Its ok Ake G....we are here for you!:uhuh:

Just seemed like things never really got going north of the cape from the limited reports I had from tackle shops, fisherman I know, this board, and my own personal experience. Although boats in the Plumb Island area seemed to do pretty well. I didn't here many complaints from those fishing the surf from Westport to Southern RI. Lot's of big fish taken but also lot's of complaints about how many small fish there were. The combo of the two sounds pretty good to me. I also think fish were in very different places this year with the amount of sand eels and amazing reports of boat fishing off Race Point. I didn't do as well as the last few years but I also didn't try and change things up enough to react to the things that were happening. I just went to the same comfortable spots I've fished the last few years with success. Easy to miss fish and complain when you don't take the time to look for them. Thankfully I did improve my spring fishing alot this year. Found some nice new haunts on the south shore and had some BM Danny, Pencil, and Howdy bonanzas!

I do think the fish were more or less absent from my usual haunts.....however my feeling is where I had to take July and August off from fishing to renovate our bathroom, I never really felt like I was in my "zone" come fall!! After getting back into it in late August I never found my comfort zone personally and I know that did not help me......next season......I am just fishing!!:uhuh:

Weather a huge factor
 

Fishing one particular sport on the Vineyard during the last few days of the derby I was casting into the wind, or just slightly sideways in an attempt to catch a FISH. I have never seen a plug knocked out of the sky and slammed into the water before that day. I tried casting with thewind but still slightly sideways and went a mile down the beach, but the plug only landed about fifty feet off the beach. It was rough fish at best for the last two weeks over there. That being said thier is something also to be said for nurturing relationships when there are no fish around, which occurs frequently driving up and down the beach or just standing in different beach parking lots when looking for fish.

You forgot to add kayak. :fishin:

My one disappointment for the spring run was Joppa. It turned on then shut off after the rain. Back to the Harbor. The spring run was great for me in and around Boston Harbor. Juvenile Herring everywhere, action mostly every day. The Mackerel rolled in and the big bass came with em. I abandoned the kayak and went into my friends boat and cleaned up live lining. When the macks were out of reach in the outer Harbor area I cleaned up in the rocks with Dannies and weightless Sluggo's. Some trips I would go through one bulk pack of 9" white sluggos fishing weightless in the rocks.

For the 1st part of the summer season I had a good time in the boulder fields from Winthrop to Manchester. July in Manchester and Gloucester areas has consistency with occasional night runs around Winthrop produced good bass. Not a lot of bass, but good bass. I had shutouts. It's part of the experience. Funny thing about July, Jumbo's came during the Full Moon week. New moon was bust from Nor'easters.


August! August never fails in and around Boston Harbor! I don't care how bad the season goes August is a special time in and around Boston Harbor. Why wait for the fall? Get bass in the rocks from shore when they are scrounging. No one was out fishing. Most were hungover from a spotty spring. It was a %$%$%$%$ show. The big squid came in the middle of August, bass were gobbling lobsters there was two weeks of epic bass fishing before the motherload of blues rolled in and made it impossible to get to the bass. Dog fish didn't even show up. It was great with everything working, eels, Habs needles, Sluggo's, Ronz, Sampson's Rubber Lobster, tubes during the days and bucktails bounced on the bottom.........Then my phone rang..."Jeff, the Albies are in."....and I left the Bass for Albies. :jump1:


The second week of September I started bass fishing again back home. Played with bass and poagies in the Harbor. Time to put on the hard hat as combat fishing was now in effect. Seiners and gill netters did a number on the poagies. There was some bright spots and after that West Wind blow with no response from the east wind to warm it back up it was all down hill from there. Bait was tough to find and bass were not showing.

My fall had some quality bass on live poagies. Find the poagies good bass were not far away. After Columbus Day, it was tough to find poagies. I was hoping that some day blitzing would fill the void but nothing happened for me. It got cold and made night runs in the kayak impossible for my toes....now I'm just trying to find something salty to give a tug...lately it's been smelt. :smash:...take the good with the bad.

The reports coming in lately from my network of anglers has been alarming. :confused:

Fall run begins tonight!
 

I'm driving 3 hours to the RI shore tonight ...

It best not be over.

Time on the water is the answer - if you're not putting in the time, you're not likely to be catching fish, especially when the "easy" fall frenzy action isn't there to support the occassional trip ... unfortunately, that was my year ... although I am not done ...

Trust me Andy......I have been putting in untold hours as have many others I know....the fish have not been co-operating! If time on the water was the only factor...then I would have a truck load of fish!:rotf2:

with the limited time on the water I had this season, I have to say is "right place right time"

I remember a day in 1996 we were catching schoolie bass at the west end of the canal every cast .. We worked are way east trying to catch larger fish . Couldn't do it . The whole canal loaded with these fish all plainly visible . Then we worked are way up the coast all the way to Hull ocean side .. (still every cast school fish). Finaly quit on the bay side of Hull to the sight of a bay loaded with small fish . The Class of 93 , Where are you now .. Does seem to be drying up North working its way south .. When it was 36" we'd catch 35" bass very frequently? nightly if thats a word ? . I think Larry's observations have merrit . We'd always have a month of stupid fishing in the fall .. Didn't matter what you threw in the water . Alot the northern fisherman are making there way south (canal area) seeking fish . This year wasn't my best effort due to family stuff ,,but I've been noticing it for years . I knew where Flap was but I left it alone ,, just one spot .

I agree Larry. While it wasn't a total disaster, it was a far cry from what was. :)
What I see is the pickin's getting progressively less and less each year.

Had the March of the
 

dinks last evening on Duxbury Beach all by myself and the three seals that went by that could have been pushing the little ones through.

Fished SoCo RI and SoShore Ma and Mashpee this season and it was a bit goofy.
No peanuts last year. Just a few this year. Lot's of adult menhaden (relative to past years) and no fish with them.

I always think Nov. is the best RI fishing, but it closed down early last season and may do the same this season.

My best move was stocking up on AH swimmers and needles! Get to use them again next year :)

Thanks Eddy but it was a combination of three spots actually, Mr. Striper, BiteMe, Numby, Sauerkraut and Labrador1 will attest. they all were witness on different occasions as was BigFish for 2 nights at least.

Agreed :uhuh:. I believe the tough fishing has a lot to do with the wacky weather. Fall fishing isn't what it should be on Long Island. I'm just hoping for a very late run, and that I can tough out the cold weather to fish it.

On MV it has been a very poor fall run... the winner for shore bass in the derby was just 34#, the smallest winning bass in a while, i think that explains things over here:smash:

Question .. do you belive the fishery is as strong as its ever been ?
or do you believe its as strong as its ever been just becoming an off shore fishery as some have stated.. or just an I'm good ,,you suck at fishing,, kind of thing ..

I have not seen any big schools of fish this fall like the past years. I think they all stayed off shore with the amount of bait that was reported.

This Year was Worse
 

[QUOTE=Slingah;719450]I did not fish enough to form a negative opinion. I did not work hard enough to be let down.

Well, I did fish hard enough (and I still am) to form a negative opinion of the striper year, 2009. And I did fish hard enough to be let down by the fishery which I believe is over harvested and ever more stressed.

Also Bluefish: I do not target them, but I do not believe I caught more than a dozen the entire season.

Brother Don on the New Jersey shore tells me the Spring run down there was quite awful compared to years before. I wouldn't hold my breath about the on site experience he will report after his month of November passes.

I did OK this year, especially considering I didnt fish all that much :huh:

SAME AS THE LAST CRASH ::

A FEW of us have been saying it the last 6 years .its getting worse & worse .......................personally my worse fall I can ever remember .

& those that manage the fisheries are talking about the stock of fluke , seabass, scup & tautog / while they are stating stripers are @ a Ok level & are they f #$%^&*() nuts ......within 5 years .............. when they wake up ........ ya best look at you photos because it won,t be a swimming bass .
yet they closed the scup , seabass & fluke / short because of over harvest & to protect the fishery .

In MY whole life I have never even seen a season come close to the number & sizes of seabass & scup that were & are still around .......... 10/25/2009 & we are catching scup & seabass of all sizes on green crabs ;;

It should be called fisheries mis.management ;;

Commercial hurting the bass population .

try 9 million rec taking 2 bass a day with @ least RI & MA a 365 day season /...F #$%^&*() nitwits :wall::smash:

I was not thrilled with the fishing this year but think it was because the moon phase in relation to the time and tides and location were not favorable. To put it another way the tides I like for daybreak occured on days when the moon was in a phase that I have never found productive for the areas I like to fish.

I agree with Clammer. Us old guys have been saying this for years now. Got to stop the 2, 28" fish. Put in a slot or make it 1, 36" or even 34" fish a day.

Remember it's not the guys on here that I am talking about. The jamokes that take 28" fish are the ones I address. I know it's legal. I here all the BS about "they (28") are the best eatin'. Pretty soon you will not be eating *&&%^ for bass because they won't be any.
We have got to put a stop to this insanity because the fisheries management guys are idiots and are driven by stupidity.

I tell stories about the old days all the time that are good. So let me leave you with one that's bad.

It's 88 or 89 and the moritorium is on which means you cannot keep ANY bass no matter what size. You could go 10 nights in a row throwing eels at the best spots on the coast and all you would get would be bluefish. One morning Eddy St.Onge and I fish Deep Hole and between the 2 of us we got 5 micro bass the biggest being 16 or 17". We are elated, high fiving and going crazy because we hadn't seen a bass in 2 or 3 weeks. We left and stopped at a bait shop that is now closed called Top of the Dock and told the owner that we got 5 bass. He threw us out of his shop for being BSers and spreading rumors. He said flat out "There are no more Stripers".

Hard to believe? We lived through it. You can believe it will happen again unless some kind of sanity sets in. I watch guys doing snag and drop in the Upper Bay this Sring. Catching 28" bass and keeping them by the boat load. 4 guys on a boat and absolute "stupid" fishing and they keep 8, 28" fish. WHAT THE *&&^&^% a!!!

You guys may think I am full of s*&^%# and I hope I am wrong but I have seen it and this is starting to look just like the collapse in the 80s.

like the old guys said- just like the 80's. when will the #$%^$%^% clowns wake up?................soon i hope.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

there are a lot of boats out there keeping 8 30lbers at a time and that is alot worse for the fishery

I had a GREAT summer from the Yak... In ONE area. That's the point some people are missing. Guys that had a great season got lucky/fortunate enough to find one of the small pods of decent fish. Those pods are getting few and far between. Is it fish moving offshore? Damned if I know. I do know it's the fringes that will suffer the most first in a collapse, and that appears to be happening now. Echoing Ake's post, Maine has absolutely SUCKED the past 2 years. I used to be VERY good... with little shore pressure compared to what we have down here. I used to look forward to fishing up there on vacation since it was easy and NEVER had trouble catching fish into the teens, not cows but nice solid fish for a relaxing night. Past 2 years I've worked my @$$ off up there for little to nothing. So bad in fact I question even bothering bringing up my gear next year.

1 @ 36.. it worked before, it should work again. Why not just keep it there.

What Paul said...:agree:

And Clammer...and Sauerkraut...and Larry and just about everyone else...:hs:

More effort for fewer fish...there's a lot of talent here and I can't believe the "I stink" reasoning from good surfmen...it's not conincidence...:confused:

Yeah, Paul, I remember the '80's, plugging up a 15" bass at 2nd Beach and I couldn't have been more surprised if I'd just caught a bonefish

If it wasn't for massive schools of bluefish by the acre there would have been NO fish at all - nada, none

It reminds me more than anything of the crash in the late 1800's that caused all the great bass to clubs to close which was caused by industrial pollution and overfishing - written club records from that period that I've seen show a similar pattern of a crash over a period of time and IMHO it's looking familiar

Look at the opinions of all the guys on S-B and their accumulated experience covering a large portion of the New England coastline

This time you have to point to overfishing, the reduction fishery on pogies ( and no, I don't mean Ark Bait) and runoff from lawn chemicals and all the other crap being used on waterfront properties that ends up in the Bay

I can't see 2 at 28"...:no2:...it's #*&$# absurd, 1 at 36" seems prudent at this point

Rant over - I'm going out for blackfish

At least the buggers aren't pretty enough to be paraded around for photo ops...:smokin:

Unfounded gloom and doom
 

Like I said earlier in this post, it was an average year, IMO. I don't buy into "The sky is falling" opinions.

Is it possible we have fewer fish available than, say, 5-10 years ago? Its possible, but how do you measue this stuff in any meaningful way? Certainly not by what a few surf fisherman experience.

Last year(2008) I had the single greatest season ever in my lifetime from the canal ( so did many,many,many others) as the quality fishing lasted nearly 4 1/2 months. I easily caught over 150 fish over the 20# mark. This year(2009) I caught maybe 1/5th that number (25-30 or so) and I didn't do much differently. I put in an equal number of nights/days. Why fewer big fish? They were set up somewhere else, IMO.

I don't feel the numbers above have anything to do with a population crash, but simply the distribution of fish. There were good piles of fish in many areas this year, just not in the same spots/same time as previous years.

Keep in mind these are wild animals and their numbers can fluctuate for a number of reasons. Its possible we could be in a shallow trough right now, but the coastwide landings don't suggest it.

I had a good season and I fished less than the past 2 years due to family issues. I got a new PB and had nights where I boated a dozen fish, most over 20lbs. Alsmot all on eels at night and in different areas. Best time was end of June through first week of August. Spring was fantastic for small bass on lures, great daytime fishing.
Im a little puzzled by the "blind casting" comments. Even in a boat, I never blind cast, I'm always fishing "something", a rip, bar, rock, etc. Sometimes I get one cast in before I have to move back to the area I am targeting. I reposition my boat constantly. I think about each cast and where I need to place my eel or plug. Maybe I over think it. All and all a good year for me. I never do well in the fall so I cant say this year is any different.

Bass are in trouble if you ask me.I caught fish, some of which were quality, but the bass are in trouble.Look at how long comm season lasted,look at the numbers from the Derby.I have eyes from M to CC bay and nobody I know could stay on the fish with any consistancy.Sure,Team Striper won the Cup again but the majority of our anglers have the same sentiments as most of us.This could be a fluke or a strange year for bait patterns but I am of the opinion that the rec angler is destroying the sb fishery. 1 fish over 36" along the coast would be a good start in helping sustain or stabilize the fishery.Like others have noted,some had good years, or found fish in the fall but the BIG picture looks grim.