So am I. In the mid 1980s you could float a live herring under a balloon, and walk it all the way down past the cribbin on a west tide, without ever seeing another fisherman. Get back to the run and your herring basket would be undisturbed. You could throw jigs and skins all night in some of the most popular spots, and the only thing that would annoy you were the bluefish who ripped up your skins. On the rare occasions when there was a morning plug bite, you might get 20 guys spread from the Sag to pole 160. All locals.

It's coming again. No doubt in my mind. :(

Went thru E to W daybreak again today, nothing like yesterday, slower from what I seen..

Did see some piles out in the BB..... TICK TICK :spin:

Well I took the dog for a walk at the canal today on my way home from a week of the best fishing I have ever seen. I grab the rod and 1 plug and away we go. 100 yards down the canal and all hell breaks out at 11:30 in morning. 3 hours later and probably 30 fish I have a magic swimmer with no hooks left and a shredded leader. I proceeded to throw the hookless plug to numerous fish but throw in the towel. It was an insane ending to an insane vacation of fishing.
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that's crazy paul,

You don't really think it is great that there were so many floaters do you? I know that is what you wrote. Peros found it sad that there were so many floaters, not sad that a few were fortuitously picked up in a boat. You must of understood that is what he meant, right?
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Thank you for clarifying that Zimmy. The fact that there are floaters means there are more "clean releases" like the one in the video that Puppet posted. I wonder if you took someone and held him or her under water for three minutes if that would help him/her understand about keeping fish out of water for measurements, photos, and bear hugs? Probably not - because they would be dead!
Yeah, some fish die not matter what you do when practicing catch and release, but this kind of s*** is ridiculous!

Seems like the best was made of an unfortunate string of events. These dead fish most likely could not survive the release. If that makes you sad perhaps it is better to simply not fish thus preventing this type of situation. Maybe when they become seasoned at the art of release the mortality will level off.
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Sounds like Paul's dog got gyped out of a nice walk. My dog would have made my life miserable!
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I agree. These fish were going towards the commercial quota rather than floating out to sea.
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Got it Zimmy, you're correct. When I read this the first time the part about the boat picking fish was the lead followed by the floaters. Just found it good that these were not going to waste.

the social media super hero bull#^&#^&#^&#^& has to end.

enjoy the fun easy fishing for what it is, but the "my crew killed it" "my lures killed it" "I'm the best fisherman in the world" just makes people look like the morons they truly are. the amount of dead fish was sad, one day people will realize how much damage they are doing to the population. when the ditch is void of big fish next year, they will wonder why ?

I was lucky enough to share some shoreline sunday AM before the flea market with an older white haired local named Jimmy, said he has been fishing the ditch for 40 yrs. super nice guy, we had a blast fishing next to each other! Don't know if he posts on the internet, but I wanted to say thanks for chatting with me about the tides/ structure, etc, i learned more in the hr listening to him then i would have all year long.

sounds like a good time:gu: but the real question is , how many switched to a green Jig:bl:

Dave I hear you the internet and all the pro staffers and want to be prostaffers sending there pics to a rod company bc without their rod none of this would be possible.lol yea ok ...This helped fuel the mad rush Its sad guys rather take a 2 hr car ride to get a chance to catch a good fish easily instead of putting in long but enjoyable rewarding hrs learning their home waters where they could maybe consistently catch good fish year in and year out. Every time I looked at face book a certain rod company had a picture of some talented pro staffer (lol) with a decent fish,not even a fish that would get a second look by most . Its this type of practice that has the newer guys running after any info they hear of for a chance to selfie it up with a good fish and hashtag the crap out of their photos . We stayed local and experienced a damn strong bite.I watched a friend land a true trophy largest bass I've personally seen. That's also the other part of the problem you do have to put in an unreal amount of time to find good fish. I remember when any good spot held some bass but now a lot of spots that should have some life are void or damn close to it that unless you can fish a ton to find those small isolated schools of good fish you have to follow the main body of fish when they pop up in the canal ,block , lis, or nj. Guys in the past followed the fish to the back beaches and block island in the past for a paycheck now it's for 5min of internet fame maybe 15 min if you get pro staff. The only positive thing I can see in this current blitz and the new culture of surfcaster is that all these product whores want is a photo and then they release the fish hopefully they survive. rant over Jason
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I honestly have left areas where it was too easy in the past- just because I didn't want to hook all the fish and come back the next night and catch a few more.... unfortunately the fish just moved out by the next night

I sure hope you're right- the reported massacre was tough to take.... I feel sorry for the fish sometimes

everyone has their arms up in the air about the last week in the canal, but in reality these fish are f@cuked every which way they turn.

yes probably hundreds of breeders were killed at the canal last week.

but what do you think happens ever year everywhere else?

at the housy all year? all winter? the hudson? the delaware and Chesapeake Bays...

what about the commercial quota?

what about "by catch"

just because you don't see it on Facebook, doesn't mean it isn't happening. this past winter/ spring some stainers emptied the housy of future breeders by the hundreds...

striped bass are #^&#^&#^&#^&ED because people are @ssholes, plain and simple

Theses fish are taken every year by Cape cod Bay boat guys. You just don't see up close unless you are out there and those guys don't want you to see it cause it will cause these kinds of reactions but it has been going on for years. In one respect be glad it was only 2 fish for the comm guys instead of 15 or the blitz would have been over way sooner. The rec harvest was epic and did make up for the limited amount able to be kept by the comm guys.
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how many of those are being reported as part of the commercial quota?

None of the rec catches are recorded. The fact the season is still open shows how slow it has been
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yes- I realize theres no reporting of rec catches.

I was commenting on the fact that the comm guys are supposedly taking their fish outta the Canal this year- albeit 2 fish at a time. but theres reports of widespread poaching as well-
so- how many are getting on the catch reports? is the MEP doing bike checks?

Poaching does exist but the poached fish are then sold and go against the quota the same with all these floaters. No comm guy is going to let a sellable fish drift by him.
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Had an hour to kill midday yesterday and wanted to stretch some new line, what a difference from the usual cluster lately.

where's all the exam-glove wearin' bait guys???

No facebooking/internet heroes.
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So just think! If the powers that be ever pull their heads out of their collective asses and make Striped Bass a gamefish (i.e. no commercial sales) and that blitz took place, think of how many fish would have survived to become 50s, 60s and even 70s.

Florida did it many years ago with Tarpon and Snook and now have a world class fishery.

So just think....If they banned ALL fishing off the banks of the canal how many of those fish.....................

Come on Piemma, it is pretty well established that most of the fishing during that bite was recreational since they have changed the rules from shore. This thread wasn't started on the Comm knock but just as a incredible bite.....

I agree the recs killed thousands more than the comm. during that week.
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Paul the com sales is the only fish that gets reported,,, unless the com guy takes them home and doesn't report them which most likely wouldn't happen, historical count will help them down the road...

I think the MA DMF can petty much figure out the 2 com fish take from the ditch via buyers reports... The reports for Monday and Thursday should give a good idea me thinks

My guess is the com take didn't come close to what was taken by recs.

Any how... Gamefish would work for me but admit I'd miss com season...

Tog is another story...... Going to "by permit" only soon....
Did I tell you I'm good at clearing land, going to be looking for sumpton to do...:cheers2:

I had the same thought....


I personally would rather fish 3 or 4 hours and catch one or two beauties than pull in a fish every 10 minutes. Kinda takes the sport out of it.

Well witnessed a whole bunch of boats that looked like a flotillia makin repeated drifts in the canal from keene st up to half way gate from about 1 -3 this mornin and heard quite a few fish hittin decks. Unbelievable that that that many had the cajones to say f it and get away with it. Disturbing that that many were able to get away with it that long with no patrol. Dumbfounding
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