lantern jaw. While it isn’t that elusive or rare, fishermen love the striper for its fight. And chefs, vendors and consumers laud its culinary qualities. Tim Sughrue, a former marine biologist and now co-owner of Jessup, Maryland-based Congressional Seafood, which sells to restaurants from North Carolina to New York, describes the striper as “a white, mild, flaky fish that has great appeal … . People are willing to pay a lot of money for it—sometimes I have to pay an awful lot for it if there’s not much around.”
Dave Whitby, owner of Yellow Umbrella Seafood in Richmond, is one of Sughrue’s regular customers. He praises the delicate flavor and non-steakiness of the fish, which makes it versatile enough for grilling, pan-searing or roasting. “Striper is king around here,” he says.
That’s especially true in the autumn, when the fish makes its appearance in the Chesapeake Bay. Like many fish, the striper is migratory. Each year in September, after summering in the waters of northern New England, the striped bass begins moving southward to follow its favored prey, menhaden, as it heads for warmer waters. The striper is compelled by instinct to bulk up for the winter, which it will spend off the Virginia and North Carolina capes. Then, in the spring, it will swim back to the freshwater streams where it was born, to spawn. “They find their way back by their sense of smell,” Sughrue says. “It’s implanted on them, like a salmon, except they don’t die.” After that, larger striped bass will migrate north for the summer, and the smaller, younger ones will remain as resident rockfish in the Bay.
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