Why has the fishing from the Cape beaches declined so much?

[MAKAI]

I CAN'T IMAGINE A SEAL WOULD WASTE IT'S TIME AND ENERGY ON SMALL BAITFISH. I HAVE SEEN THEM POP UP IN 180 FEET OF WATER OFF THE RACE WITH GRILL SIZE FISH IN THEIR MOUTHS. PRAY FOR SHARKS,ORCAS,DISEASE WHATEVER. ITS A REAL SHAME WHAT HAS HAPPENED, I HAVE A FEELING THEY ARE JUST GOING TO KEEP SPREADING SOUTH AND WEST. SENDING A CASE OF LOUSISVILLE SLUGGERS UP NORTH TO OUR BLOOD SPLATTERED PALS ON THE ICE.

[Blitzseeker]

I think of it this way.....most of the fish on the outer beaches get there coming up the ocean side rather than through the canal.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I beleive that means they have to swim by 6,000 seals stacked up down around Monomoy & Chatham.

How surprising would it be that most of them turned around, or got eaten if they did't?

[Flaptail]

Opinions are like ass*oles, everyones got one but in reality the big picture here is a complex mix of alot of things I think.

I do know that a lot less people are fishing out there, especially after dark.

I do know if you work at it you will catch fish out there.

You can blame seals, waste water, the Great Striper in the sky, global warming etc but who really knows. Conjecture.

I believe that seals do eat more bait inshore than off and no bait means no fish but bait can still be found, especially at locations that hold large bodies of water behind bars at low tide. You have to adapt your methodology.

As long as the YOY indexes remain strong there will be no investigation by any scientific body.

I talk to a lot of charter guys and others who find fish all the time just off shore and have exeperienced it for myself.

I have also had a few nights in the last couple years where there were thirty guys on the beach plugging from dusk to 10pm and left and the fish showed heavy for several nights in a row at 2:30am til' dawn where I and a friend had them all to ourselves and would listen with sympathetic faces as truck after truck went by leaving the beach because "can you beleive how bad the fishing is here these days" to which we would reply "yeah it really sucks doesn't it?" knowning full well what was happening each night in the wee hours.

I beleive that most folks fishing the beach have really lost or maybe a lot of them never had the ability to read the signs or the the real desire to put in the effort and time that is required to learn the structure, get the rythym of the bass's use of the beaches. Some places they show for hours and some for as little as 20 minutes on a stage of the tide. You have to know this in order to capitilize.

It's a lot of work to read the structure, find the patterns of when they will come into a certain spot on what stage of what tide. Without this knowledge most beaches will always be looked upon as barren by those not willing to go the extra mile or sacrifice the warmth of the bed at home for wet sand.

And most importantly you have to believe that it will come back at some point. And believe me, they will but you won't hear it from me..

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by Flaptail

I do know that a lot less people are fishing out there, especially after dark.

I do know if you work at it you will catch fish out there.

Best responses yet. The best years I had out there were late 80's to about 1995. You remember those days don't you? There weren't any fish out there then either. Late 80's they were supposedly going extinct, and it took close to 10 years for all of the laymen to catch on. By the time all the "experts" emerged in the late 90's to early 2000's, it was almost over. For now.

[whiplash]

Flaptail ,Slip and BM have fished them out.

[Blitzseeker]

Agreed for sure. Many don't know WTF they are doing, but aren't shy about complaining about the fishing. Even worse, the scarcity of fish has increased the liklihood that someone from the clueless crowd will arrive and cast right over your shoulder....'cause when you're catching and others aren't, naturally all the fish in the ocean are right in front of you and you alone. Frustrating. Has always happened, but happens even more nowadays up there. Folks who drove from far away to get there feels its their god given right to get a fish, no matter what.

For me, I'm still doing ok but size and numbers aren't what they were 5 years ago, and the constant battle to get the fish in before a seal crushes your fish five yards from the beach at High Head or Coast Guard is tough to take. All that said, they're there....it's just tougher, and not quite as much fun, as it once was.

A "good day" now is what a "average day" was back then.....at least for me and the guys I fish with.

[LeCounts1099]

Flap... points generally well- taken... (& agreed with to some extent...)


BUT: aren't you someone who has written tons in the last 2- 4 years lamenting that the Cape Backside Surf- fishing "isn't worth a damn anymore," or various variations of that theme?


Unless I'm wrong or misreading you... haven't you been as vocal (in print at least) as anybody, that indeed the Great Backside as a Striper surf haven, is but a shadow of it's past now? -- & hardly worth the effort to you personally anymore? (thus you've embraced skiff- fishing on the Bay- side, etc.?)


Unless that was all a ruse then?...


OR maybe this assessment here NOW is a ruse to get crowds away from your new pet Canal (& near-by) '07 & '08 surf- spots?


redlite... you & I dream the same memories, & dwell upon the same regrets about the Cape-- paradise in the mid- 90's for Striper surf- hounds indeed! (Slingah I know was there too!)

We need to share stories & memories & future Cape hopes over beers one day, my friend... & Cape brother- in- arms! I was there ... & did all the same things in waders & T- shirts you did... & yet still have more stories from then to make your arm- hairs stand on end even now during this long fishless Winter!

[Flaptail]

Item 1. I did, but not "tons" if you read them again I do say positive things now and again about the beach ( truro)

Item 2. Anyone who has ever fished a skiff on the north side knows that the beach is really a waste of time compared to what you can find there. But some of us still have that spark that makes us go back to the beach after a real fish fix in the skiff. It helps you get through.

Item#3. I only fish the canal 3 or 4 times a year now so that point is way, way off. ( The best thing that happened to the canal recently was the herring closure so I may plug it more this spring but really detest the crowds there and at night it isn't safe to leave your vehicle locked or not and being alone fishing is not advisable)

Hope that helps. BTW did they have the street fair on 56th this past Veterans day in November? I missed it this year.
Item#4 My new spots are good, real good but a pain in the ass to fish. I hate rocks.

[Grampy]

Yep, no permits, just drive out on Nauset Beach, no four wheel drive unless you had a jeep and I didn't, have a camp fire, no problem. We had fish, fish and more fish and caught on with my Penns and my Utica Striper rods (you know the ones, they had wooden handles) but that was then and this is now and have things changed, with permits and fees up the whazo.