SB stocks dwindling

[hq2]

Used to crank ‘em in at Barrington and Conimicut back then. Dozens of guys out there, fish flying everywhere. Not much now.

[bloocrab]

Originally Posted by Mike P

..... Fish from 13 to almost 20 pounds,,,,,

Today, most consider a 14lb bloofish a monster, ?? So most won't know that when bluefish get into the 17-18+lb-range, they start to take on a different shape .....can you imagine if bloofish reached the 50-60# class?

[PaulS]

Originally Posted by bloocrab

Today, most consider a 14lb bloofish a monster, ?? So most won't know that when bluefish get into the 17-18+lb-range, they start to take on a different shape .....can you imagine if bloofish reached the 50-60# class?

I had a 16# one night last week. Knew it was a blue from the fight but when I first saw it I started thinking to myself that I was wrong and had a bass on.

[afterhours]

Originally Posted by hq2

Used to crank ‘em in at Barrington and Conimicut back then. Dozens of guys out there, fish flying everywhere. Not much now.

Yup there and on the pogies when they filled Bristol harbor - solid week of up to 20+ blues and 40+ stripers with some 50's. It was insane.

[wdmso]

Originally Posted by hq2

Used to crank ‘em in at Barrington and Conimicut back then. Dozens of guys out there, fish flying everywhere. Not much now.

Only big blues I saw were early mixed in with the bass on Pogies ..

Used. To be schools in the fall in the Taunton River and MT hope bay last 10 years nothing bigger than shark bait

[Mike P]

If I showed some people where we used to catch blues, when they were marauding schools of pogies back in the 1980s, they wouldn't believe me. They went up the Agawam almost to the Elks. The Weweantic at the Rte. 6 bridge. Pocasset and Back Rivers in Bourne.

You couldn't get away from the yellow eyed bastages in the Canal---any time of day, and tide. The breakwater in Plymouth Harbor. You could get all of the dead pogies you wanted for bait on the harbor side. Go out on the jetty cut a chuck, cast, and you'd have a blue on before your sinker hit bottom. It defined stupid fishing.

[bloocrab]

Originally Posted by Mike P

If I showed some people where we used to catch blues, when they were marauding schools of pogies back in the 1980s, they wouldn't believe me. They went up the Agawam almost to the Elks. The Weweantic at the Rte. 6 bridge. Pocasset and Back Rivers in Bourne.

You couldn't get away from the yellow eyed bastages in the Canal---any time of day, and tide. The breakwater in Plymouth Harbor. You could get all of the dead pogies you wanted for bait on the harbor side. Go out on the jetty cut a chuck, cast, and you'd have a blue on before your sinker hit bottom. It defined stupid fishing.

non-existent now ...

I hate losing tackle to them, but they have their place...I'm sure they saved a skunk many a times for all of us

[RIROCKHOUND]

Originally Posted by bloocrab

.can you imagine if bloofish reached the 50-60# class?

They do.
They are called Amberjack
😂
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[ivanputski]

I barely ever catch bluefish anymore while surfcasting... Im talking about 1 per season MAX... there are some years I didnt get a single one, and im averaging 60-80 nights per season.

I dont really miss them, but at the same time I do.. Blue's could add some action on slow nights, and My kids would love dawn and dusk blue fish blitzes that you could set your watch to 15 years ago

[hq2]

60 to 80 nights a year and one per season? Knew things had gotten bad but didn’t think it was that bad.

[ivanputski]

Originally Posted by hq2

60 to 80 nights a year and one per season? Knew things had gotten bad but didn’t think it was that bad.

over 50 nights all up and down the RI shoreline so far this year, not ONE SINGLE BLUE yet... not even an eel chop...

And that is no exaggeration

[PaulS]

Pete, I'll have about the same amount of nights and have 1 blue this year. Prob. no more than 5 last year.

[Got Stripers]

Originally Posted by Mike P

If I showed some people where we used to catch blues, when they were marauding schools of pogies back in the 1980s, they wouldn't believe me. They went up the Agawam almost to the Elks. The Weweantic at the Rte. 6 bridge. Pocasset and Back Rivers in Bourne.

You couldn't get away from the yellow eyed bastages in the Canal---any time of day, and tide. The breakwater in Plymouth Harbor. You could get all of the dead pogies you wanted for bait on the harbor side. Go out on the jetty cut a chuck, cast, and you'd have a blue on before your sinker hit bottom. It defined stupid fishing.

My friend and I were outside Plymouth harbor just in front of the long jetty and big gators were pushing bunker and actually creating decent size waves you could almost surf. It was a great time to fish and a good thing I was pouring all the plastic those bastards could shred.

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by Got Stripers

My friend and I were outside Plymouth harbor just in front of the long jetty and big gators were pushing bunker and actually creating decent size waves you could almost surf. It was a great time to fish and a good thing I was pouring all the plastic those bastards could shred.

The first time I went up there, early 80s, like maybe 1983, me and a couple of my Canal buddies, we scooped some dead pogies from the harbor side of the jetty into a bucket. We walked to where was a little space for 3 guys and chunked up a couple of the pogies. I grabbed a chunk, hooked it, made a cast, and was thumbing the spool until the sinker hit bottom---except there was no bottom. I said to one of the guys, "man, this water seems awfully deep." Guy replies, "Mike, it can't be more than 15 feet deep." I threw the free spool lever on my Squidder closed, and almost had the rod yanked out of my hands.

Like the song says, "don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone" Same with the great bass fishing of the 1990s and early 2000s. There was always a cycle---bass died out, blues moved in. Old timers told me that it happened in the postwar era, then again in the early 1980s. But now the cycle seems broken, and who knows if it'll ever come back?

[hq2]

Yeah, used to be you’d have one or the other or both; now you don’t have either. So what has moved in to take the niche of both? Is it hard tails? Saw a bunch of albies breaking last week; is that what there is now?

[RIROCKHOUND]

Originally Posted by hq2

Yeah, used to be you’d have one or the other or both; now you don’t have either. So what has moved in to take the niche of both? Is it hard tails? Saw a bunch of albies breaking last week; is that what there is now?

Light tackle Sea Robins are the new frontier.

[redlite]

The ocean cock roaches AK sea bass have eaten and destroyed everything in buzzards bay for sure. We have been experiencing surface blitzes of them in 50 ft of water so many
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[bloocrab]

....The ocean cock roaches AK sea bass have eaten and destroyed everything in buzzards bay....

R.I. is in similar shoes.... I wrestled to get out front today but the wind was honkin' just a tad too much, sat just inside targeting rubba-lips, but the damn roaches you're talking about were beating the Tog to the hook . .. .....; pissed through 3 qts of greenies in no time -

[afterhours]

[QUOTE=redlite;1242938]The ocean cock roaches AK sea bass have eaten and destroyed everything in buzzards bay for sure.

While here in RI they're also everywhere but have to be 16.5" to keep one.

[hq2]

So maybe Black Sea bass have taken much of the striper niche. They would both live in rocky structure near the bottom. I don’t actually mind them all that much; they’re easy to catch, tasty and sizable. I don’t think they’ve actually pushed the stripers out; they’ve declined for other reasons. So what’s displaced the bluefish?