all these big fish being caught-

[Brian L]

Originally Posted by Fishpart

Based on how few schoolies I have caught the last two years, the end is well on it's way...

This is a little over the top and alarmist, I think. I've seen quite a few schoolies around this year. I'm curious as to where you're at? Southern RI has had plenty of packs of different size fish working their way through all summer.

If I'm just lucky as to what I've seen and there truly is a shortage of schoolies around, we'd have to look somewhere else other than the Comm. and Rec. takes on bigger fish to try and understand what the future of the fishery is.

I happen to be very friendly with a lifelong (40+ years) marine biologist who has done numerous studies on fish stocks. He claims(and it makes sense to me) that there's nothing that affects year classes of fish the way that pollution of spawning grounds does. This includes not only Stripes, but Fluke, Tautog, etc.. and any other fish that spawn in shallow inland waters. He insists the pre-moratorium fishing was more due to a polluted Chesapeake than any other factor. 50 bass dragged up on the beach dead during a blitz certainly doesn't help, of course (fewer fish returning to spawn), but I'm struggling with the notion that modest commercial catches coupled with the average recreational catch and a two fish limit will be responsible for a future destruction of the fishery.