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My hypothesis:
The recent spate of super large fish is the last remnants of the 1982 year class of fish. For those of you who don't know, 1982 was an unusually large year class of fish given the state of striped bass at the time. Since 1982 there have been numerous year classes of fish much bigger than the 1982 class. This class of fish was preserved partially by the 36" size limit at the time in order to produce breeder sized fish in good quantities and supposedly save the species. The jumbo fish (50-70#) being taken right now are likely 25+ year old fish. The spike in these super size fish is most likely just a reflection of what was born 25 years ago.
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