No, the fish I am reffering to are all the Bay fish, That has not returned to the norm. The migratory runs have been better than ever. Way different. I can go any day of the week, month and catch em in my home waters, pretty aware as to whats going on here. Yes there are curveballs every year. But I did see what a slot limit did... You??? Small number wintering in the Thames? Hudson? Or Offshore in the Mudhole? Kent Island, Chesapeake? or 13 plus miles off the VA, NC coast??? Where did a awesome YOY come from? A Fluke, please explain? catching 30-100 plus fish, times many, every day and its over? You dont see the Carnage I take....

kenny,how many miles of bass were there off jersey this fall?,do you think it is the same mass of fish that were off chatham.i think if some people expierenced these massive schools of fish firsthand they might change the way they think.

Well I'm still tryin to get Monday off to make it down to the meeting. sometimes I think schedule the meetings so working people can't get to them like they do up here.
Cow hunter you make me chuckle. I heard it yrs ago. We have no resident fish then the next sentance you can catch them everywhere all season long all day long in your back yard. LOL Funny.I've chased the Striped Bass scince back in the 60's. The only other time we had it this bad up here was late 70's early 80's.The outer Cape guys were hammering the fish. Trust me I went down an got a few myself.But up here there were very few fish. The boats did ok but from shore forget it.The same signs are here now. This time the fish are off Jearsy an the EEZ fish which were there back then too just most didn't know it so they weren't fished for. They were found a few yrs back during the winter Tuna bight on their wintering grounds.The internet an charter advertisements let the cat out of the bag.People still keep taking moments out of history an saying thats how it was or is everywhere.Well I still fish all the old places an see fewer an fewer fish all around an hear the same as the early 80's from a small handfull.
We're not saying shut it all down but it does need to be slowed down a load.1fish 36 in ok . Comm cut back 25%30%50% whatever it takes. Slot limits really don't do much more than put fish in the hands of the beginners an keep more people fishing as beginners seldom catch large fish.20 to 26 in 20 to 28 in ok. but to just moan n groan so nothing is done is sad. You don't like the ideas come up with some better ones. but just to say nothing is wrong is stupid an rediculous.there is a problem so lets see who can show up on Monday. I live in Maine an I'm gonna try my best to get off from work.It's important to do something.

Only slot limit I have experience with is drum in N.C, which seems to work well, and stripers within the Chespaeake. The drum would be slaughterred with a 1@36 or 2@28. The chesapeake has 18" minimum and a slot in the potomac 18-28" for decades. I'm not sure how you are connecting the dots as far as the effect of the slot and what you mean by Bay fish, etc. Chesapeake, Delaware, Raritan? You can catch them all year long, but the slot wrecked that?
1 fish, whether 22-28 or 36 is better than what we have. I am not sure there is any evidence that you are correct that 1@22-28" would wipe out the population, but the 2@28 is working (clearly, in your experience). In any case, I am glad I don't rely on them for financial purposes. It is too bad that the regulations are driven by those who profit by killing the biggest fish.

You can Chuckle all u want. I never complain about the lack of fish, not a problem. I can understand the confusion but its rather simple. The resident fish that were are no more once the slot limits came in effect. Bay Run was different than the ocean run, different fish. The ocean run in the spring and fall has been phenominal in my homewaters the last few years. We are in the middle of the migratory zone and have plenty of bait. My case and point try and convince ANYBODY in my state that the stripers are on the brink of collapse and they will look at you cross eyed, to go out there and catch 20,30,40, 60, 100 plus fish depending on the run?? The bottom fish guys hate the bass cause they eat all the bottom fish. Coming from Maine you have no idea how stupid it is here. Manage Your Bait first. You gotta deal with the 1000's of lobster pots that riddle the shoreline also. By the way my wife got her first bass mouth of saco and dozens more...Im all for conservation, I do charity for it and lay out money. BUT the mass com season closed in record short season? Convince those guys the bass are all dead? Convince the guys in VA, Maryland, MD, DE, and NY. THe ri boat guys? Its a different time, to catch thousands of bass a season I dont see an imenent collapse, I see things wrong, different factors, but to catch bass on ANY given day? Some people just have to learn to adapt to the situation. Or wait perched on a rock until the fish show one year. I move my boat in to 3 different slips in spring alone to stay cose to (A) Bait, (B) Fish... The catching is easy, Bait is usually the struggle.... I would be more than Happy to educate some of the StripersForever guys and even steer them the right path for a mutually better cause. I dont hide who I am...

Yes Slot Crushed raritan an DE bay... Why they go back to 2 @ 28"??? The Headboat captains pushed for it to begin with cause they wanted a piece of the early and late season action, easy to clam, worm, and jig rats...

yes they would...Guess those miles of fish are expected to be on the beach...

That's no good. 1@36-40" is fine with me.

Years long declines in catches in multiple states, total catch rates declining every year since 2006. An absence of schoolies in many traditional spots. Stripers are considered littoral fish aka the "rockfish" and for the entire documented history we have of striped bass people caught them standing on the shore. Damn near every guy fishing from shore is saying they aren't catching fish the way they used to just a few years ago but we are supposed to believe that because the boat guys are slaughtering them that we don't have serious problem?!?

They set the time for the GD meeting so a working guy can't get there. Tuesday morning at 11:00 AM? WTF!!!!

Maybe not the areas you normally fish, but The shore guys have still been slaughtering them in some areas this spring and this fall.Guess the fish are sticking with the vast amounts of bait???

Massive isolated schools of fish and the experience of a select few are not an even remotely valid indicator of the health of a fish who's range is in excess of 1000 miles of shore and 100's of thousands of square miles of ocean.

I've said it before... didn't there used to be a time when the fish were everywhere? I think Mike P said it, "it's not how the fishing is in the middle of their range, it's the worsening of the fishing towards the outside of its range." A contraction of range points to a decrease in the stocks.

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The outer ranges are much more weather / temp dependent, simple as that, plus their seasons are much shorter... People fish temp breaks offshore, you think different applies for other fish? The best bites this year were early and late, it was when people ended the season it started. When many started the best went by.....Hell we were just getting started in December! Many states are disasters with their bait management and wonder why the fish arent there. The fish still are just about everywhere, the big schools, found EVERYDAY, are with the massive amounts of bait. Nowhere else do these fish get pounded as hard as in northern central jersey out east long island, yet the fish arent wiped out here, 100's, thousands caught every day for a much longer season span... Why is it that every Pogie boat from Mass down from NC, VA is coming up netting pogies off NJ? Yet they are not allowed within 1.2 miles of shoreline. You guys have those boats wipe out the bays, Harbors!

Yeah, Prime bass country!!! used to be any way, never will be agian, but they are loade offshore of that, stellwagon, etc with the miles of sand eels...

johnny,if you spent any amount of time on the water,you would know it isn't a few isolated schools of fish.personally i would base the health of the fishery on the expierence of guys like Kenny and others that i know who put as much time in as he does.

for every kenny there are 20 joe's with their experiences...

In my crowd, there are a bunch of guys who have been boat fishing the western sound reefs forever. I have only done it for maybe the last 9 years. Typical May from Hempstead to Norwalk, then later Milford, you would get your bunker, head out to the reefs and regularly catch bunches of nice fish. Chumming and chunking, swimming live, whatever. The last several springs, particularly so in the last two, there were dramatically fewer fish and many skunks. Miles of bunker, followed by miles of sand eels. Five years ago, a skunk was almost unheard under those conditions. The fish went out of Raritan and south or out east, and through the sound toward Rhode Island. To think that the poor fishing north and east is because the fish are hanging off Jersey or are offshore is probably wishful thinking. They used to be in all of those places. It isn't the seals in CT, RI, NH, NC, and most of MA.

There are a bunch of guys on this site who went through this when Kenny (Cow Hunter?) (and I for that matter...) were still wetting the bed. A boat and a gps, along with being in the business of having to know where the school is makes Kenny's experiences much less representative of the norm in the fishery. I trust those other guys. I have been expecting it for 8 years or so. The fact that some of these guys are sounding off about it now is very concerning.

Alot of guys never stray past their homewaters.... It takes some driving, or some boating to find those single elusive schools on a Daily basis I guess. Yeah theres a problem, I wish they went to a 1 fish limit coast wide, cause to be honest I'm tired of filleteing 2-3 fish a man, to much waste, knife sharpening, to much money on ziplocs, and to much work. Plus those eyes looking back at me get a bit creeeepy.. What was that song," Those eyes "

The western sound is a good indicator, guess good old greg meyerson had no problem just a few miles east, silver eels, on secret patent rigs and multiple 60's, release a few 70's and boated a world record!

This is what its all about. If ur crying crash show up to speak. Ill be there But im not crying crash. I want to see first hand what everyone thinks. Ill try to video tape a little bit on my iphone.

I read this several times, big schools of bait this fall with nothing on them. I don't like to use anecdotal evidence but this fall during the derby we witnessed ridiculous amounts of bait on a rocky. "fishy" spot that had nothing on them. I mean bait so thick we turned on our headlamps to see what the noise was and nowhere along that half mile stretch of shore did we witness even some twinks assaulting that bait

Thats the problem..... "You Read" werent you there? wonder how many people who are complaining on here are actually fishing????

if people stopped living in the past and look what is happening now maybe they might catch a few fish.i have been fishing more than 50 years,so i have a little idea of what happened back in the ''day''not always as rosie as some of the old farts make it out to be. zimmy you ever think maybe those fish in the western sound decided to swim the other way around.pretty good fishing on the south shore of LI,though my favorite SS bay didn't load up because the brown tide keep the bunker from coming in,but my freinds with boats had no lack of fish a mile off the beach.

It's funny that the two guys in this thread that seem to be bitching and complaining the most (at least on the last few pages) about the proposed bills here in MA aren't even from here!

Why doesn't the NJ guy just keep on killing 3 a day along with his clients and V.T. can go fish a lake.....pathetic. :1poke:

Pathetic: The rich yuppies proposing the bills are from Maine!
And by the way I killed Plenty of bass in mass and am deserving of a break you know..... theres a lack of fish there??????

NJ Bonus tags, AKA Game Fish State, Happy Together!

Chunka,i actually spend as much time on the cape as i do in Vt.from may to late oct i am on the cape. i fish just about every night,and 3 to 4 days a week on mt kayak. i work in a tackle shop. hold a comm. license and build plugs i have more to lose than most if the fishery fails.you might want to take a reading compretention course, as i never mention anything against the bills.do i see a decline in the number of fishermen in the last 8 years most definitly,i would think this might have something to do with decreased landings. i i see a decline in the amount of fish caught from the beach,at times yes .i am seeing much bigger concentrations of fish and catching many more fish in an outing than ever before.i hear people talk about an area having no fish yet i never see them fishing that area.in the spring i talk to freinds in delaware,nj,li that are into miles of fish,with no one in sight until the word gets out.getting tried of hearing people moan and groan over their keyboards.if there is a problem it is where the fish spawn and maturelooking forward to another year by myself and a few freinds.

Fish are offshore and concentrated...ok but is there any data (science) that points to the size of the total bass population doing anything but shrinking?

The YOY index is trending down with the exception of 2011. We need to conserve...

Well VT sorry if my "compretention" isn't the best but my spelling is certainly better than yours. I've seen you do nothing but talk about how great the numbers of fish are, but in many areas I fish this isn't the overall feeling.
Good luck out there...
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