I think the overall amount of bass is probably in fair to OK shape and not the reasons we are doing "poorly".
Let's look at what we know:
- Bass fishing has been fantastic where there are bunker; 'Gansett Bay, large areas of Jersey, LI, parts of LI Sound/CT, and Boston Harbor had a nice run.
- Some people are having great years, some people are having miserable years but this is usually the case. The fish move around a lot.
- Because we stay (or are supposed to) in the close waters near shore, lots of offshore migrations of bass are go way underreported. In the fall, think about the Great South Channel Bass Slaughter
that gets more reported every year.
- Weak inshore bait populations - with the exception of the bunker - not bringin fish back as often.
Here is some guessing:
- I've heard some interesting opinions from people that have seen some good tagging survey data. What happens if your NJ fish and your Cape Cod summer fish are from the Chesapeake and since they are spending so much quality time on bunker in NJ that a sizeable percentage never gets to the Cape? If you look over the past few years at the progressively improved NJ fishing, does it coincide with the falling Cape Cod fishing????
- Are the RI inshore fish Hudson fish and less influenced by the NJ bunker?
This is very cyclical and varies from year to year, the past few years the Cape has had it pretty hard but the Jersey guys have been doing very well. Is there a connection? What about the other failing forage stocks in New England? Like the herring??
Threaded Mode