Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating - View Single Post - Why has the fishing from the Cape beaches declined so much?

Flaptail · 03-12-2008, 12:29 PM

Opinions are like ass*oles, everyones got one but in reality the big picture here is a complex mix of alot of things I think.

I do know that a lot less people are fishing out there, especially after dark.

I do know if you work at it you will catch fish out there.

You can blame seals, waste water, the Great Striper in the sky, global warming etc but who really knows. Conjecture.

I believe that seals do eat more bait inshore than off and no bait means no fish but bait can still be found, especially at locations that hold large bodies of water behind bars at low tide. You have to adapt your methodology.

As long as the YOY indexes remain strong there will be no investigation by any scientific body.

I talk to a lot of charter guys and others who find fish all the time just off shore and have exeperienced it for myself.

I have also had a few nights in the last couple years where there were thirty guys on the beach plugging from dusk to 10pm and left and the fish showed heavy for several nights in a row at 2:30am til' dawn where I and a friend had them all to ourselves and would listen with sympathetic faces as truck after truck went by leaving the beach because "can you beleive how bad the fishing is here these days" to which we would reply "yeah it really sucks doesn't it?" knowning full well what was happening each night in the wee hours.

I beleive that most folks fishing the beach have really lost or maybe a lot of them never had the ability to read the signs or the the real desire to put in the effort and time that is required to learn the structure, get the rythym of the bass's use of the beaches. Some places they show for hours and some for as little as 20 minutes on a stage of the tide. You have to know this in order to capitilize.

It's a lot of work to read the structure, find the patterns of when they will come into a certain spot on what stage of what tide. Without this knowledge most beaches will always be looked upon as barren by those not willing to go the extra mile or sacrifice the warmth of the bed at home for wet sand.

And most importantly you have to believe that it will come back at some point. And believe me, they will but you won't hear it from me..

03-12-2008, 12:29 PM	#79
Flaptail Registered User iTrader: (0) Join Date: Apr 2001 Location: Uh, in a spot.... Posts: 5,451	Opinions are like ass*oles, everyones got one but in reality the big picture here is a complex mix of alot of things I think. I do know that a lot less people are fishing out there, especially after dark. I do know if you work at it you will catch fish out there. You can blame seals, waste water, the Great Striper in the sky, global warming etc but who really knows. Conjecture. I believe that seals do eat more bait inshore than off and no bait means no fish but bait can still be found, especially at locations that hold large bodies of water behind bars at low tide. You have to adapt your methodology. As long as the YOY indexes remain strong there will be no investigation by any scientific body. I talk to a lot of charter guys and others who find fish all the time just off shore and have exeperienced it for myself. I have also had a few nights in the last couple years where there were thirty guys on the beach plugging from dusk to 10pm and left and the fish showed heavy for several nights in a row at 2:30am til' dawn where I and a friend had them all to ourselves and would listen with sympathetic faces as truck after truck went by leaving the beach because "can you beleive how bad the fishing is here these days" to which we would reply "yeah it really sucks doesn't it?" knowning full well what was happening each night in the wee hours. I beleive that most folks fishing the beach have really lost or maybe a lot of them never had the ability to read the signs or the the real desire to put in the effort and time that is required to learn the structure, get the rythym of the bass's use of the beaches. Some places they show for hours and some for as little as 20 minutes on a stage of the tide. You have to know this in order to capitilize. It's a lot of work to read the structure, find the patterns of when they will come into a certain spot on what stage of what tide. Without this knowledge most beaches will always be looked upon as barren by those not willing to go the extra mile or sacrifice the warmth of the bed at home for wet sand. And most importantly you have to believe that it will come back at some point. And believe me, they will but you won't hear it from me..
	Why even try.........