Thursday, October 22, 2026

Question: Striped bass are one of California’s most popular game fish, but they aren’t actually native to the state. How did they get here?

Answer: By train. In 1879, California’s fish commission shipped 132 young striped bass by rail from New Jersey’s Navesink River and released them into San Francisco Bay. They thrived, and those fish, along with a second batch brought west in 1882, established California’s striped bass population.