Striped Bass, the condition of the fishery

[steve]

This is just ones fisherman's opinion, and certainly in no way scientific, but the state of the striped bass is in trouble, I think. I have been chasing striped bass almost 36 years now but for the past 5 or 6 years I have noticed a dramatic decline of the numbers of stripers I have encountered . During that period I have fished,in the surf, about the same number of times( 85 to 110 trips) and in the same places with exception of last season. In '08, I could not fish every location I generally do because of a physiscal problem, however, I did manage about 86 trips in alot of good striper holes.. Anyway, during the last few seasons I have landed approx. 150 to 250 bass. Previous to that, I would routinely catch that many by the end of May, and by the end of each season, catch and release anywhere from 600 to 800 bass. What is very disturbing is the lack of small fish, the schoolies. Save for the early to mid spring, I have not seen any numbers of this size fish for the rest of the season. The" Fabulous Falls " have been almost non existent over the last 5 to 6 years. School sized fish could even be counted on even in the so-called bad years before the moratorium. I don't know where they are now! Yes, ther are alot of big fish around for some, just like the late 70's and early 80's but look what happened back then! Moreover, talk to bass fisherman from Maine. Their season was an all out bust in '08. Charter Captains gave up the ghost and went smallmouth bass fishing I'm told. Something is wrong and as others have said, we need to get all the data we can and make some intelligent decisions, soon.