S&A Education Series: NJ's resident bass, why have they abandoned us?

[dogfish]

NJ stinks, all those factories and smokestacks have pushed waves of cancer all along the shores from the factory discharge. The fish smell this and stay off your shores. My bill will be in the mail, Dark.

[DarkSkies]

^ Thanks for your helpful thoughts.


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The surfer and jetty country.... I'll try to bring you more stories like this when I have time, feel free to comment whether you agree or disagree, and why.


I have a friend, who lives in jetty country in Monmouth County. He's a fanatic fisherman, dedicated surfer, and good family man. In between all that, he's found time over the years to devote a lot of his time to fishing access issues, and put political pressure on politicians to pay attention to surfers and fishermen.

He's mostly a C&R guy, catching fish for the thrill and the solace it gives him, out there in the middle of the night on the rockpiles.

20 years ago, he had nights on the jetties where he'd C&R up to 1000# of fish. Yes, people, that number is absolutely accurate, 1000 lbs.
When was the last time you or anyone else you know got into 1000lbs of fishing action from the NJ surf?

It was a true bonanza, and he was out there every chance he could, having a blast.

He knows those jetties like the back of his hand. Anyone who wanted to learn them would be lucky to have him as a guide. Not only does he know the jetties, he knows the fish behavior and food sources each one holds, as there used to be different feeding cycles during the year.

He can hop those rocks like a billy goat, and as a surfer, he knows when the fish are there because he's frequently swimming among them on his early morning surfing jaunts.

He's mentioned to me that he can't understand why the bass are NOW only in abundance at those jetties for a few short months in the spring and the fall. Each year that window gets smaller. Meanwhile, the jetties hold seabass, blackfish, porgies, small forage fish, and skates and eels throughout the year. They draw fish because there are clams, crabs, shrimp, mussels, small invertebrates, and every food type you could imagine to make fish happy.

Yet, a decreasing presence of striped bass.







Some of the things he said to me yesterday...

"Ya know, it's over...there are no more big fish or numbers of fish for us surf guys. We used to have the bass rolling around us when we were surfing, and that was only a few short years ago. Now, they might do that for a month or 2, and they're gone."

"Surf fishing at night used to be something really special. It was the one way to get out there, get away from the pressures of life, some solitude, get some nice bass, and have a sense of achievement as a surf fisherman. Now, it's a vast area of dead sea, with only a few rays of sunshine in between."

"Guys talk of blitzes for a few minutes, it's comical. We used to have all-night blitzes, which would sometimes go on into days, as the fish feasted on the trapped bait. I haven't seen that in years"

"I can't tell you how many times I am out there, night after night, hoping for a few fish. And I do catch fish, but sometimes I question why the heck I'm out there, with the little amount of fish around."





Thanks for your honesty.
No ego here, just a mature, experienced rock hopper looking at the decline of striped bass, and asking himself what factors brought the decline to this level. He knows how to catch fish, he's done it thousands of times before. Yet the equivalent of a marine buffet he's walking on every night, still can't draw enough fish so he can catch a few bass and have some fun.


Why? - possible answers
1. Migration patterns change. All the fish are offshore.
OK I'll buy that, but the jetties always held a few resident bass for almost every month of the year. Now they don't....no matter how you analyze it there are less fish available.

2. There are actually less bass around than a few years ago. The striped bass biomass is declining. This is partly because many who had the chance to hear about it, and make choices because they fish and catch every day, continue to take their daily limit of big breeders. They could excercise their option to take less fish, but they don't.

[DarkSkies]

The M&M theory makes an analogy of striped bass fishing to a bowl of M&Ms.

It says that there seem to be more striped bass, to people fishing in the middle of the bowl of M&Ms, because they wouldn't notice any decline. Any decline would only be noticed on the edges of the bowl.
More discussion on that theory here:
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...+theory&page=8

M&Ms - posts 69 & 69
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...+theory&page=7


The OFFC (Old Farts Fishing Club) used to hammer this theme into me every time we fished together, only they didn't call it the M&M theory. They saw it in simpler terms.They said the surf fishermen are fishing on the edges, and as we benefit from the overflow of the fish from the offshore migration, we could be the first to notice any declines in fishing. To me, that's similar to the canary in the coal mine, where miners placed a canary in the mine to warn them of deadly invisible gases. If the canary died, it was time for all to leave ASAP.


So you can call it the M&M theory, or the Canary in a coal mine theory. I think either of them offers a reasonable partial explanation of why there are less resident bass available for surf fishermen.

[DarkSkies]

Many of those in the surf and boating word know Finchaser, with over 55 years of fishing experience.

He's got many theories. As one fortunate enough to know him, I've heard a few. Some of the themes you see on a recurring basis in these threads here are due to his wisdom and the years of knowledge he's gained.

He saw the abundance of the pre-1984 Moratorium years, and the decline.
He's seen the phenomenal recovery in striped bass stocks after the Moratorium was imposed.
He's also seen the relatively recent decline in catch numbers for most of the seasoned surf guys in the NJ area.

Anyone who has a chance should listen to some of the posts and warnings he's putting out there. Though he's known to be Grouchy his posts paint a picture to anyone who'll listen, of what's really going on.

There is no diplomacy or sugar-coating in a Finchaser post, he tells it like he sees it.

And what he sees are a decline in the bass available to us surf fishermen, which also implies a decline in resident bass somewhere along the road.



Sometimes I wonder if guys really care about any of this. A post about 40 or 50# bass will always draw lots of interest.
Or...will it take months or years of declining catches or skunked trips for many of you to actually start scratching your heads and asking "Why?"

My point to you is that sometimes it's not so much the catching that's important, someone will always be catching something.

But when there is a sustained lull in activity during what's historically prime time for fishing, it makes sense to question why that's happening...

[fishinmission78]

You're right on the $$. My logs show every year at this time I can get a few bass before work. It's also the function of the storms and long term weather. The storms messed up the bar at IBSP. We need some good SEers to change that. In the meantime there are a lot less nice cuts than there used to be, and of course you have the inlet. We definitely have seen a drop in the # of bass caught there though. I might have to take some trips north to find new places to fish.

[storminsteve]

I think you're right Dark, there might be less bass. I don't have 20 years, but remember it being awesome at Sandy Hook about 4-5 years ago. It's been going down hill ever since then. Last year there was over a month of great fishing right around this time whick lasted until Dec. This year all you see is guys fishing clams, staring into the ocean, and once every great while one of them will catch a striper.

[voyager35]

This guy spouts off every day, I can't stand him -
"Everything is perfect except for the fish. We need more days like today and last night to get the water temps down and the big run started."

I have news for him, he needs better sources of information.

The water temps are fine. The big run of bass has already started. The bass are in deeper water, but he as a tackle shop owner should know that. I don't know why he would mis-represent that to his customer base. As further proof of this, there bass already in South Jersey, the run is already in full swing. A 43lb bass was weighed in at Brigantine this week.

The problem, as Dark said, is that there truly are not as many bass around. This year is the worst year we have had in a long time. Spring was great when the bass were on bunker, but the fall is also usually pretty bountiful. So far it's been tough, the fish are situated in only a few places with rocks or bait underneath, and miles and miles of the ocean (inshore near the surf) have no striped bass life in them.

We have found fish, but the bite is not the crazy bite it has been in years past. You will have an hour or so of great action and then it shuts down. Today it was overcast, and on overcast days we usually do better. I will emphatically state that according to my fishing logs there are declining striper catches. And sadly, that does translate to less bass for the guys who mostly fish the surf, and less resident bass, as has been said here.

[clamchucker]

It's also the function of the storms and long term weather. The storms messed up the bar at IBSP. We need some good SEers to change that. In the meantime there are a lot less nice cuts than there used to be, and of course you have the inlet. We definitely have seen a drop in the # of bass caught there though

I agree with this statement 100%. There is now a long outer bar at the park. We need a few rough storms to break it up. Without that in some places you need to cast 2-300' or wait until the high tide brings fish over the bar. I have been moving around to different places specifically because of that. However, my logs show less fish caught, declining steadily over the last 3 years. I am older now and have some health problems. It may be that I am fishing less.

However a few of my friends feel the same way. Fishing for bass is not as good as it was in the years after they imposed the moratorium. There has been a slight decline in our area, with the exception of the great spring bunker action. Small school stripers used to hold at the Barnegat jetty throughout the year, and nowadays that is just not true.

[Monty]

I feel there are less fish around (available).
What I would like to see:
1) Limit 1 bass per person 36" or bigger. I would rather see zero bass per person than what we have now.
2) Charter boats are allowed to many bass! Its ridicules and harmful to the Striped Bass Fishery.
3) Salt water fishing license, some of the proceeds go towards enforcing the regulations. $50.00, it will stop some of the poaching.
4) Boats like salty tours sunk (or put the owner in jail).

But in a country where greed is rampant and people with their heads up there a** are running the government and organizations, I have little hope.

I am very worried about the lack of smaller bass this year.