My Theory......

[riverrat2]

My theory for why our area didnt have fish is this. 1st off we never have a residnet population of large schools of large fish. This isnt to say that we dont get the occasional 30lb fish in our waters, but 90% of the time those fish are one of maybe a handful that size in any given school of fish or just simply a single fish scrounging for food. When I was fishing the south side of the cape and the islands this summer we would run into schools of fish all above the 20lb class, this just simply doesnt happen in our area. 2nd, this summer there were an insane amount of sand eels out at stellwagon, I heard about 20 experience tuna captains speaking of schools of sandeels they havent seen since they started fishing. Along with these huge schools of sandeels there were HUGE schools of very large bass. I dont even remember the amount of weekend tuna warrior's that hooked into large bass while dragging squid bars at 5knts. These are first hand experiences not rumors or what not. If these fish were cought as bycatch while tuna fishing makes ya think what someone coulda done out there if they were targeting bass(i know a few people that were...). This is just my opinion on the matter, who really knows

[BigBo]

[QUOTE=riverrat2;429226]My theory for why our area didnt have fish is this. 1st off we never have a residnet population of large schools of large fish. QUOTE]
I don't agree with that statement at all. I've fished these waters south of Boston for quite a few years and I can say with absolute certainty that we've had many years with large shools of fish. The numbers of large fish in these same waters have been way off the last couple years. In years past, in "Larry's spot" we could catch schoolies all day long. I could also take any newbie there and pretty much guarranty them a keeper. I know this doesn't assert the assumption of schools of large fish, but believe me, they've been around. I'm really not sure as to why the numbers are off the last few years. I just don't know what the answer is.

[luds]

Seems like alot of daytime fishing is going on here. I would agree that for the most part alot of the fish I caught this fall during the day were smaller but I didn't really think anything of it because I don't have much faith in getting "large" from shore during the day. When it happens I consider myself lucky. The fish I've caught at night have been fine in terms of size and that's when I'll continue to put my time in.

Also, we do get seals on the north shore occasionally but not enough to change the fishing.

[BigFish]

I have put in many hours this fall at night L-48......many, many hours. As has Slingah....it just ain't happenin'!

[tattoobob]

In the years I have been fishing it is always different every year, some yoears nothing others some big fish and some little, other years all little, and still other years all large. you can never say what they are going to do from years past. just when you think you have them all figured out they prove you wrong

[Finaddict]

There are a lot of seals in the Merrimac and they are on the beaches too, not in huge numbers, but two, three or four are enough to ruin a a day or night of fishing in a particular spot.

I am also seeing them in places that I never did before, or at least in the past 10-12 years and at least not this early in the season as they would show up when the water was cold -- around Fisher's Island, I never saw any seals, occassionally across the way on the North Fork of Long Island, some of the islands there would occassionaly have seals, but they are pretty much every where these days.

And as a result, it is and will continue to impact the fishing .. IMHO

[Raven]

is to organize a fisherman march to protest the seal population.
to get the culling process started asap.

or buy boats to go to the open ocean where there's less seals.

what else can ya do...?

[t.orlando]

Hit them with bait...Just because you are not catching large sure don't mean they are not there. Most large will fall to bait over wood

[Flaptail]

Hey Larry, got your messages. I was at a conference in Randolph today all day and went home then out the door to the beach and just missed your evening call as I had just left the truck to trudge down to my spot.

Anyway I will call you tomorrow.

As to your theory, tonight I actually caught too many fish, I KNOW THAT SOUNDS WIERD! but its true and nie of them were legal and I dropped a few more that felt that they were in that range as well. Also I broke off a real good one on a Gags white Pocket Rocket on 12lb braid (I was gunning for twinkies tonight and never imagined I would run into what I did. I hit the beach at 5:45pm and just got home. I left two guys there who were getting them as well. All on needlefish. I think we will have to go there tomorrow night and chat about your Pencils. I will call you. Cannot type anymore my arms are sore. True story folks.