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Quote:

Originally Posted by Capt. Frank (Post 557308)

I ran my charters out of shark river 1988 to mid 1990's and the flounder fishing there was crap then too. That's over 30 years ago it stunk too.

Same as the whiting fishing going to shit in NJ dating back to last century.

Same as inshore Boston Mackeral fishing in the Spring and even in Barnie.

Same as the north NJ weakfishing going to shit too for decades now.

SERIOUSLY:
The good old days for all these fish are an old man's memories of his childhood. And were they actually all that good? Remember... Whiting in the 1960's off of Long Branch pier with pops in January? Eight fish then look like 60 now. LOL

Shark river flounder fishing in the 80’s was great if you chummed hard and could fish .
We would fill garbage cans then .

Weakfish were good in raritan bay until about 2010, with lots of big fish .
After that was like a light switch they were gone

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fluken-Around (Post 557323)

When I was growing up and the fishery was healthy, every summer the bottom was paved in Shark River with juvenile winter flounder. There were so many it looked like the bottom was moving around the floating docks at Fisherman's Den. No more, they're gone because recruitment today is less than 10% of what it was in the 70's and 80's. I assure you that didn't happen from recreational anglers fishing maybe 6 weeks out of an entire season.

I also remember the days in shark river were your killie and crab traps always had juvenile winter flounder in them. Then when fishing for summer flounder you would always find juvenile winter flounder in their stomachs or they'd be puking them up all over the boat in the river. No more!![/QUOTE]

FA I couldn't agree more with your post. People who weren't around at that time can't appreciate just how many fish were in a skinny body of water. Even back then on low tides the mud flats would be completely exposed and all that was left was a trickle of water in the main channels. The population of mature fish in the fall winter and spring and the population of juveniles in the summer was more than anyone would believe. And while the environmental issues that Dan pointed out I agree with as far as additional sediment filling in the areas, I don't believe that in itself is what caused the fishery to tank. Every body of water up and down the coast including the famous Quincy Bay Ma. fishery has been decimated. Year round dragging and targeting older fish will always result in the decline of a fishery, it's that simple.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hammer4reel (Post 557327)

Being an old timer LOL What about Delaware bay and the fantastic run of monster weakfish in the seventies? The gill netters wiped them out!!! Case closed.