Quote Originally Posted by finchaser View Post
Commercial Striper Season Off to Slow Start.
?Striped bass fishing has been really horrible,? said Buddy Vanderhoop, a veteran Aquinnah charter fisherman who runs Tomahawk Charters out of Menemsha. ?I only caught 25 keepers all season. I usually do that in a day.?
Scott McDowell of North Shore Charters out of Menemsha echoed the sentiment, calling it the hardest start in his 24 years of running charters. ?Fishing is abysmal,? he said. ?This is the worst. And last year was bad.?
Early numbers from state fisheries managers confirm the news. Dan McKiernan, deputy director of the state Division of Marine Fisheries, reported this week that so far this year fishermen have landed 96,274 pounds of fish, roughly eight per cent of the 1,155,100-pound state quota.
?In June the waters are usually loaded with bass, everywhere you go,? Mr. Cronin said. ?I went out one morning at 6 a.m. in June. I started on the north shore and hit the regular spots, the Brickyard, Cape Higgon, Cedar Tree Neck and there was nothing. I went on my merry way. I went to Devil?s Bridge [off the Gay Head Cliffs] on a falling tide, and there were no birds, no fish. Then I stopped at Sandy?s [off Philbin Beach] and went to Squibnocket. I went to Noman?s Land, front side, and back side. I went farther out. I went to the Southwest Ledge, five miles south of Noman?s Land, to Southwest Shoal. It was an exploration. I got back [at 3 p.m.] without seeing one striped bass. I did see bluefish.?

I was in Giglios the other day and the customers were talking about how nj sucks and they were going to fish the canal. When I went up to MA earlier this year they were pretty optimistic for a good season. This is scary. the numbers must really be down. Thanks for posting that.