Ahhhhhhh.........I see, recreational fishing pressure has dropped to 1/3 what it used to be (probably because NIB switched to golf), but we still kill 80% of the fish? The guys who are left are obviously getting much better (or using eels exclusively) and eating much more. They better be careful about Mercury poisoning. Probably why such huge tracts of the fishes historic range is empty of bass (except for a brief surge in the spring).
Silly me
. I assumed recreational catch numbers, which reflect the average success of hundreds of thousands of average fishermen fishing everywhere along the fishes entire habitat using all sorts of techniques was a better indicator of species abundance, than the catch numbers of a few thousand guys targeting specific populations of fish in specific locations that they will travel to get at and drop dead pogies on top of because of the potential for profit.
My bad.