Just based on anecdotal evidence... I grew up vacationing in a little community of cottages on the upper Chesapeake. In the ninety's (starting maybe around 1992) a competition started for biggest fish of the year for people in the cottages. Not alot of big fish in that area of the bay in particular, so 33-34 inches usually won. However, there would be tons of fish in the 24-30" range caught from september until late november. I believe the competition has stopped as the last few years there have been so few fish and the ones they have caught are small (18" is a keeper). Add in phisteria, the bunker problem, water quality issues and the fact that mortality is either 0.4 or 0.6
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Coastwide 1 fish 24-28" or bust (xcept for Chesapeake and Hudson as they are a bit different).