Each year I like to play around with some method I've been thinking about over the winter. This season it's been live eels...so far it seems I've caught fewer fish each trip but the ones I've hooked have been consistently larger, with a 25# striper the top so far. 8-)
On the shorter runs where the weather was bad or I was trying out a new spot, it seems the schoolies have been around in just about the same numbers, in the same places I usually expect to find them. One bright spot has been the increase in the numbers of real small ones...11 to maybe 16 inches. I think that's a good sign for the future...but I do wish we'd stop targeting spawners (here in Massachusetts with the 28" and up limits). And I wouldn't mind seeing a tighter daily limit placed on the hook & line commercial guys. I don't think the management folks understand how frighteningly savvy & efficient some of those guys can be in taking fish. }>
There are an awful lot of 34"+ fish coming out of these waters & you can't do that forever without imploding the stocks.:-(
But all in all it's been a hell of a good year...I would take it in a heartbeat for 2002.
Threaded Mode