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has anybody NOT found stripers where they should be?

2K views 17 replies 9 participants last post by  beauty123 
#1 ·
OK, I've heard about the great fishing and the big fish around. How can I help hearing? Every news stand, Internet forum and local TV show can't stop jabberin about it [no offense meant to present company of course:wink: ].

No doubt there are more people fishing for stripers than any time in history. In this Age of Imformation even the most clueless can be dialed in without serious effort. It stands to reason that there are plenty of people having some good luck, especially around noteworthy bait concentrations such as the big pogies.

My question is; has anybody who has been fishing since the resurgence in the late 80s [or even better, since before the crash of the 70s] noticed that stripers are not as plentiful in some of the spots formally known to be reliable?
Sure you see alot on the flats, but how many of you have been fishing the flats since '88 or '89 when the numbers started coming up. How does today compare to '91 or '92 when the fish were abundant everywhere?
What about your favorite tidal rip or rocky patch of whitewater that could be counted on to produce no matter what the bait situation was? Anyone found them empty of fish even when conditions looked perfect?
What about those early spring tides in the estuaries that produced 50, 75 or 100 schoolies in a night? Anybody notice it's more like 10, 20 or 30 today?
I'm just curious, thought I'd toss that out for contemplation.
 
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#2 ·
I have been fishing a certain pole number at the canal for 16 or 17 years. Up until about 6 years ago on the proper tides quality fish could be caught on every cast with 3 to 5 ounce jigs for a 1 to 2 hour stretch. Now, you have to work to get 3 or 4 fish. When the numbers were around fish in the 20 to 25 lb range were common, but no real large fish. Within the past two years a number of high 30s and a few 40s have been taken from the spot.

Certain spots on the canal also recently seem to be producing fish on reverse tides from the tradition.
 
#3 ·
Well the obvious for me is Monomoy.

It's a mere shadow of it's former self until the ocean can freshen it again during the dog days. However there's a guzzle or two of hope and the west end keeps good fish all summer as it always has. I think we all dearly miss the days of a navigable southway.

The biggest difference this year that I have seen is the influence of the 17 or so miles of extra swimming the fish have had to do to get around South Monomoy. This has kept more of some species in the area for longer, and extended the usual spring activity at least a month longer that it's average over the last 9 years. In other words the migration has been slowed up the coast by mother natures largest fish weir. But as I posted when it closed up over the winter it was pretty easy to predict that such a detour would affect things.

I fished Nauset and the new break pretty hard this year up until the plover closure and rather than say there were no fish where they should I will say there were plenty of fish where they once were not. The break is changing the character of Pleasant Bay. Very much for the better.

Other spots I like in the area... GREAT :smokin:
 
#6 ·
Mike -

I'm not sure my relative microcosm view (albeit fairly large in miles) can be a measure of the biomass on the entire coastline. I am saying however that within my attention span many factors change the way fish come, stay and leave through the season. I can't say I can draw any kind of quantitative information about the overall population but it seems like a good year for larger average fish size from what I can see. Lots of 'keeper' bass from shore this year, 15 or so the most in a day (2 clients).

I guess I am just a hitchhiker on the striped bass highway :smokin:

Neal -

Its a shame we have now such a small percentage of historical populations and sizes but at least the moratorium has had a tremendous effect and compared to some other fisheries with less resilience (i.e. salmonids) we are lucky to have hundreds of fish with many very good size in our individual log books every season.
 
#7 ·
juro said:
Mike -

I'm not sure my relative microcosm view (albeit fairly large in miles) can be a measure of the biomass on the entire coastline. I am saying however that within my attention span many factors change the way fish come, stay and leave through the season. I can't say I can draw any kind of quantitative information about the overall population but it seems like a good year for larger average fish size from what I can see.
Damn Juro, you sound like Alan Greenspan explaining economic & monetary policy to the press:D :D :hihi:
 
#9 ·
mikez said:
Juro, are you saying that the fishing is generally as good or better than say, 10 years ago? Or only that a few particular spots have benifited by the changes in the terrain?

Fluctuations in fishing pressure can have a significant effect on certain aspects of the fishery.
 
#10 ·
jfbasser said:
Fluctuations in fishing pressure can have a significant effect on certain aspects of the fishery.
So can the prescence or absence of the mainstay bait(silversides). Some of the areas I've fished in the past are almost devoid of silversides except for one or two breeding schools when in the past there were breeding schools on every new moon during the season. If the food isn't there then the fish won't be either. Ron
 
#12 ·
Ironically (to me at least) the presence of large quantities of adult bunker over deeper waters is being "blamed" for the lack of big hungry bass that used to forage close to the shores of Naragansett bay. So, the big hungry "easy" fish ain't so easy any more....

Funny old world ......I guess "you can please some of the people, some of the time ....." :smokin:
 
#13 ·
Those big bunker typically push hard up into "our corner" late fall thru October, they have done so every year like clockwork since I was a kid livelining from the jetty. The spring push is a teaser in comparison but it was noticeably bigger the last two or three seasons. I was out of pocket last fall for personal reasons but the fall before things were 'center stage' in October.

Bull blues approaching 20# and huge bass easily reached from shore if you can convince them you have a 3# bunker on the tippet, or have other tricks for those sweeping behind the tidal wave pushing the big bunker which is a lot easier for the fly guy. Especially if the main push is blues. It's exciting to see those volkswagon sized boils within an easy cast from the beach and schoolie-sized bunker on the run in the shallows.

So if nature's swan song doesnt skip a beat this year the fall bunker will be thicker and much more captive and confused due to the closure of the southway and I suspect it will be carnage in the third degree when the tourists have all gone.

That gives me plenty of time to enjoy the sand eel buffet and then tune the twohander for 12wt overhead casting w/ stout shooting heads that will not even cast right without a chicken on the leader for the Octoberfest.
 
#14 ·
Thanks for the replies. I'm hoping to get more feedback from other locations. I'm glad to hear positive things from people who's opinions I respect.

In case anyone is wondering why I'm asking, it's because I personally have found in the past few seasons alot of reliable spots not paying off. When I see the unprecidented number of fishermen out there taking advantage of the excessively liberal limits [don't even get me started on Ma "recreational" commercial fishing] and see the below average YOY indexes, I get concerned.
It's kinda hard for me to believe all the stripers I used to find from Popham beach to Watch Hill light are all at Monomoy or chasing pogies in deep water. I hope it's just me. Maybe I've lost my touch. Maybe the fish have changed their behavoir. Maybe I need to find the hotspots on the Cape.
So let's see...I need a road map, marine chart, google earth blow up and a description of Juro's truck.:devil:
 
#15 ·
narrow river

I was at the Narrow river last night started at midnight for the outgoing until around 4am
Two bumps with black eel flys. One bump with a White miniature Sluggo near "The Rock". Did not catch anything. I did not have any crab flies or anyhting else.Four other guys at various spots even up to the bridge on 1A said the same thing, not much.
However I do understand that it's a tad little late in season for this spot.
My two cents.
 
#16 ·
When I reread me last post it seems I'm saying there are NO fish between popham beach and Watch Hill. That was not my intention.
There are still plenty of fish. Maybe more large than before. Just not as many as there used to be, it seems to me. I'm hoping to be convinced I'm wrong.
 
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