I am SOTS: MAKE STRIPED BASS A GAMEFISH!

[JFigliuolo]

Originally Posted by numbskull

Sauerkraut fishes a lot.....and very, very hard.

There should be fish in here AND out there. When there is not there is a problem.

This what I've been saying for quite some time. Whenever a post like SK's is made, inevitably, people say "Fish harder, The fish are out there, just not where you are looking". They don't get the big picture. When fish are absent from a lot of places they SHOULD be, there are most likely less fish in totality. The problem is not that no one is catching fish (yet) the problem is that A LOT of people who KNOW how to catch fish, and have been doing so for quite some time are finding it harder and harder to do so. SOMEONE somewhere will always be doing well, but when less people are doing well there is a problem.

And as far as "get out more", A lot of us have lives outside of fishing and really don't want to get divorced/unemployed for the sake of catching fish. And while "getting out more" will increase my catch. It will in no way INCREASE the fish out there to catch which is the root of the problem.

A lot of us have not decreased our fishing frequency, yet our success has gone down. The writing has been on the wall for a few years now, but few want to read it.

[numbskull]

It always was that you could go elsewhere to find better fishing, but you could also always find some fishing on a resident population of fish without traveling.

When the resident populations of fish disappear it is a bad sign, even if remaining localized concentrations of fish still provide great success for those willing to travel.

Whether it is bait, overfishing, pollution, global warming, or all of the above does not really matter. Overfishing should be the one easiest to control. But it isn't.

Keep in mind also that for guys in middle age or further, if you plan to catch quality fish in your retirement years, those fish ought to be swimming out there (or be born very soon) right now. How is that looking for ya?