Striped bass vary considerably in size, ranging from18 to 55 inches in length and three to 70 pounds in weight. They are slow to mature and are long lived. In New York, female stripers do not mature until five to eight years old and fish 25 years old have been caught in the Hudson River. Smaller striped bass in the ten to 20 pound range generally travel in large schools. Adult striped bass are voracious feeders, primarily eating fish and invertebrates, especially crabs and squid.
Striped bass are anadromous, migrating to freshwater from the sea to spawn.
Spawning takes place in the Hudson River estuary in May and early June. Stripers broadcast their eggs near the surface over deep water that has some current or turbulence. The semi-buoyant eggs drift with the current and hatch in two to four days. By early summer, young striped bass move to shallow water nursery areas of Haverstraw Bay and the Tappan Zee. In early fall, they begin to move out of the estuary to nearshore coastal areas.