View Full Version : Bigger Fish,or Better Fishermen?


Sudsrat
02-01-2006, 06:33 PM
I've been a surfcaster for just about 6 years now.Really love this part of my life.Not just the catching of fish,but the whole atmosphere.
The beauty of the places I've fished.The friendships I've developed, both on the sand and on the websites.The mystique of a dark nite on
a lonely beach.You know,all the things involved in the sport we cherish.
My local waters are in Jersey.I fish them often and have done quite well.I've also had the good fortune to travel and fish the beaches of Cape Cod and all of the Outer Banks,NC.
Most,no,all of my biggest fish,both bass and blues, have come from either up North or down South.
I know NJ is a small stretch of the migration and that the fish summer up North and winter off the Carolinas.And I also know that the most valuable tool we have is the time we spend "out there".From what I've personally witnessed and read on the net,it seems that for the most part,more big fish are caught on a more consistent basis in the Montauk and North areas and the Virginia and south area.
What I'm asking is:
Is it because there are more larger fish in residence that get caught,or is that the fishermen in these areas are "better" fishermen?Or should I say,more dedicated and experienced.I realize that there alot of "better"
fishermen out there than I.There is so much more to learn.What's the definition of a "better" fisherman anyway?One who catches lots of fish consitently,or alot of large fish....?
When I travel around the web, and see pics and here talk of the size of the fish alot of anglers are catching,it astounds me.
Please don't take this as a so and so is a "better" fishermen than so and so post.Wasn't meant to be that!

Rappin Mikey
02-01-2006, 07:30 PM
More bait. Where there's more bait (for longer periods) there's more fish.

Backbeach Jake
02-01-2006, 07:41 PM
I think that fishermen now are more skilled and more importantly, better equipted. The tools of yore were a little primitive compared to what we can and do buy now. Guys have learned to target trophy fish, too. When we start seeing lots and lots of large tho, I get the heebie-jeebie flashback to just before the crash in the striper population. One year we had tons of big fish and the next you couldn't find any. That leaves a scar. We still have lots of twinkies, thank God, or I'd be really scared.