I was following a discussion between 2 gentlemen on a forum page. The last thing posted was pretty interesting to me because it seems a lot of gents think the stripers are strong. The south shore was great this year, if you fished demo to breezy. A lot of my buddies who fished montauk every week had poor results. I agree with the statement below-

"we are going to have to agree to disagree then. what saddens me is when someone makes statements or claims like you have made here, there is not much factual evidence to back them up and other fishermen would tend to believe that you may have made some accurate points here. and then they think that the striper population is in fair shape, and there is no danger here.
anyone who wants to learn, look at recent articles by Captain John McMurray. your argument that the fish have simply shifted movement offshore does not hold water.fish have always moved offshore. And when there were more of them the overflow reached out to many areas where they cannot currently be caught. I can name you at least 25 areas along the striper coast that do not hold consistent amounts of fish anymore, particularly smaller resident fish.

some of the conditions we are experiencing now, great abundance in certain areas and extreme lack of fish in many other areas, such as Montauk, R strikingly similar to the conditions that existed right Pre-moratorium in the 80's.

the best way to learn in my opinion is to get out there and talk to guys in their sixties and seventies, who remember what it used to be like and will gladly draw parallels as to how things are now. I used to be able to catch fish at night in great numbers away from the crowds.some of the newer anglers out there, may not remember that or the days when we had blitzes of fish not only for minutes or hours at a time but for weeks at a time.

I am sorry that you seem so convinced in your convictions. I really wish you would spend more time on the water, do some research and see that some of what you said is inaccurate, and possibly try to teach the younger anglers out there what is happening with the striped bass population. Block Island fishing, by anyone who has gone there regularly, was very poor this year. the MA canal bite, while good in the canal, has indicated concentrations of fish as I mentioned previously, with many areas of the Long Island Sound being devoid of a good bite unless you could get in the middle of Bunker schools at night.

I personally Know some friends who were fishing Fisher Island this fall and Phenomenally well. there was also a fantastic shore bite in the Hudson River where guys were catching fish 2 40 pounds every night for a three week Stretch. none of that indicates a healthy fishery, because the folks were doing that simply managed to put themselves in the middle of great schools of bunker and bait fish.

what is most disturbing is that the edge areas that held fish every year, consistently and in patterns, as part of a migration, do not hold fish consistently anymore.

if you or anyone else wants to learn more, do a Google search for "Yearly coastwide fish assessment, state of the fishery"

I am hoping that you will be able to get out and fish more times per week, meet some old timers, and get a better picture to counter some of what you believe. Thank you for all the good work you do tagging, and best wishes to you and your family for a happy holiday season. Jack"