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Well my experiences indicate that the fishing for large stripers has changed dramatically over the years. In the 70s I had many days/nights when I caught more stripers over 40#'s than I caught during the entire 1990's.
Just to set the record straight. I know a lot of guys that fish commercially for stripers. They pretty consistently get $2 - $2.50 a pound. The regs that are currently in place tend to spread the harvest over a longer period of time (until the quota is reached). This allows the true comms a larger window of opportunity and keeps the prices more stable by avoiding gluts.
I would also characterize fishing in the 1990/2000 era as nothing like the 1960's. The 60s saw many fewer fish, but they were a lot larger on average.
In the 1960s and 70s, if you walked the banks of the Canal during good early morning East tides, you would see anywhere from a couple to a dozen or more fish landed by various anglers that were over 40#s. That was typical. Last year I saw ONE fish that might have been over 40#s.
You can get your picture in the local newspaper with about a 25#er, back in the 60s and 70's the minimum requirement was about 50#s.
If you tally up all the stripers over 40#'s that were caught last year from P-town to Chatham, it probably didn't even equal the number that a lot of guys caught in a single real good night in the 1960 -1985 period.
In short, there are a lot of stripers around. But there not a lot of large stripers around (depending on what you consider large).
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