Who has been Striper fishing steady for the last 30 years or more.

[bassmaster]

Originally Posted by Terence

Bassmaster, whiplash and Mac, has your fishing changed at all in terms of catch and release since then?

Yes it has, C&R back then was more like catch and cooler.
I think C&R is more now and good that alot of people do. I went through the dead years for bass and really wouldnt want to deal with it now.

[Terence]

Originally Posted by bassmaster

Yes it has, C&R back then was more like catch and cooler.
I think C&R is more now and good that alot of people do. I went through the dead years for bass and really wouldnt want to deal with it now.

What years were the "dead Years"?

[bassmaster]

i would say the early 80's couldnt buy a bass. lots of blues to 23lbs though

[Karl F]

Early 80's?.. Dude... c'mon now... rethink that 80, 81, 82???????????????????
couple years after that tho.... that's when I hit the ponds and fell inlove all over again with..

[Clammer]

since the 60,S

the best I ever had was near the end of the moratorium [sp]

But I know a local charter / commercial fisherman that has more than quite a few large .. over 50# & 60 # and the majority of them were caught in the mortorim

[bassmaster]

Originally Posted by Karl F

Early 80's?.. Dude... c'mon now... rethink that 80, 81, 82???????????????????
couple years after that tho.... that's when I hit the ponds and fell inlove all over again with..

cant rethink what i lived dude

[redcrbbr]

First striper I caught I was probably 15 or 16, It was around the early fall of 71 or 72, I was fishing in Westport for flatfish with worms in an old leaky 10' jon boat. It was like a 24 - 26 incher. I remember being so proud of that fish when I walked in the door and showed my Mom

[Flaptail]

Originally Posted by Karl F

Early 80's?.. Dude... c'mon now... rethink that 80, 81, 82???????????????????
couple years after that tho.... that's when I hit the ponds and fell inlove all over again with..

Karl, that haircut shows a defenite Flock of Seagulls influence.

I caught my first bass on the Scussett Jetty on a small diamond jig while fishing for polloock and mackerel with my Dad and Brothers. I was 6. I am 51 now. ( I still have that jig glue to a piece of wood paneling as a memento)

I went non-stop since then when I could while on vacation and such until I got my license then it was balls out.

Lots of changes. Too many theories. I was lucky to be part of a Worcester crew who put to sea in small tin boats to land on Monomoy, "the Promised Land" to me of the mid 70's early 80's.

The best fishing for big bass was then for me but the best overall fishing (though I spent most if not all of that time with a flyrod in my hand) was when the limit was one a day at 36 inches. In Barnstable on the fly we could average 6 a day over 20 pounds on the fly while drifting the flats on the east bar.

All fish are cyclical but there are numerous other factors that must be entered into any equation in determening population viability fo any one fish species. Certainly the most problematic in the Striped Bass 's case was the effects of fertilizers on them from run off of those massive corn/tobacco fields along the Chesapeake Bay shoresand acid rain, add in the low recruitment numbers because of this and the large amounts of big fish taken in nets, traps in states to the south and by rod and reel here in Massachuetts from 77 to 82 and the population dropped into the cellar.

In 1982 even though I fished the canal very very hard I only caught two bass all season. Tons of bluefish but only two bass.

There are enough fish now. In talking to the old guard the "old" days saw numbers and sizes of fish more like we are seeing now rather than the blurp in bass history we saw in the 77/82 period especially on the outer cape.

I don't like to eat bass bigger than 24 inches so I have been w/out a really good bass meal in a long long time. That's okay as long as they are there to catch and release.

I still get goosebumps when fishing in anticipation fo what I might catch. The outer beach has benn barren but it will come back sometime no matter if the seals or whatever are there. I beleive that, I have to.

[bassmaster]

steve i know we talked bout this but from 78 to like maybe 84 i was a filthy boo fisherman. the biggest blues I have ever seen. the north end in boston b4 the new locks went in was awsome. then the boats came in and netted them right up tight to the ctown bridge, horrible.
Stifftip, in the 60,s i was in my single years and so was the bass I caught, back then it was the sugar bowl southy powerplant canal plum island. plymouth and capt johns boat. along with Hull for cod flounder pollack and dad would take us to the river b4 gettin into hull for bass.
I also lived in hull

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Karl F

Early 80's?.. Dude... c'mon now... rethink that 80, 81, 82???????????????????
couple years after that tho.... that's when I hit the ponds and fell inlove all over again with..

Dude/Stud , pic waay to kewl.

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by bassmaster

Yes it has, C&R back then was more like catch and cooler.

C&R back then = "catch and retail".

[baldwin]

I've only been seriously fishing the salt for about 15 years, but have studied the fishery a bit. Decline of big bass can not be natural cycle. If you have large numbers of small fish, they grow to be big unless they die. When lack of reproductive success occurs, maybe part of the cycle, you get a shortage of smaller fish which takes about 10-20 years to gradually shift that shortage up through the size range to eventually cause a shortage of larger fish. The smaller fish disappear first. That's exactly what happened with the striper crash. Large fish were still being caught, fewer and fewer smaller fish, then none (large nor small).