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Unfounded gloom and doom
Like I said earlier in this post, it was an average year, IMO. I don't buy into "The sky is falling" opinions.
Is it possible we have fewer fish available than, say, 5-10 years ago? Its possible, but how do you measue this stuff in any meaningful way? Certainly not by what a few surf fisherman experience.
Last year(2008) I had the single greatest season ever in my lifetime from the canal ( so did many,many,many others) as the quality fishing lasted nearly 4 1/2 months. I easily caught over 150 fish over the 20# mark. This year(2009) I caught maybe 1/5th that number (25-30 or so) and I didn't do much differently. I put in an equal number of nights/days. Why fewer big fish? They were set up somewhere else, IMO.
I don't feel the numbers above have anything to do with a population crash, but simply the distribution of fish. There were good piles of fish in many areas this year, just not in the same spots/same time as previous years.
Keep in mind these are wild animals and their numbers can fluctuate for a number of reasons. Its possible we could be in a shallow trough right now, but the coastwide landings don't suggest it.
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