Lots of factors in play here Larry
here's a list from my uninformed uneducated opinion
1 global warming
2 daylight is longest this time of year and there is less dark night hours (not that that explains the crappy fall runs but....)
3 the pattern fish have been leaning to is follow the bait offshore where the seals ain't, been moving that way for sometime now
4 sandeels have changed there positions away from the sandy shores of the outer beaches more and more each year, don't know why but it affects their predator the bass since the bait just is not in close so we don't catch as many
5 Jersey has most of the large down there and they kill lots of fish and lots of large just like we have up here, IMO the whole population of stripers can't maintain at the take rate that is happening. We need to slow it down before it's too late, go back to 1 fish per person coastwide, then if we need to go up to 34" to start with.
6 the bluefish are scaring all the bass away
7 boats are an easy vehicle to get you to where the bass are, so of course they will catch more fish.
shore fishing has been dropping off for years now, maybe it's just a cycle, the canal sucks too, 4 years ago july was good, atleast the beginning of july, so I don't know
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