[BassDawg]

first, i am for 1 @ 36", Striper gamefish status, AND an ACMenhaden inshore moratorium for 5 yrs.
and they must be done together, since by themselves yer only pissing in the wind, imho.

for me this year was an ODDD year,,,,,,,,,,,,,

wet spring conditions, tide times not aligning with moons,
GLASS at the right times/right moons, funky fishing ALL year.

for the last three years~~~ my go-to's, were unwaivering!
down to the days/hours based on conditions that had repeated.
hell, they even "felt" like the same pods of fish, migrators and residents alike. consistently stacking up, varying in size and fight, maintaing a realizable "pattern" from June to November with regard to size and amount gathered~~ but nonetheless THERE, right where they were "supposed to be" according to the best lawgs intel i have been able to compile.

and then there is 2009, to wit, the rub of which we are speaking.

a couple of things occurr to me as i review my three spots that i have documented the most in that short 4 year span, to include '09. this year was MOSTLY much slower and something completely DIFFERENT! this year i had schoolies earlier, and more often, and more of them, from NH to RI. one spot has been typically absent of schoolies and notable for lahhhge. this year it was the reverse, where schoolies were the norm and 25#-30# fish were fewer and farther between, not nearly as many, and NOTHING over 30#??? at the same NShore haunt for 4 months, this year only, it was schoolie central. specifically, there was one night that cookie cutter 19" stripers were landed 7 of 10 casts,,,,,,,,,,come to find out after talking to some locals~~~they bailed 9 40#'s in a three week period, no less than a beach and two coves away. so that tells me that they WERE there, just NOT on my exit ramp. and as an aside~~i did move around quite a bit more than years past, introduced myself to two areas, and got led to a couple more,,,,,,,,,,,,,,to a VERY slow and significantly SMALLER season, overall.

the second thing is this,,,,,,,,,,,,,,this year was loaded with glass-like conditions. for many of the "optimal dark tides" there was absolutely ZERO surf!!! there were bumps, ghost takes, swim-bys, short takes, tail slaps, big/med/sm swipes, and man-hole cover swirls. basically, all the signs of skiddish predation towards offerings that have slayed in the past when given the same time/tide/moon/place. could've been me, as i know i missed several(4 BIGGUNS) takes this year; yet, something was "missing" within the surf this year. primarily, i think that it was the surf itself. glassy, gin clear, firey water certainly favors our quarry.

lastly, i'll close with this. don't blame me, i got rained out today ~so what else is a bruthah to do? having read ALL of the above, could we not simply be in a YOY lull? the spike years were '89-28, '93-42, '96-60, '01-52. if it takes 6-8 years to reach 27"-35" and a reasonable growth rate is 1"/yr up to 12 years old, then are we not about where we should be sizewise based on the science? 2002 was well below the mean average of 11.7, 4.6 roughly.

so, is it safe to ascertain that we've experienced a not so stellar year based on stock patterns and changes in paths of migration, rather than the END is near? certainly we need change, please see the top, but i don't think that we are in the middle of a crash~~~more like the preventable outer edges should we enact proactive measures, NOW!