State of the Fishery 2016

[RickBomba]

Originally Posted by redlite

Yesterday 2 miles off the backside was the most epic surface blitz of 20-30# fish in 150 ft of water that we have ever seen. Was amazing. Dan got video. Even of the clueless still tryin to vertical jig nothin from the bottom instead of throwin topwater at them. Never seen so many mackeral drivin sand eels too. There is so much life off shore it is amazing. We were gettin bait A mile off head of the meadow and could see and hear all the seals. Was sad rememberin how many big fish i used to catch from the beach at "the trees" in the good ole days. We saw u earlier in the mornin Gup by the bath house and waved. Was epic then too. If had been a comm day we woulda been done in 30 minutes. Awseome mornin on water
Off shore fishery is just fine. Been sayin it for years that all the fish "programmed" to hit shore have already been sold so shore fishin aint as good as wed like it to be
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Me and #^&#^&#^&#^&y ran through there looking for fish at 0530. I spent about 30 minutes looking for fish. Makeral were thick, but I couldn't mark any bass. I think I should have run out another mile.

We got back to the RP rip and were crushing fish on the SW side of the rip. 30 minutes of 20 pounders, and then the fleet drifted into us. I wish we would have gone back out instead of going home.

To be fair, we had great action on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Thursday and Friday were on the beach. It was awesome. What boat were you in, Mike. I watched for people turning the corner, but it was a lot of boats.

[piemma]

My partner Chris Morgan and I were off the dock at 2:00 AM. By 5:30 we have caught 10 bass between 16 and 27#. Lost at least as many.

Epic fishing like I haven't seen in 10 or 12 years.
Oh, and BTW, we never left Narragansett Bay.

[JLH]

Boat fishermen seem to be doing a number on the bas this spring fishing in the rivers around schools of adult bunker. Many are getting dozens of fish per trip mostly in the 20 pound class with some larger mixed ins. Fishing from shore has been really slow especially since the last moon. A few good sized fish but generally only getting one fish (or hit) every 3-4 trips. I actually haven't landed a fish in about two weeks but I haven't been able to get out a whole lot in that time.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[bobber]

I think the fishing is "okay"

there are groups of fish here and there- with plenty of good-sized fish in those groups. they respond to bait- and thankfully theres plenty of menhaden around to keep them fed
.
one could deduce that the restrictive measure put on the bunker boats in NJ and LIS (and the like) have proven to be very beneficial to the striper fishery (which is at a lowpoint now) and perhaps we could further deduce that restrictive measures will seemingly benefit the bass fishery (IF MANAGERS DON'T GET GREEDY AND PULL THE REGS BACK TOO QUICKLY)