I don't think it is that bad. Is it good? I don't know. But I do know that for a while we were all claiming how malnourished these fish were because there were no bunker around (the supposed super meal for a bass) and not there are considerably more fat and happy bass out there eating fat and unhappy menhaden And there are a lot more of those bass getting fat and happy then getting caught in Providence. I don't think that a season in Narragansett Bay holds a candle to one big net boat in the drop at the inlets off the Outer Banks or one week in the Great South Channel.
It sucks for us shore fishers that the bass aren't hanging out along our beloved rocky shores but it is good for 95% of the bass that feed up on a summers worth of bunker and elude the bunker chunker in the bay. I don't think it is a slaughter of epic proportions going on. I really don't think that 20 thousand (or 1 thousand for that matter) people are keeping two a day.
The biggest problem is that the shore fishing sucks, however I really like the fact that the bass are feeding well.
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