^^ This is something I wrote today in response to a question about fall fishing....some of it probably applies to this thread so I'll park it here:



Excuses I have read for the Poor Fall Fishing so far in 2013.....
1. "We are suffering some effects from Sandy"....Yes I will agree with those who want to blame it on that,,,But how reasonable is it to blame it ALL on Sandy?

2. "The back bay bait population has suffered"....Yes I will agree and have seen it and had many discussions with others about it.

3. "All the fish are offshore", that's why the inshore and surf guys are not seeing them....Yes, valid point but only partially....there are always bass migrating offshore.......one big difference this year is that it seems a lot of us are now becoming more vocal about what we see, and trying to fit it into some notions of migration based on past seasonal patterns....

In my experience, it's harder to figure a pattern because the overall mass of fish is thinner...
Guys hear about a giant concentration of bass, off the SS of LI...not realizing that when conditiions are right.......they have been so thick they have been at other areas along the migration highway as well.....

4. "Big bodies of bass still in MA and Rhody"...Yes, but in counting on those fish....many folks fail to take into account, that many of those fish historically stage in the Eastern Sound before migration along different paths....
a. a certain % of those will winter in the Ct rivers......I have friends who are able to catch them all winter....
b. Another portion will run W in the Sound, down the E River, to enter the NY Bight area....many of the Central and S Jersey fishermen will never see or get to experience those fish.....