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.