The Good Old days of Fishing......

[DarkSkies]

What fishing used to be like, Stripercoast1 aka Gunny:

(Gunny runs www.stripercoastsurfcasters.us a growing group of hardcore surfcasters with an eye on conservation, aligning themselves with www.stripersforever.com and other groups in their fight to preserve the striped bass fishery.)

"When people talk about striped bass fishing and how they had a "blitz" for an hour, I realize there is a lot to teach people out there. We used to fish Cape Cod and the Mass area many years ago. Those were the nights when you were careful who you told about the fishing. There would usually be a small group of us dedicated guys out there for any given night when the bite was on.

And on it was! We would have times in the spring or fall at Race Point when the striped bass "blitz" stretched for 7 or 8 miles. We would have huge bass right in the surf at our feet. If they were on heavy bait concentrations, all you had to do was toss out a bucktail, or pick up a piece of fresh bait as the fish pushed the bait ashore. Toss out your bucktail, or that fresh bait, and you would have a fish in a matter of a minute.

These blitzes would last for a day or more sometime, and we all got our fill of fish. Sometimes I realize it was too many, and that probably contributed to the decline, because everyone acted the same way."



Fishing as it exists today:

"Guys are killing a lot more of the big breeders. For example, this summer there was a huge concentration of big bass off Block Island. Guys were taking out the 6 pack charters as much as twice a day, and coming back with their limit each time. These are 40 and 50lb bass we are talking about, taking up to 20 years to reach that size. Yet guys killed them day after day. Huge numbers of these bass were taken out of the biomass from Block Island this year. I have to believe that will affect the biomass and future spawning numbers. There's no way it would not affect the population.

In Rhode Island where I fish a lot we have always had good seasons for catching big striped bass from the surf. The bays, rivers, and estuaries hold tremendous amounts of bait, many varieties, shrimp, small whitebait, bunker, huge amounts of squid, and lobster. Yet we noticed the fishing was off, there were less big bass around.

I have seen the decline of catches with my own eyes. It's only a matter of time before it shows up in the official numbers. If we don't do something about it soon, we will be definitely be facing another moratorium on striped bass fishing."

[DarkSkies]

(guys let me know if I need to make any corrections to these)

Fin:
He tells me on a daily basis how they used to catch bass by the dozens, large, and in all year classes. Bluefish used to be so abundant they would fill 110Qt coolers with them to the point where people got sick of catching them. There was no idea out there that either bluefish or striped bass stock should be conserved. People used to fertilize their gardens with unwanted fish.

Then the stocks declined, slowly at first, until there was a noticable decline, and you were only catching fish in the "middle areas" (M&M theory). The edges of the M&M bowl were empty, and they instituted the moratorium.

He sees that same thing happening to the stocks today because people refuse to acknowledge that there is greater participation in fishing, more fish are being kept, and people are wasting plenty of large breeder fish just for the photo ops at the tackle shops.

He has seen wasted 40# bass that were left out in the sun, dumped into marina dumpsters. He may seem like he rants and raves a lot, but that's because he's passionate about these fish he loves to catch, and doesn't want to see history repeat itself. Pick his brain anytime ya want, he has the stats and figures to back it up!

As related by Finchaser:
Fishing before the moratorium:

"There were so many fish back then, it would take 3 or 4 days for one body of fish to pass by in the spring or fall. If you missed those, there would be another wave of fish right after that. That's why when people talk today about how they had fish for hours, it maks me shake my head. Fishing today is nothing like it used to be before the moratorium.

Fall run, 1980's:
A fall run back then was like a sustained fishing dream. Blitzes lasted for days, not 22 minutes. You could go fishing in the morning, catch some fish, go to work, come out on your lunch break, catch some more fish, go back to work, come home and eat dinner, and still go out to catch more fish, until your arms were really tired."

[DarkSkies]

Some anonymous recollections of others:

1. A friend called me today and told me how they used to go up to Cape Cod because huge numbers of bass used to pass by there on the migration. He told me of thousands of bass rolling in the surf, 30-40 years ago. As Gunny said, all you had to do was toss a piece of bait or a bucktail out, and you were into fish in the 30# class. They were all over the place.




2. Another friend told me he has a friend living in New Brunswick, near Canada. The bass used to come there by the thousands as part of their northern migration as they passed the state of Maine. His friend hasn't had a good year for striped bass in many years. Is it a case that they just don't move that far north any more, or is it the case that there are less bass to go around?

Only you people can answer these questions for yourself. Do the research, there is a wealth of material in this thread.




3. Another friend has a problem with the lack of bluefish in the surf, especially as represented by the smaller year classes. I used to fish with these guys as recently as 5 years ago, and we had times when we would get numbers in the 30's and 40's of bluefish caught and released, several times a week, for the spring run. That hasn't happened to the extent it used to. People say the bluefish are all offshore on the offshore bait.

What about the edges of the bowl, the M&M theory? Isn't it possible it could be a factor here as well?

Of course, lots of people hate bluefish, and don't care. Many guys who fish from boats will dispute it, and tell you it's unreasonable to say this. There are miles and mils of bluefish just offshore, they will say. I agree that's what they're seeing, so I understand how they would dispute a hypothesis that there are less around. As mentioned, the surf fishermen catch the"overflow" How would you know about this perspective unless you fish from the surf?

Surf fishing traditionally was where you caught the overflow of fish from an abundant biomass. If that biomass is declining, the surf guys would certainly be the first ones to notice it.

Food for thought people, food for thought.