Rockport, that's a loaded question. IMHO, there are still plenty of bass ( although the guides who dominate FFSW would disagree but that's another debate). One only has to venture offshore a 1/2 mile or so and voila', tons of them. For the last two or three years the fishery off of Chatham for example has really opened up to guys drifting jig heads and sluggos as the sand eels are there up the duppa ( thats Polish for ass btw). Last year we watched as some interpid fishermen off of the race took sand eel baited rigs and paddled them out for guys sitting on the shore with the attached rod to beyond casting distance and once in the zone simply dropped them into the water and started to paddle back to shore. By the time they were halfway in the guy onshore with the rod was hard over onto a fish and some nice ones at that. Meanwhile Mr. Piniped was swimming with a group of friends near shore in the surf zone, which is a major problem as since they eat 20 to 40 pounds of fish per day the bait and the bass get the message and stay clear. In the waters of Cape Cod Bay thier are fish by the thousands in various shallow water areas, some so close to shore that it is scary but the vicinity they frequent can only reached safely by boat even though the water is two feet deep and hordes of sandeels hover nearby, all this of course on flood tides.
Something is keeping them off of the beach and, again IMHO, it's the seals. We no longer catch windowpane flounder while surfcasting as we used too. We don't see the giant schools of sand eels the way we used too. Nor the schools of juvenile Pollock, Pogies, sea herring, and seas worms that were absolutely huge while raking sand eels. Crabs have taken a nose dive as well as Moon snails. It always got dicey in late July and August as water temps rose and the red junk piled up on the beach but it used to come right back in shape by mid september, not even close now. The only guys catching anything are those who spend almost every night out there and odds are that they will eventually collide with something somewhere but there is alot of empty casts in between. I do believe, heart and soul, that a 28 inch limit x two for recreationals is having an effect more than the 34 inch limit for commercials who season is regulated and observed no matter what some others will tell you at least thier catch is truly documented. 2x 28 should be changed back to one at 36 or one in a slot and one trophy over 45 inches. Comms should be 36 as well, the best bass fishing we ever had was when it was 36 inches, hands down. The National Marine Mammal protection act had everything figured except one aspect and that oversight was a giant blunder on the feds part. The blunder was that no one really knew how large "historically" the seal population ever truly was and once the act was made law it was a wait and see. Well now we see and it isn't good for anything but the seals and will eventually begin to affect them as well when they haul thier emeciated carcasses out of the water on shore because they ate everything in sight and all that they will do is respond by moving into places they are nopw only rarely seen like the Caper Cod Canal ( can you imagine what the tree huggers will say when they start having boat/seal hits? All marine traffic will be diverted back around the outer cape probably) Sandy Neck will look like Monomoy south and from Dennis to Sandwich, Wellfleet and Brewster the problem will manifest itself tenfold. The feds really don't have a clue of what the outer cape can sustain for a seal population and what the final impact on the other cape marine species will be. Sad, really F%^#$%^ sad. One more thing, we as humans have a right to the use of the shore and it's resources for pleasure of sustenance, we are one species of animal, more intelligent (hmm) but a animal speicies non-the-less.
