Is Something Wrong?

[Slipknot]

Lots of factors in play here Larry
here's a list from my uninformed uneducated opinion

1 global warming
2 daylight is longest this time of year and there is less dark night hours (not that that explains the crappy fall runs but....)
3 the pattern fish have been leaning to is follow the bait offshore where the seals ain't, been moving that way for sometime now
4 sandeels have changed there positions away from the sandy shores of the outer beaches more and more each year, don't know why but it affects their predator the bass since the bait just is not in close so we don't catch as many
5 Jersey has most of the large down there and they kill lots of fish and lots of large just like we have up here, IMO the whole population of stripers can't maintain at the take rate that is happening. We need to slow it down before it's too late, go back to 1 fish per person coastwide, then if we need to go up to 34" to start with.
6 the bluefish are scaring all the bass away
7 boats are an easy vehicle to get you to where the bass are, so of course they will catch more fish.

shore fishing has been dropping off for years now, maybe it's just a cycle, the canal sucks too, 4 years ago july was good, atleast the beginning of july, so I don't know

[ridler72]

I can only talk about what I know and that is Boston Harbor. Every year, at least for me it's the same. A good push of big fish comes by Boston Harbor around June and does the drive by. This year there was biggies. Poagies have been in moderate, most that I have seen since the 80's and shore fishing was horrible back then but the boaters rejoiced. July for me has always been slow. The Poagies have kept it interesting but not a sure bet for big fish. August-September is prime time up here for big fish. I hope that trend continues. I can't speak for everyone on Boston Harbor but it's been the same thing every year, at least for me.

[EarnedStripes44]

Originally Posted by ridler72

I can only talk about what I know and that is Boston Harbor. Every year, at least for me it's the same. A good push of big fish comes by Boston Harbor around June and does the drive by. This year there was biggies. Poagies have been in moderate, most that I have seen since the 80's and shore fishing was horrible back then but the boaters rejoiced. July for me has always been slow. The Poagies have kept it interesting but not a sure bet for big fish. August-September is prime time up here for big fish. I hope that trend continues. I can't speak for everyone on Boston Harbor but it's been the same thing every year, at least for me.

I fish the Boston Harbor from the shore. June was terrible, but I haven't been out much in July, only a handful of times. However, I did real good those outings. In one case several fish 28' thru 36' landed on fishfinders rigged w/ squid and halved green crabs during a false dawn in less than a hour (I know you that's Junior Varsity for you boat guys) at Castle Island (I dont care about spot burning, my presentation is IMPECCABLE and far above REPROACH, I'm like the Batman of the Castle Island Swims. While you shore castle island guys get sunburned, sitting on your buckets, lamenting on how terrible "luck" you have, fishing the hottest hours of the day lobbing chunks to skates, I'm in the Batcave). Remarkable improvement in water quality year after year, and Although June has traditionally been the month where fishing slowly picks up momentum, my fellow collective of angler friends have informed me that the shore fishing jumpstarted after that first early July heatwave, even in the inner harbor. It also helps that there aren't too many seals along the urban waterfront. Lots of schoolies poached though,....

[Tagger]

co-worker is a strickly off shore fisher.This past Memorial day he said they were 25 miles out when they noticed a disturbance on top of the water . On further investigation they saw they were small polluck being pushed up ,,by what they didn't know . They live lined one and hooked up a forty pound bass they released . He said they are out there..There's no bait close to shore. why would they be there ?.. They just follow thier nose . We really have to restore the bait situation ..Herring..Pogeys ,,Macks ,,Smelt "Restore it they will come " Smelt hasn't fully recovered from the industrial revolution ..lot of smelt runs never came back . You can't catch any Macks off the pier early spring last 8 yrs...When the levels are up ,,you don't need a boat ... catch 50 off the pier .

[Slingah]

my guess would be the bait...or lack of it....

[rizzo]

Large bodies of fish are staying in NJ and NY. Taking longer to get up to RI. When a population drops the fish don't spread out as much. Modern electronics and poachers are doing a number. North Carolina has no sense of conservation, large scale commercial outfits have bigtime kills, pounding away at fish all winter. You pound the same schools year after year you will deplete them. Theres only so much out there, it is not an endless resourse.

[CANAL RAT]

the spring fishing was awsome and it seemed like everybody go in on the action but now the water is getting warmer ,the fish are going into there slow pattern of sulking in deep water and only feeding and coming inshore at night. during july you have to fish at night with bait inorder to catch the big bass.

[BigFish]

Well aware of the doldrums as I mentioned in my initial thread......there are other factors at play! The night fishing has been horrible for a couple years now!

[Finaddict]

Larry - Bait is a huge factor, not just that they are offshore but their main breeding grounds in the estuaries are being compromised more and more by coastal development and run-off both along our coasts and down in the major estuary systems up and down the coasts ...

... in fact, I remember reading an article in the AFTMA newsletter (American Fishing Tackle Manufacturers Association - the predecessor to today's American Sportfishing Association) in which Norville Processor - spelling? - reported on a study conducted in Chesapeake Bay where the young of the year were netted in the estuaries feeding the bay ... only one river system had young, but they were so plentiful in that one location that the study reported that the bay as a whole had a healthy population ... Mr. Prosser was trying to refute that claiming it was bogus ...

... the run-off down there includes a lot of agricultural run-off that has pesticides, etc., but also every day run-off from society getting closer to the water and getting more pollutants including raw sewage into the water than ever before ... and I feel it is starting to have an impact ...

... and on top of the coastal estuary degredation, commercial fishing for bait fish from eel elvers to smelt to pogies, herring ... the list goes on, but what's happening is that bait is depleted and not coming back. We can't point all of the fingers at the commercial group, as we all play our part in it ...

... and of course the same estuaries that the bait breeds in are the estuaries that stripers breed in and those are not as favorable to striper reproduction ...

... then throw in the recreational limit ... there was mention above of the stripers being kept in New Jersey ... it's the same up here, no different, there's just more down there now and more visible ... during the blitz of 25 years, one shop had something like 66 fish weighed in during a four-hour span and all fish were above the 30-pound mark. But who are we to tell someone who fishes hard that they can't take their legal limit? It would be nice if everyone practiced catch-and-release to a degree, but if they are within their limit ... they are doing nothing wrong ... no add in New York and CT and RI, Mass., NH and ME, Del, MD, VA, NC ... that's a lot of recreational harvesting ... on top of a large commercial harvest as well.

There's no one reason and no one solution, but there are a lot of factors contributing to the demise of our fishing ... and if commercials are staying within their legal limits, let them have their day ... let's just hope that everyone is having equal success ... which none of us are whether we are commercials or recreational anglers.

Boy that was a mouthful.

[In The Surf]

Simply put it's the BAIT. They're finding it and staying on it.
With Jersey's big pogie rebound the shore and boat guys have been doing well the last 2-3 years. The fish that would have come up this way are staying there on the pogies. I heard the same thing last year about LI sound, the bait was there so were the big bass. It's the same thing here in the bay the last 2-3 years, large schools of large pogies and the bass thick on them. We all thought they would drop out when the water warmed but it didn't play out like that, they just stayed on the bait till it was time to head south. The shore fishing on the open surf has been getting a little tougher on us up here because of it. Find the bait, find the fish.
And oh yeah fish away from the seals.

[Tagger]

If the bait is concentrated ,,the fish are concentrated .. Good for the fisher, not the fish .

[redcrbbr]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

Lots of factors in play here Larry
here's a list from my uninformed uneducated opinion

1 global warming
2 daylight is longest this time of year and there is less dark night hours (not that that explains the crappy fall runs but....)
3 the pattern fish have been leaning to is follow the bait offshore where the seals ain't, been moving that way for sometime now
4 sandeels have changed there positions away from the sandy shores of the outer beaches more and more each year, don't know why but it affects their predator the bass since the bait just is not in close so we don't catch as many
5 Jersey has most of the large down there and they kill lots of fish and lots of large just like we have up here, IMO the whole population of stripers can't maintain at the take rate that is happening. We need to slow it down before it's too late, go back to 1 fish per person coastwide, then if we need to go up to 34" to start with.
6 the bluefish are scaring all the bass away
7 boats are an easy vehicle to get you to where the bass are, so of course they will catch more fish.

shore fishing has been dropping off for years now, maybe it's just a cycle, the canal sucks too, 4 years ago july was good, atleast the beginning of july, so I don't know

LETS NOT FORGET ABOUT THE ENDANGERED CORMMORANTS

[keeperreaper]

This year is the same as every year. Bass follow the bait. PERIOD!! Where the bait goes or stays is anyone's guess but I have caught a few large bass this year and a ridiculous amount of tuna. Find the bait find the fish!

[NIB]

The amount of fish I have seen the last few weeks it is amazing to me there might be fish anywhere's else..

I have noticed in the past few yrs that these southern bass seem to be morphing into a different strain.Their heads are more bullet shaped,more tuna like.A Off shore angler coming in from sharking came up on a huge pod of bunker 15 miles off.Is it possible with the increase of the bunker population these bass are becoming more of a off shore fisherey than many think.We get a shot at em when the planets line up other than that it's a desert.The bunker vacuum effect.
Another thing that concerns me is I don't see many 12-17 lb fish.This spring was poor.U really had to work for em.Plenty of ur smaller fish it's almost like a yr class is missing.
Karl if there are off shore bass like u mentioned I would think they would have had a shot at em thru the ditch...Was that short run in late May it??
Even though we have some amazing fishing days this yr. It was not as good as last yr.Tough to beat last yr.But this is the first year in these runs it was not better than the one prior.Many prognasticators where claiming spring run a bust as they where late this yr.Everthing was late this yr. I still had a monster day 5-23..The numbers are starting to wind down now.I still think we have a few good shots at em down here yet.If u want a shot at em make friends with someone in Conn. cause they are comin.
Krispy u out there....