I was talking to a friend the other day.....he targets big fish at every part of the migration, and fishes Jersey and throughout the Coast to find them.....

He has had a frustrating year.....
Has been jumping between Jersey and LI lately just to find a decent bite.....

Now....our interpretation of "decent" might be different from other folks.....
We were talking about the spring and fall bites of a few years ago....

1. The sand eels coming inshore twice a year...
2. The fantastic peanut bunker runs we used to have......
3. The Spring runs we used to have where bass and bluefish pursued a smorgasbord of bunker, herring, rainfish, spearing, etc to the beach.....
4. Catching 20-40 fish per night, on a good night....(not just during the crab molt)
5. When you could realistically catch fish in NJ and LI for 8-10 months of a year, instead of the abbreviated Spring and Fall Seasons we now have....
Etc...etc......













We started comparing notes, him saying it was his worst year ever since the moratorium.......
It's been the same for me......

When the fish are available, he catches more fish over 30# from land than anyone I know....
And he has sat out there 2 tides in a row, just to get one larger fish........he definitely knows how to "find the fish"....

Lamenting how bad we see that things have declined.....
and talking about the "Good old Days....