Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating - View Single Post - My thoughts on the Canal (Not that anyone gives a &^%$)

Mike P · 08-31-2017, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by piemma

Well said Mike. Someone else posted that those of us who lived through the collapse and moratorium understand. Those that didn't...don't.
Hell I went 3 years withou catching a decent fish in the late 80s. I got thrown out of a tackle store in Narr for reporting that I caught 6 schoolies at Deep Hole one morning because there just weren't any.

When we finally got open at 1, @ 36", there were maybe 2 dozen 36"+ fish caught in a whole season. We fished for hours on end in the surf for 1 couple of 20" fish and a Blue or 2.

It wasn't pretty but the dedicated RI Surfrats stayed at it day in and day out. DZ, Billy Nolan, Steve Mc Kenna, Gill Guilletone, Russ Olivo, Gene Auette all searched for a 20# fish. Finally in 94 or 95 it turned but we all knew we had caused the damage in the early years (70s + 80s) by killing all the big breeders.

I am not a "the sky is falling" guy. I think we are seeing signs that there is a problem developing. I'm not blaming the Comms, the recs, the poachers, the bandits or any individual. I am looking hard at the way the bureaucrats are handling the Striped Bass ecosystem. If you don't think taking the $ sign off the Bass's heads would help, I think you are mistaken.

We also understand that there was about a tenth of the amount of pressure on those fish as there is now. Even with a 16" limit and unlimited sale. The commercial bass game was a relatively small contingent of sharpies. There probably weren't as many guys spread over 26 miles of back beach as there were packed into 14 miles of Canal last week. Sure netters did their damage, but they still do in points south. That same body of fish that was in the Canal chasing mackerel in the spring gets hammered every winter offshore of Virginia, and along the entire Jersey coast on their way north in the spring---by numbers of fishermen which way exceed the number in the Canal. They NJ old-timers have a saying---live bunker makes everyone a sharpie. As do those daytime bites in the Canal when the bass are so lit up they'll hit an old shoe.