I Don't Care What Anyone Says........
 

Its been a tough season! Words can't describe how poor it has been and talking to many others......I find I am not alone! Fall in particular has been pitiful! Sure there are a few who have done well but from surf or boat I think this has been the worst season in recent memory for many! I for one can't wait to put it in the books and get ready for next season! Your thoughts??


Anyone find not just a lack of sizeable fish but a lack of stripers in general.......dinks, schoolies were even hard to come by???

Season has been awesome for tuna & cod/ ground fish !!!
Taking my son Matt to football now and going to give it a late start to the cod grounds in a few hrs once the seas lay down

How did you find the striper fishing Ron??:confused:

Overall Boston harbor sucked this year.
But I did very little inshore fishing this year, my boat has been parked out on Stellwagen most of the year !
Ave Maria did his usual numbers in the harbor !

Bait sure did not seem to be the problem??

my worst season in memory.....reminds me of the 80's a bit...

A couple canal high liners I spoke to yesterday mentioned it was sporadic (but good if you were lucky enough to be there) this fall. You basically had to be on patrol 24/7 otherwise you'd likely miss out. Same thing applied to a bunch of other locales...if you could be out 5, 6, 7 nights a week and keep up with things it was a little better.

Other than being out most nights, you were largely reliant on pure chance and %$%$%$%$ luck. I got the " you shoulda been here yesterday" report more times than I can ever remember.

Late fall was an exercise in futility...early fall was quite good for me though.

All in all it was an average year, IMO. I don't feel fish availability/numbers is the problem; it’s the distribution of fish meaning nobody knows what will show where and when.

Is the sky falling? I don't even remotely think so.

Boat guy -- but the #'s in CC Bay were outstanding this year. Even August that normally gets slow was great - best August I've ever seen. I didn't even need to troll wire the entire month (and I like wire).

Block was just stupid easy for the boats too.

What that means for the surf - I have no idea.

It means the same thing it always has...judging the quality of our fishery based on what the surf crowd catches is a highly arbitrary means of measuring the fishery at best.

Although I do little boat fishing nowadays, I place much more value on the boat fishing reports/commercial catches, etc. as a measure of fish availability.

I did not fish enough to form a negative opinion. I did not work hard enough to be let down. There was plenty enough action to keep me interested. I did some recon, landed a few good ones, dropped some real large, saw some slobs taken by others and had many laughs.
Next year I am giving it a different approach. Putting in more time, trying new and different locations and applying different techniques.

My best year numbers wise, but as far as size goes it was a bust. My best fish all year was 23lbs, with the majority of my fish in the 12-18lb range. Like alot of other guys on this forum, I fished alot and I fished hard in very productive locations. We ussually have a pretty strong push of good fish right around this time in my area, which has completely failed to materialize....

It really seemed like June was THE month around here this year, with a short flurry of action in September.

I dont know

good post.
I think a lot of surfcasting is just that ...luck...
Going to a spot and blindly casting a plug over and over hoping a fish will bite can get you down or frustrated.
Too many variables to be able to call it a bad season from employing just that that method.

Yeah it was bad for me .

You making fun of me? :hihi:

I think surfcasting is more fickle than boat fishing but less based on luck. In a boat, you move without thinking less about it. Your "spot" tends not to be a 20-150yd cone around some point or geographical fixture as in the surfangler but a drift of 500 yds along some particular location or rockpiles.

In the surf, if you are skilled, spend 4-5 of every 7 days of every week on the water at known productive big fish spots while using big fish methods you are going to do well regardless. Fish distribution will determine whether you do real good or just OK.

If you are fishing from the boat and apply that same high degree of skill and time, you are just going to have more quality numbers and more quality fish.

Me, I don't have that skill. But I get schooled by those people in those conditions often enough to tell you dats what it is :devil2:

Most plug fishing is just that...."casting blindly"! Its the entire premise behind the technique! The fish are not always rolling on top and busting bait.......you mostly have to work for them, casting blindly, cycling through your plugs, altering your retrieve speed and finding what they want and how they want it!:fishin:

I guess its all how one looks at it. I did a few good nights in October, got a PB, but other than that, its been slow, real slow

Newsflash - most fishing is blind, regardless of what you use; plugs, tins, chunks, fly, eel, rubba, whatever :rotf2: . That may be the great equalizer, in most cases you do not see your quarry.

A 34# shore Bass winning the shore div. in the MV derby this year!!! Many are grumbling that it is an embarrassment for a noted stripercoast heavyweight like the Vineyard. Even the boat guys couldn't crack 50 and we are talking thousands of very accomplished fisherman. The derby got off on a slow start for me with the hopes that things would blow up by derbys end. Last two weeks of the derby I couldn't find a fish with a fistfull of cash in the fish market. I usually launch the boat when shore fishing doesn't produce but for various reasons I decided to stay on shore...big mistake!

:)No.... I think your accomplishments speak for themselves....
Oh I agree...I'm just saying it can be frustrating for me and not really a good indicator on the overall outlook/season. Just my opinion.
All I know is I am going to fish some different spots next year....like the big fish ones JohnR is talking about. I have been fairly successful in the past, do alright now and will hopefully improve my numbers next year.

What a horrible year!

I've been fishing all along the Westerly beaches and surrounding areas every day for the past 3wks.Nothing to show for it.The Fall run was non-existant this year.

Its was such a poor year,out of the three setups I use the most I only changed line once on one of them.

I really believe the crazy weather and lack of much of a summer effected the fish the most. Crazy temp and barometric shifts most of the year, can goof it up a lot. Not to mention it seems to be moving straight from summer to winter a lil too fast. Seemed to be a lot of weekends that my boat was grounded due to high winds and crappy weather. Personally I fished easily twice as much as last year and caught less than 1/2 the fish I did last year....:fishin::wall:

Sounds like I picked a good season to take off :devil2:

-spence

Something in the water?
 

I did a lot of hunting for striped bass in Maine's rivers, estuaries, jetties, and beaches between Saco river and Ogunquit river. I hit all my regular hot spots (big producers in years past). Skunked!! Towards the end of the season, I went to a beach I never fished before and landed an fish full of attitude! This fish was mean! She drank sea water and excreted salt. Given the tackle I was using, I thought she was a 30 - 40 lber. Not! Only 8 lbs. Go figure. There is something in the Maine's water. :-).

All thought the season up in Maine was very slow this year, I also got a lot of casting practice with my Avet reel. Learning how to use a casting reel without a level wind was one of my personal goals this year. I am not a master yet, but one night I nearly emptied the spools on every cast. And then I stopped drinking the water. :-).

The BEST trip this year was the s-b.com Cuttyhunk trip in June. Great people. Great food. Big fish. I completely un-plugged and stepped back in time. I cannot wait until next June!!! Green light and all (inside joke).

I hear you Big Fish, I have started hitting the books and maps myself in preparation for next year's trips. I want to have all my research done ahead of time, because if I start getting skunked again, I am moving on to new water and structure.

This winter, I am hoping to do more than just research. I am thinking of taking up Ice fishing. This is another personal goal of mine, and this winter season is it! I think last year s-b.com did an ice fishing trip. True? If so, is there going to be a repeat this year?

PS

Sorry for the long post. I have been reflecting about this past season this morning and once I start typing, my fingers move faster than the neural impluses in my brain. :-). Note to self: Stop drinking the Maine water.

The season started pretty good for me, july and august sucked as bad as i can ever remember, september and october have been very good so far. I hope it ends with a bang. Nothing very large this year. I think my best was just a little north of 30lbs, last year it was numerous fish in that range. Ive noticed that it gets a bit difficult to judge a season at times since i improve my fishing every year. Its always a learning experience. I take away something from every trip, skunk or killing em, put it together to make it better for the next trip.

for the second year in a row...Suprisingly, August was my fall run... biggest and most came in august for me... I though August was supposed to suck!!!

This sums up my season: went out in the harbor of refuge Thursday morning to see if we could catch some winter flounder before the season closes. Started the chum pot, a seal pops his head up and that was that. I only saw one, but ones enough and it was inside the pond.

I don't want to spoil the pity party so I'll just say, 2009 was my best year since the late 1970s. :love:

Even accounting for the lost month when my wife had knee replacement surgery and was in rehab, and the 2 weeks or so to get back on top of the bite.

What does it prove? There's no substitute for being able to put in the hours.

And some advice--when you race to spot-jump someone in June, it always pays to remember to bring the bug goop so you don't have to leave before the best window of the tide :btu:

The fall for me was stellar, the spring had me in a funk that had me bemoaning the notion of even going fishing.

At 54 years of age I need serious motivation to keep me going, I found it at three locations and for 13 nights in a row in September until the first week of October I fished dusk to dawn on a rabid hunt for bass. The old adage of time on the water ( or standing in it) still holds true, you cannot catch them if you are not there.

You have to force yourself to go sometimes, to be where you know they should be and believe that they will show no matter how many hitless casts you make. You have to think differently than the others fishing around you. This fall the small baits took the biggest fish, night after night on the smallest Stetzko needles outfitted with oversized hooks, the smallest Super Strikes with a flag on the ass end in heavy current just swinging past the ambush spot.

Knowing intimatly the spots you fish at each stage of the tide. Where your needle should land and where it will sweep to with the tide. I spent countless hours under the midday sun studying these spots for each subtlety that might give me an edge.

Bait. Knowing where and what type of bait was present and if none was, niether was I.

Last night Sauerkraut and I stood in 40 knot winds and pouring rain with a touch of lightning on a beach and the school bass were just nudging our plugs. No one else was around and we commented to each other we must be insane but insanity has it's rewards and though the fish I really wanted to land won the contest the quarter sized scale on the tail hook of the needle confirmed my suspicions.

Luck is part of it but sometimes with some work you can make your own.

It was a great fall.:uhuh:

What fall run?!!!

Striped Bass are becoming a distant memory up here in Southern Maine.

We don't see nearly the amounts of fish that we saw two, even three short years ago. Same just south of me in NH.

Recreational anglers/commercial anglers....We've just killed far too many fish as a whole , abused the resource and trashed their spawning grounds.

You guys in MA,Conn, and R.I. will see and feel what I'm feeling very soon. Maybe then something will be done about this.

Sorry Bigfish...didn't mean to go off.

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 .