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When I was maybe, 12, one of the houses we rented on Nantucket had an old photo album filled with black and whites of bass. Huge fish and lots of 'em... hanging on poles, laying in the sand. It was really amazing. Amazing to see what fishing was once like and amazing that someone would leave something like that album in their rental property. Times have changed, eh?
Especially amazing to see those fish because at the time (early 80's), there were almost no bass over there. Plenty of blues, but no bass. I was pretty young and knew zip about saltwater fishing, but I don't remember even seeing a stiper with the exception of the one I caught.
I caught my first striper in '84 off Madaket beach(my second striper came in '97). It was huge to me... 25lbs. I was a minor celebrity during the rest of the week... and the next summer, people remembered me and were still talking about it.
Now I know that a 25lber is hardly newsworthy... just shows how bad the stiper fishing was during that period.
I'm not trying to turn this into a gloom and doom post, but its hard to listen to those who say the fish are still there, "you just don't know how to catch them"... factor in the improvement in gear, from rod and reel, to lifelike lures, to nearly invisible lines, to boats and all the electronic toys that go with 'em. Not to mention the improved communication between anglers. Just doesn't compute.
Not saying they weren't skilled, but the folks in those old photos weren't all sharpies... there were just boatloads of big fish. It seems as though these fishermen caught as many 30-40-50 lbers as we do schoolies... from the shore. Yikes...
If time travel ever becomes reality, I've got dibs on a guide service that takes anglers back in time to catch fish before we cleaned 'em out.
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