A combo of all of the above, I believe - schools of bass hang around an area because of food/bait. They used to hit the beach hard in the night and early morning, feed, retreat back to deeper water during the day/sun, and then head back for the bait the next night.
Sand dabs and skates gone - cause, seals.
Sand eels are another story - gone from the beach but not 1/2 mile from the beach, so LIFish has a point there. Why aren't the sand eels going in close - run-off messing with the sand quality? Density of the sand, has it changed in the past years and the sand eels are finding other spots to burrow? Has the bottom changed (probably) due to storms, currents etc and now the sand eels pass by their traditional burrowing spots - Pamet as well as Race Pt don't give up the #'s they used to have.
The fish are their, just offshore. The question is why aren't they been staying their for the season, but just pass through. We have maybe 2 to 3 big schools a year that bounce between Billingsgate/Long Point/Race Pt, and the rest are fish on a journey.
Alot of great thoughts, but really
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