Quote:
Originally Posted by DZ
I had a conversation with a very good surf fisherman recently who was talking about how good the fishing has been the last few years - at the end I asked him the following question: How many of your large bass would you have taken this past season if you had to wear waders only? His answer - none. My point - many surfcasters think that fishing for big bass in the surf has been pretty good and some may even say that this year was the best year they've ever had - but many of them have really expanded their horizons by "swimming" to areas normally in the domain of boats
DZ
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I think the inconsistency of summer fishing is driving this a bit too. Spring and fall traditionally have more large fish closer to shore than late july and most of august. There are obviously exceptions.
I think wetsuiting in the summer while fish are taking up residence in certain locales is a good way to fill the "lull" that we sometimes experience.
My last point is although some guys did real well on a year when surf fishing was believed to be so-so, its only one season and could be totally different next year. Last year (2007) the wetsuit crowd didn't produce many notable fish in comparison to the wader crew. 2008 had some outstanding catches made, and I think it glorified wetsuiting to a level it may or may not deserve.
Next year there may be more people doing it, thus more fish may be taken via wetsuit. It may prove to be the increased number of people wetsuiting and not a greater availability of fish that skew the numbers.
If everyone suddenly begins to fish with rebels and excludes every other method, then rebels may get an undue amount of credit simply due to the fact everyone is using them. Wetsuits seem to be taking the same line.