Moratorium Blast from the past
 

Did some research and found this from 1983.

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Oh, I remember it so well.
You young guys have no idea. You could fish for 3 weeks every night and never touch a striper. Bluefish were all you caught.

spoiled..aint we... I do remember... we were lucky on PI... we had a lot of fish ... I remember thinking that everyone was crazy with all this talk about a decline.. we were bailing big numbers of big fish every night.. and not just me.. everyone fishing the area.. I've still got the articles from the Boston globe and herald with the news of the outstanding fishing in the area in the weekly reports..in '86 ..I had 3 fish over 50..including a 61... .... then almost overnight it all 'went a stinker"... then I was too young to realize I had witnessed what could have been the last buffalo hunt... I didn't realize there were not enough small fish to replace the big ones. And not enough big ones to make little ones.... in '88 I went 21 straight nights( yes I fished EVERY night) with out a big fish...it took time to sink in... I'm hoping not to see a repeat..

*2

The first 4 Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby's I fished, no striper category, and we weren't seeing any caught. Bluefish were winning the boats.

You couldn't keep any size bass; the charters and headboats fished blues, tog, scup, flounder and they seemed to hold steady.
I fished mostly the CT shore line and all anyone was catching was blues.

I worry this may be it; I don't see the forage base I used to.

And when I do find bunker - there is no bass on 'em.... sad.

history may very well repeat itself... we as a whole are such effin' idiots.

You are right- man tends not to learn from history so he keeps making the same mistakes and wonders why he gets the same results. Ron

Yup. That's what it was like in '90; never even bothered to try fishing for stripers then; only caught 'em as a by catch. Sure used to catch plenty of blues back then. Wouldn't mind picking up a few more now, actually; they've been down the last few years too.

In the last 3 seasons of surfcasting, a total of 225+ nights,
I have caught a grand total of 9 bluefish while targeting bass.

10 years ago, it was in the hundreds. I fish rigged eels with such
confidence that they wont get bitten in half by a blue these days, I only pack 1 for the night.

Don't be so hard on yourself.
There are a lot of other factors to take into account such as seals ,water conditions, migration changes and disease.
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You forgot CHARTER BOATS:1poke:

This is so true. Where the hell did they go? Certainly plenty of bait last year...

Back in those days Dennis, I took up golf instead of surfcasting. Long Island Sound near coastal waters were devoid of bass for a few years at least. I am actually still amazed at the comeback that the striped bass made, I figured it was over.
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Try to find them for tuna bait and they become even more scarce
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Very good :kewl: That is why the vast majority here think 1@28 is such a fairly pathetic step. 1@28 for some and a bs amalgam of 2 fish for the pro boats is contemptible. You, et al., keep beating the horse about guys here only caring about the charter boats. That is a red herring. The whole management effort is fatally flawed and the special intere$t exemption is a kick in the junk.

The greedy will always be greedy. Greedy has much more power than fairness.That's why the fish come last.SAD

I didn't live through the moratorium. I started striper fishing around 92 ish i think. I remember not catching fish, because i sucked at it,and maybe becasue there weren't many fish around. When i got my first keeper i was so damn happy and didn't think about needing another fish to take home. Imagining what fishing would be like without bass in our waters is scary stuff. I have been luck the past couple years to have found decent schools of big fish on occasion. On occasion though, many strike outs sprinkled with a few memorable nights. The disturbing thing is that they are not in places where i use to catch them. The places in RI where i use to be able to check my logs and go catch fish now are deserts. The only saving grace i am seeing in RI is that there appear to be a lot of small fish. We better do something to protect these fish as they grow. Take greed off the table. If people can't agree on 1 @ 28 across the board i think shutting it down like they did in the article would be a good idea.

I remember it well , I know we are doomed to repeat it . Different people saying the same thing . "There are plenty of fish" Then when it collapses they'll skirt the blame and say "Pollution caused it".

Or the bait is the problem or the weather or some other cockamamie reason.
The fisheries managers have their heads so far up their a$$ they can see what they had for breakfast.

Occam's Razor.
In the absence of certainty, the fewer assumptions that are made the better.
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It has been scientifically proven that the weather is the problem. Bass need a rainy, cool weather pattern in the late winter/early spring for the YOY to survive and thrive.

At lot more at play than just the weather.
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Nothing else matters if the fry don't survive.

Hypoxia, pollution, predation,easier to find and exploit by tech etc.etc.
I surprised they are still here....for now.
There is only one thing we can directly control in the myriad of things that effect the fish from fry to adult.

I'm sorry I have to admit that I keep two stripers a year

I'm sorry I have to admit I keep at least two stripers a year

And "If" you caught a bass it was 18-20".

Paul, unfortunately the kids will get to see it soon! :(

For the naysayers...

Why the hell risk it???
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