Well way back when they netted stripers everywhere they could from shore. we still had some fish.Now there's so much bait in places you can walk on it but no fish. MMMMM still don't see many kids outfishin most of us old farts but there are a few like us hard cores.LOL. Loads of us don't need a boat an have them sittin in the yard to take company out. But just teasin you. It's good to ask those questions. Do some research and check the answers out. It will boggle the mind.We learned the hard way. You don't need to but go for it if you like. it takes a long time for any species to come back an some get replaced completely. Look at the Iceland cod stocks.Ron

On the Cape the bass appear to have no choice.

The seals likely don't leave enough inshore bait for the bass, so they go where the food is- offshore.

Adapt or perish.
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I believe that if bass are unable to forge in an area for consecutive years due to lack of bait that they will begin to give up their yearly search in the said area and concentrate on a sure bet. Therefore I believe that when the bait returns to your fishing area your bass are sticking to their newfound habits and eating their meals elsewhere. I have experienced this firsthand in some of the areas that I first learned to fish that are now void of predatory life even with bait around. Skilled boat anglers will always have the upper hand especially now and that is unfortunate because of the rich surf fishing history of NE. Forgive my sharp tone I wish all of you a happy healthy new year and a great fishing season. Gamefish status can kiss my A $ $ though.

Also, my lilly white Irish skin is still peeling from the permanent sunburn of last season so don't call me sheltered. HAHA

Same old farts on here complaining about the fishery for years... Every year it's the end, the collapse, another moratorium, blah, blah, blah. To lazy and pigheaded to change with the times. Stuck in the same 10 yards of beach waiting for the fish to come to them, blaming others for their lack of success....
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My concern with stripersforever is related to this quote:
"The fishing public, even restrained by very modest bag limits and moderately high minimum sizes, could easily harvest all that a well managed wild striper population can provide without any help from commercial fishermen. Making the striped bass a gamefish will simply mean that those who wish to catch their own will be given priority over those who want to buy their own at market. This is the way a free society should work."

By itself it won't reduce harvest enough. It shouldn't be rec vs commercial issue, it should be about sustainability. That said, I won't mind seeing some of the chest beating clowns go out of business though when the crap hits the fan.

They will also be the first ones with their hands out looking for federal assistance. Woe is me
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Knock everyone way back

:rotf2:

Striped Bass Stocks 2012 - YouTube

I guess these guys who fish far away from the bloated seal populations of CC have no clue either?

Regardless of what happens in the future present etc. steps need to be taken. MA could start by issuing licenses only to guys who report catches. Otherwise why buy the license?
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I rarely boat fish, but over the last 6 years or so I have fished the early western LIS run with a friend in his boat. He has been fishing it his whole life and knows what he is doing. Over the last 6 years it has gotten worse and worse. The sound is filled with bait in May, much of it adult bunker. There are nights using chunks and live bait where we will hit reefs from Norwalk to Hempstead and sometimes not land one bass. The idea that the fish are all of a sudden offshore is ridiculous. There used to be fish everywhere. If there is a need to "change with the times" it is because there fewer fish to go around. The spawning stock biomass estimates peaked around 2003. A decade later and the commercial and recreational pressure is even higher, the yoy indices have been typically low. The only reasons to not reduce the harvest for everyone are greed and short term money interests.

Mark,you are required to file report catchs in mass,whether you fish or not.i have to agree with Kenny,same guys complaining every year,one constant complainer even mentions that he had one of his best years ever.are bass stocks down? i say yes but they are down from the peak.people got use to easy fishing now that you have to do a little work to catch people complain they are gone.in the last 5 years i have caught more fish more consistantly than ever before.without the annouance of others,because they are afraid of walking a few feet from there vehicle.if popular places like Race point,Montauk, Smiths point,Democrat,etc,are slow than the cries are the fish are gone.more often than not the fish are a few miles away were a select few are hammering them.maybe some should count how many fish pass thru the canal each spring or how many bass were schooled up off Chatham,the number of fish that were off fire island 2 years ago,or the numbers off Jersey last fall winter.as far asthe Moratoruim,i am curouis,did the remaing bass decide to spawn because some states decided to ban the keeping of them or did some enviornmental factors line up just right in order for a sucessful spawn?in my 50 plus years of working playing on the water i have seen differant types of sea life come and go in cycles.

Gamefish status before it's too late. The striped bass is worth MUCH MORE money alive than dead.

The people who are always against this are the ones who are making money off of the fish. Sad.
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My bad point taken.

I agree, you and I both know of a handful of guys who sit out at a certain spot and fish the same water every day year after year and say the fishing is terrible when down the road there are fish to be caught.

The one individual from that video that makes me really take notice is Wetzel simply because we have mutual friends and I know the guy kills himself to be on top of bait and fish patterns.

Regardless I honestly hope we are down in the cycle and things improve. Like I said before I was encouraged by the numbers of really small fish I saw this year. Just hope they make it to adulthood. By my estimation they were probably 3 or 4 year old fish which leadsr to believe that last years class should have us swimming in schoolie bass in a couple of years. Not my favorite fish to catch naturally but when my daughter is a teenager I should be able to put her on some nice fish(if she still thinks I am cool then, god knows her mother doesn't lol)
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Don,explain to to me how gamefish status will keep bass alive?am i missing something?does gamefish status ban the keeping of stripedbass by everyone?is gamefishstatus making bass fishing a catch and release only fishery? just curouis if i am not getting the facts right

It reduced the harvest so that the few remaining fish could stay alive to spawn. The abundance in the mid 80's was incredibly low, like 1/20th what it is today by weight. Without the moratorium, it is likely they would have gone the way of cod. We don't need a moratorium today, but a reduction in harvest would help the documented continuous downward trend in abundance over the last decade. Based on the published data, there are at least 30 million fewer spawning females than 10 years ago and the numbered has decreased every year.

As are the ones for it .
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I agree with a lot that lifishinvt says, but I truly believe that we can all do our part. Fish stocks are down, can't really argue it. Are they horrible? NO. Having said that I think in order for us to keep them where they are we could cut down from two fish to one for recs and also reduce the amount of commercial a little and we can get close to a sustainable fishery that will not have to go through so much craziness every 20 years.

yes. A good point. I should have said the ones that are always opposed to reductions are the ones who profit from dead bass. The people who make money from these fish who are for gamefish are the ones who are guides and tackle store owners and lure makers who need to see people fishing and catching. Those who sell dead fish profit more when there is more dead fish.
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Generally speaking of course.. There are always exceptions.
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personally i am all for an across the board reduction in numbers.but how do you reduce the rec take in reality? in my eyes the only way is to have some sort of tag system or license system such as the commercials have,but what are the chances of that happening.guys put up a stink about shelling 10 bucks for a license now.

Mark,you are right the number of small fish was pretty incredible.there were some spots that were producing fish in the 8 to 12 inch range.i just have to wonder where the big fish that came thru the canal went.the commercial season saw an average of around 17 lbs,very few fish in the 40 lb range.the other puzzling thing is that the outer cape sees good fishing a couple of weeks before the canal goes off.and by the end of june gone.

More than likely the fish that travel the outside are coming from the Hudson group? And the fish coming through the ditch are Chesapeake? Just a guess but it seems the canal fish come through fairly sick where I don't often see that level of illness on the outer cape. Just a guess.

As far as where the canal fish wind up all over the bay and parts on the south and north shores would be my best guess.
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Cut back commercial take 33% from 2006 levels.

Cut rec to 1 per day (like 2006) and make C&R only in 2x 2week windows to be determined - say May7-May21 in NE, July 15-29 - Apr 15-30 in MidLant, Jul 7-21... Play with the dates / numbers some but have real closure - C&R only during effective windows - just tossing it out for discussion

Mark,going back a few years it seemed like the canal fish would come thru the bay invading the beachs on the cape side,right up to long point the last few years this hasn't happened to the degree it was. does this mean the fish are gone or are they changing patterns,seems like good numbers come thru the canal.

I like that John. I think 1@36 to 45 inches for a slot makes sense too.
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Seals.
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http://i1063.photobucket.com/albums/...ps604b0297.jpg
And boom goes the dynamite

Lol
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I think this could very well be a large part of the problem
http://www.jackgartside.com/myco_info.pdf
Releasing fish may not be the solution
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I can't remember the last time I kept 2 bass in a trip... make the fishery rec only with a 1 bass limit. And end this stupid CT bonus bass program that lets you keep over 2 fish if you have a ticket.