I put about 60 nights in this year.That's much more than usual for me nowadays.In my mind, more trips equals more production,with everything else being equal.How many trips did you make this year? If you fished a lot more than usual, did your results reflect your efforts?

It paid off in the fall.. every night I could for a month, 1 fish over 20 about every other night...
It didn't pay off in late June - aug for the most part...

I fished much more this year than in the last 5 or so. I guess around 60 nights. More all-nighters than ever.
All in all, I caught less and smaller fish than in pervious years. My increase in effort did not result in an increase in fish, size or quantity.

Sad to say, If I had slept until 4am and tossed plugs for a few hours in the morning, I would have the same size and numbers as I did for all my effort this year. I did gain some valuable knowledge but overall I am disheartened by my results.

97 nights for me
good year

disappointing fall

lot of time, gas, $$$$ ...............all worth it

If you count the earliest trips (April) through the latest (Nov) it would be somewhere between 75-100. I would average 2-3 nights a week, and sometimes both weekend days/nights.
Keep in mind that I was splitting my time between high tides in Duxbury and low tides in the canal, so that my location would change based on the tides.
I was fortunate enough to have been in Duxbury for the spring blitz, and the canal in May when the parade of cows made their way north.
Although the fall didn't turn out as planned, I put in enough time to make it memorable for me.

I did close to 100 nights (maybe more :eek: ) I found this season to be a weird one altogether. The only thing that worked out the way I expected was may and June. Had a lot of good fish in that stretch. The summer was the worst I've ever had, traveled around and still had trouble getting numbers or size. As August gave way to Sept. things exploded. Several great nights for the whole month mostly on smaller (16-26#) fish the end of the month produced 5 30+ pound fish and one unweighed monster that I'm sure went over 40. October was disapointing overall, had a few good nights and a few good fish... then it was really starting to light up with big fish around 10/24 and then that big storm messed it all up. Caught a few decent fish in November, still a few around..... SO, 2006 will be the year that I loved and hated.....

-Dave

161 trips. Had lots of fun this year.

161 trips. Had lots of fun this year.

WOW...I hope after you stowed the gear away you took the wife out for a nice night on the town. She deserves it

I managed about 30-35 nights out including two weekends at Cutty. Didn't get out as much as i would have liked.....busy summer this year. Had 2 different 3 week stretches where I didn't get out at all.

All in all was my best season so far fish wise though Not as much quantity but the Quality was far better

I honestly have no clue how many times I fished. I figure I averaged 20 trips a month in June-October, maybe 15 in May, 5 or so in April and another 5 or so in November. That's based on the fact that a "trip" involves throwing a rod on the roof rack and driving 5 minutes to the Canal. So for a ballpark guess, 125 trips. Maybe a little more than 20 times in October.

Results equal to effort? Hard to say, since 90% of my fishing was heavy jigging. I had a nice pick of quality fish--meaning high teens/low 20s---going in July and early August when everyone was saying the Canal was dead. Better results quantity wise in June, September and October. I know I had some 50 fish nights in mid-October, but 9 shorts for every keeper and 20 shorts for every fish in the 20s. And when the big fish were around the last week of May, I couldn't break 25 lbs :huh:

I fish everyday in the am from April and still fishing I don't look @ it as to how many fish I catch each time I go out I enjoy each morning's sunrise and if the fishing gods are with me I catch fish. but I'm never disappointed when I don't catch. I look @ it as to honing my skills to be a better fisherman inside and out . all though I will say the fall I had has been great big fish and a lot of them.:kewl: the rocky shore line of So Co has it challengers let me ask you this in all the trips u make are the all form the same spots or do u put a lot of miles on your ride I fish 8 spots in all, all year long very rarely do I travel outside the area.

I actually fished less this year than the previous couple of years, guesstimate of maybe 90 nights this season.
I focused on just a few spots, where in the last couple years I was all over the place. Definitely my best season so far.

well this is my second full surfcasting season and I feel confident that I am making progress. Although I didn't catch any large this year, I consistantly found fish (even if they were only schoolies). I only got skunked a handful of times, which is great for me since last year I think I went through a month long dry spell without one fish. Overall I had a great time and think I saw rewards for my efforts.
Next year is going to be even better, I already have a bunch of new spots and techniques to try!

I caught "0" fish this year,,,but have gotten enough in the last 38 years to get me over this bump in the road.Maybe the nad's will be up to it next season.

161 trips. Had lots of fun this year.

Bill do you realize there are 154 days bewteen may 1 and October 31? That's some serious fishing :angel:

i am at 110 trips this year all from shore. my numbers are down both on the number of fish caught and size of fish.
been a bad year.

I have no friggin idea.I did fish a few times.
More than 10 less than 330.
I wish I could keep a log.
I tried it once but i could not read my own writing.
If my fishing starts to be like work then it's just too much.I work offa memory.Even then again i don't remember what I had for dinner last night..

Dave, Bill could have done that easily I was doing 2 a days for 3 weeks in june.I'm sure he was doing the same..I had to have 60 trips by july 1st easily.If u count fishing for bait (herring) i could have another 10 on top of that.

I fished way more than I ever have. I usually beat myself up fishing long nights the first 2 months of the season and then take a break when midsummer rolls around but this year I just shortened the duration of the trips and just kept going all season. The canals a short trip for me, so I was down there 5 or 6 nights a week from mid may thru october, I guess thats somewhere around 120+ nights.

This year I tried to fish smarter, rather than just long hours. I'd find maybe 3 hours or so on a tide where I'd find fish and I'd just work that part of the tide each night till the pattern changed.

Numbers wise, its hard to compare this year to others for me as I've never fished that many nights before. Spring was pretty good and I did well jigging, and I got a few decent fish on the few plugging trips I made in June. My best night for both size and numbers was in mid july, and I got my only 2 30's in august.

The fall run for me was a huge dissapointment. I had 2 or 3 nights with multiple 20's in late september but no 30's and nowhere near the numbers of good fish as I had the year before.

I went down to nantucket for the first week of october and that was a complete bust. And when I got back from there I had one last good night with a few 20's and from that point on there were so many schoolies you really had to work thru them to get a decent fish.

I too don't keep a log ... I went alot.. I use to keep a log and started getting that" have to do my homework" feeling ... sux the fun out of it .

Dave, Bill could have done that easily I was doing 2 a days for 3 weeks in june.I'm sure he was doing the same..I had to have 60 trips by july 1st easily.If u count fishing for bait (herring) i could have another 10 on top of that.

Tony, I know that I'm just playing around :gu: If I knew how many times I actually went I might seek therapy, I'll be adding another day to the ticker Thur.

-Dave

I would say my efforts were increased in frequency, but less in time. I fished 2-3 times a week for 4-5 hours, instead of 1-2 times per week for 7-8 hours. Seems to work for me, and the skunks don't feel as bad when its a short trip. Only did one all nighter and froze my pills off. Also, the shorter trips don't deprive you of as much sleep, thus I have the energy to go several times per week. I experienced about the same as canalman with a good spring, decent summer, slow early fall, and real good late sept/early oct. Quit in late october, lost interest. Any more than the 60 nights and I'm in divorce court.:huh:

I probably fished 40 times, less than usual. I'll fish a lot next year. This year consisted mostly of jigging the canal, some plugging, and a lot of time on boats throwing jigs and rubber. Next year I'll be in night mode, I just didn't get the size fish I wanted this year, gotta change things up.

according to my wife and daughter, i fished 72 days from memorial day till last week. and another 12 days in Florida and 2 in assetegue on the way home.living in VT all my trips are devoted to fishing so i spend any where from 10 to 18 hrs a day fishing,.up until october all my fishing was on the outer cape. ithe bass fishing was pretty poor to say the least. a few good nights in may and one good morning july.august was horrible from the beach, that god for the kayak.the bluefish were numerous,averaged around 10 a day.the fall i fished LI and did very well the3 trip imade there.fished around 15 days on LI had fish almost everyday, most between 12 and 20 lbs, with very few shorts.mu largest was 30lbs on live bunker

Bill do you realize there are 154 days bewteen may 1 and October 31? That's some serious fishing :angel:

...and the way he came up with 161 was because, I know for a fact, he went twice a day on several days during the Summer. Morning run and an early/late night run. I did several with him. 2 a days burn you out real quick but it's easier in the boat to do twice a day...
I have no idea how many trips I made. between the boat and surf well over 100