Worst ever. Been a month since I had a legal fish in the boat. Limited number of trips, but I put in the time on those trips. Saw a few small fish give a pass at macks yesterday. Expanded my search area southward too, yesterday. Saw a surface blitz returning home, but only one boat hooked up out of eight casting. And it was a 12 inch fish.
Going to be changing up some tactics and go to strictly night time fishing for a while. Or target cod or tuna... It got like a washing machine out there early with boat traffic.
I know I am not alone, but in the past I would be quite sure I would be able to put at least one in the boat. Not this year..... A dozen macks got released at the mooring yesterday, alive.
As a parallel to this, I am seeing many I know working harder this summer, not seeing it reflected in their bank accounts, and not really able to be enjoying the summer season on the whole..... All the above are why I am home this morning, and not out on the boat, or shore.

Not getting out as much as I'd like, but when I have it's been poor. Way below average. May and June, when I was getting out more, were terrible. Kind of a circle, hard to get out, then it sucks, then I'm less willing to put in the effort to get out.
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My 10 year old netted a baby fluke playing in some shallow water yesterday.

So I guess he's in the lead this year.

-spence

my friend wanted me to take his rod when he hooked up....I don't do fish charity. Been a tough one this year.

Surf spots have been dead again. Trying new things has produced same results, nothing.
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I have not gotten out as much as usual. Early in the year it sucked. The last month has been consistently very good for me. Did manage the skunk last night i thought it was going to be a sure thing for a 25-35 lber, got a few taps that was all.

i'm hoping fall weather might improve things a bit

but i'm not holding my breath.... i'm already BLUE

Maximum effort fishing 5-6 nights per week for the last 2 months... Minimal results.
I dont even need to check my log books to know there is something terribly different about this year...
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Very disappointing year. I have fished from RI to ME and found the poor and inconsistent fishing to be everywhere. I'm thinking we're facing a very bleak Fall Run... and beyond.
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Worst ever. Been a month since I had a legal fish in the boat. Limited number of trips, but I put in the time on those trips. Saw a few small fish give a pass at macks yesterday. Expanded my search area southward too, yesterday. Saw a surface blitz returning home, but only one boat hooked up out of eight casting. And it was a 12 inch fish.
Going to be changing up some tactics and go to strictly night time fishing for a while. Or target cod or tuna... It got like a washing machine out there early with boat traffic.
I know I am not alone, but in the past I would be quite sure I would be able to put at least one in the boat. Not this year..... A dozen macks got released at the mooring yesterday, alive.
As a parallel to this, I am seeing many I know working harder this summer, not seeing it reflected in their bank accounts, and not really able to be enjoying the summer season on the whole..... All the above are why I am home this morning, and not out on the boat, or shore.

Boat hasn't been great either. Over 150 hours on the motor and had 3 really good days. Other than that it's been a fish here and a fish there with a lot of work and hours in between.

I have to say I am having a banner year fishing. I started with some early togging and then shifted to fluking which was great. When the moon was right I started bassing and really beat them up with back to back nights with fish over 50! I have now gone into offshore mode and it just could not be better with action every trip to date. I am fortunate to have the time and ability to fish effectively but the hot streak is sure to end at some point.

Freshwater kayak fishing has been my savior....cause otherwise it has sucked!!

Started in May like everyone else, It picked up real good at the end of May then it dropped of the charts for me in June(provided fishing the canal) with work being off the hook at the tail end of June and most of July. I hadn't fish the ditch till last Saturday and Sunday which was off the hook.I was surprised as the site was closed lips but crackbook disclosed the fishing was incredible (I'm not on crack book) but the wife is, she's the one who put me into the feeesh.
Last weekend two trips out 20 fish from low 20# 2 upper 30#.
So as for the season for me so so.
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I can't complain. All good and have not even been out in the boat yet. Rediscovering shore fishing and enjoying it. Congrats Chris on the double 50's
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Seems like fishing is hard for quite a few...Gloucester it is scattered....I know a lot of good striped bass fishermen that R not doing well a couple of fish even on the commercial days.

Yeah Mack's still hanging around has made
our area pretty darn good. Without them who knows
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I miss 1998. I smoked em
Back then....
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I haven't caught a bass since june 3rd (except for the 14incher in my cast net with bunker last week). I keep hearing of local pockets of bigg fish being caught, but haven't seen any of that myself, despite trying 2-3 days/nighta week

I have to say I am having a banner year fishing. I started with some early togging and then shifted to fluking which was great. When the moon was right I started bassing and really beat them up with back to back nights with fish over 50! I have now gone into offshore mode and it just could not be better with action every trip to date. I am fortunate to have the time and ability to fish effectively but the hot streak is sure to end at some point.

Great report, Chris! I am just glad to know someone having a banner year...

having better luck catching sunfish with the girls. they did get to reel in some pogies we snagged on the boat last week, they had a blast and also got to help bumpa reel in a couple schoolies last week on the boat.

I have barely had time to go out bassing. It has been a very poor year from a work/schedule standpoint. But I went out this weekend and just crushed fish from the boat- We had multiple fish each drift, one 50, 5-6 40+, and countless 25+... And that was in about three hours. We weren't the only ones on them, either.

It seems like the shore bite has been awful, but there is a large biomass of fish available by boat in certain areas.

I'm in agreement with Ross. For me, from shore, north of Boston has been tough. I've also had some strange things happening during trips (Equipment issues, boaters flashing me with floodlights).

I will just echo what everyone else is saying, a pathetic year from the surf. North shore has been a dead-zone from every one of my usual fish-producing spots. Practically zero bait on the beaches, only a few small fish from the rocky spots. Commercial guys are not even in the usual cow-laden coves up here.

The squid have thinned out and the bluefish have once again for the second year in a row neglected to check in around these waters.

At this point I am just trying to remember to enjoy the other wonderful aspects of the sport such as fantastic sunrises, wild-life close-encounters and coffee-shop commiserating with my sharpie fishing buddies who are also having a crappy season.

May: 5/10
June 2/10 (worst since the early 90's)
July 1/10 (worst since the early 90's)
August 7/10 so far.

Surf is always the first to feel the pinch as the schools get smaller-same as the 80s crash. By the time the boats feel it... it's usually too late. Might take a little longer now with all the fish finding technolgy which wasn't available in the 80s.

as I've said before, I picked the right summer to be super busy with moving and also have a larger family that takes up more of my time, so I've only been out a couple of times in the last month with only a few schoolies to show for it each time and I am happy with that considering a lot of guys are getting skunked and putting in much more time. Still -the kayak fleet seems to be more interested in catching cod than stripers this year. The guys that typically post reports of big fish on the kayak site have been complaining about the lack of good fish inshore (just like everyone else seems to be).

I actually went scup fishing and had a ball on Saturday morning fishing from a boat not too far from the Race. I'm hearing reports thqat the fishing has not been good there either. In fact, when we left the area, I only noticed a handful of boats fishing the RACE. Typically, it is VERY CROWDED on a weekend.

this has been the worst year since i started seriously chasing bass, 12 years of logs and this is by far the worst ive seen it.

spring was bad, only small fish in the east bay, and not that many, lots of 12-24" and no keepers, did get to enjoy em on light tackle, mostly 7ft freshwater rods and light braid with soft plastics but that gets old after a couple days.

did manage to catch a huge shad on a small gibbs popper, which was cool

so much bunker in the easy bay this spring and nothing on em, we watched 10-14 schools each about 5o yards wide just swimming around, they were there for almost 3 weeks straight, we saw em every night on the dog walks, a few guys i know hit the schools hard and there was just nothing on em


then spring ended, started hitting my usual haunts, again good numbers 10-20 fish nights but all small fish, with maybe 1-2 keepers in the mix

cutty was fun, buddy got his pb and just a great trip overall

since then its been awful, less fish, smaller fish, getting out less cause its not worth the effort lately, water has been dirty in most spots

canal has been a zoo when theres fish there and other wise slow pick of fish for the guys in the know

between my dads health and planning the wedding, less than a month away, i just really havent been feeling it

been doing a lot more freshwater fishing, mainly throwing huge swimbaits tragetting trophy fish and that has been great, numerous 5lb fish and tons of 4s, less work, less pressure and way more enjoyable lately

hoping that the fall run is epic and the mild weather continues into november and we get the amazing sea herring run we did in 2010/2011

Is it politically incorrect to say I'm having a good year?

Don't get me wrong, I'm mindful and concerned about the overall population, but it doesn't suck everywhere.
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From what I saw last nite it looked to be pretty spectacular and crowded. Boats never moved an inch for hours. I was on foot and nada a hit. I hope those fish smarten up and disperse or they will be gobbled up by the boats before I have a chance to throw a plug at them. Problem is the boats are out there every nite so the so called off days are just a fantasy. It seems the only ones that abide by this rule are the EPO's.
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Didn't suck everywhere in 1980's.
But in sure sucked in a lot of places that it didn't in the past.

This pattern is eerily familiar to me , from the perspective of doing this since the mid 60's.
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Is it politically incorrect to say I'm having a good year?

Don't get me wrong, I'm mindful and concerned about the overall population, but it doesn't suck everywhere.
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You're correct Jay - not everywhere. But that is exactly what happend in the 80s run at Block - it was phenominal out there - the last buffalo so to speak - but it sucked most every where else. And its not just this season from the surf - it has been getting progessively worse for the past 5 years or so. I'm a realist and have seen good seasons and bad seasons, its all the nature of what we do. But then there are bad trends - we surfcasters are in a bad trend and its not just in certain areas - I discussed this at length with Tim Coleman before he passed. He saw the same trend and we likened it to the "canary in a coal mine" analogy. Surfcasters are the first to see lack of striped bass, we we start s#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g for wind its a warning sign.

There are theories that as a stock is pressured heavily, large fish tend to aggregate. Idea is that there's less of them so the big ones tend to group up for spawning purposes. As the stock diminishes the remainder clumps together. It can sometimes create the appearance that the stock is healthier than it actually is, as catch appears high- even though the biomass is low. This has been seen in reef fish, and has been in the news recently due to Atlantic cod.

I don't know if bass follow the same theme, seeing as they're anadromous. But it's something to think about, and could be an explanation for the isolated pockets of extremely large fish.

I wonder what the numbers are like offshore- on Stellwagen, Jeffreys, etc.

MY BEST YEAR EVER FROM BOAT. I ENJOYED A FEW (WHAT I CONSIDER)EPIC NIGHTS WITH MULTIPLE PBs. NOT MUCH FROM SHORE SINCE JUNE. NOT MUCH SHORE EFFORT EITHER THOUGH.

So far I am happy I do better in the fall most years any way .have yet to go to the canal for which I am Happy, the new boat has had me splitting time between the two. but I wont throw the towel in on the season yet

I'd say that if it wasn't for my kayak and freshwater fishing it would be a complete loss of a year, but even the freshwater action has been a little off this year.

Fortunately I have been seeing some decent action in some of my fave waterways.

Hope the fall proves that we were worried for nothing (but I won't commit that to stone!)

...been really tough...i have had to work for fish and the ones i have found have been small and few...spring was tepid and summer has been pretty brutal...

Sorry Guys I am not buying the chicken little the sky is falling because of a one bad spring , not saying there are not issues.. but what happen in the 80's had years of preceding issues (big gill net hauls down south that help collapse the stock) commercial pressures . what do we think are the proceeding factors
if this is a repeat ?

what do we think are the proceeding factors
if this is a repeat ?

If you have been paying attention the last 6 years or so you would have seen them and read about them here even. Not only are we killing them, they die from disease and predation, the spawning has not been that great, could be due to weather, enviroment, a bunch of stuff but if there is not a few large classes of fish then it's tough on the species to maintain while giving recs 2 a day and continuing commercial killing of pretty much large pods of similar fish. There is a reason the fish are not as abundant and in the usual palces, there is simply less of them:uhuh:
the guys on the water like Clammer have seen it coming and many agree. It's not a chicken little thing at all.

Sorry Guys I am not buying the chicken little the sky is falling because of a one bad spring , not saying there are not issues.. but what happen in the 80's had years of preceding issues (big gill net hauls down south that help collapse the stock) commercial pressures . what do we think are the proceeding factors
if this is a repeat ?



You'll see.
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Sounds like he works for the ASMFC
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You'll see.
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Indeed he will!!:uhuh:

I've only been at this game for about 10 years or so now (in fact this is my 10th season) and I have heard rumblings of a decline almost every year - BUT this is the first year where it pretty much seems to be a coast wide consensus!

If you have been paying attention the last 6 years or so you would have seen them and read about them here even. Not only are we killing them, they die from disease and predation, the spawning has not been that great, could be due to weather, enviroment, a bunch of stuff but if there is not a few large classes of fish then it's tough on the species to maintain while giving recs 2 a day and continuing commercial killing of pretty much large pods of similar fish. There is a reason the fish are not as abundant and in the usual palces, there is simply less of them:uhuh:
the guys on the water like Clammer have seen it coming and many agree. It's not a chicken little thing at all.


much of what you say is true. but its been true for the past 60 years I fished the days of 1 fish 32 inches and had a hard time catching a schoolie no less a a 32 inch fish.. Just don't see one bad season as the end of the bass . I would love to see a 1 fish rec limit and make it a slot fish 32 - 34in I do what I can I catch and release 99% of what I catch ..
Sadly I have caught more keeper bass than keeper Fluke Hopefully
for all of us some common sense will be applied to the issues to reduce mortality and increase stocks and provide substantiate stocks for the future :soon: