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Well I am not here to prove any points but I just feel that I HAVE to put my 2 cents in (DISCLAIMER: I just fish, fished all my life and I don't know anything about data, hatcheries, etc, I just go about life)....Story time:
Being born in '88, the Stripers have always been a rare catch to me. I've fished ever since I've had motor skills and most of my life up until 10 years ago I have fished by boat with an extremely experienced fisherman (literally fished every day from that boat in the same inlet). All my memories are Fluking and Bluefish blitzes. Striper fishing with Eels and clams happened every Fall. What made it so exciting is that even with all his experience, catching a Striper was very rare for me (he would hook up and even then it would only be 2 fish tops). Just to see the fish was amazing to me. Hooking into one rivaled winning Lotto. To me, fishing with him and all his experience was a friendly challenge no matter what the species. If I outfished him or tied his catch, I must be doing something right (this pretty much never happened but I've came damn close when it came to Fluke and Flounder).
One day he noticed my severe lack of confidence striper fishing with him while holding my rod on the boat (I am a fanatic of fishing and am happy as hell to fish even the most dead of areas to give you a hint on how much it takes to get me down), he then told me about the "Dark Ages" and how the population works, etc. That's when I learned probably the most important lesson when it came to fishing: it's all practice. Even when you are getting the skunks, you are still practicing your technique. When the fish are around, you will see whether or not you are doing it right and where you need to make changes. My attitude went back to being perky and positive.
Sadly, I can count on 1 hand of how many days where I ever saw more than 2 stripers hit the deck or sand.
Yet, when I fish the beach, if the fish are there, I'm hooking up. Keeping logs for 3 years now just being a rookie, its always been all or nothing. Very few times has it been "all". Though this is a guy who maybe gets on the beach 4 times in May, twice in June if the weather isn't too hot, and 4 trips in September, October, and November respectively. December always depended on November. Each trip being about 4 hours, I only spend a cumulative time of a few days a year fishing now that I'm bound to the sands (I only go during the Fall when my reliable source tells me all you need is a line in the water).
A good day is just getting a hit, a great day is hooking into a fish.
I have only seen a 20 lb striper once in person in my life and that was to take a picture of my neighbor holding his catch.
I have never caught anything past 12 lbs. and even though that does not mean a whole lot to me (I could catch schoolies all day and be fine with it), I've kept my eyes open to the people around me and I have yet to see someone land a 15+ in the vicinity.
Some days it just feels like the ocean has no striped bass to offer.
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