Blackfish.. bad luck or bad numbers?

[bulletbob]

Went togging on a sponsor boat yesterday,,[weds].. First stop within 30 seconds I had a quick hit and boated my first keeper of the day.. Thought it was going to be a good day indeed.. Alas for me, it was my ONLY keeper.
Matter of fact my tally for the rest of the trip afterward was 2 shorts and a damn horn dog. Others had 1 or 2 keepers, a few guys had 3, some had none.
Just really slow with not a lot of life on any of the stops the captain elected to fish.. He and his crew worked their hind ends off trying, NO question about it, and I would be glad to sail with them any time..
My last tog trip late last season was very similar. Well respected NS that has been togging in NJ for many decades, going back to the "good old days". Just no hits anywhere on the boat for long periods.. Even when the fish were "biting", you might see a fish come up every 15 minutes or so during the day, with the occasional doggie coming up to keep things exciting.. This has been going on for years.. I am trying to gauge if this is the way blackfishing really is these days ..
Many guys on the head boats tell me, yes this is it, this is the new reality, don't judge it by 25 years ago.. Others tell me yes they do a get a limit now and again, but most days a couple fish is as much as you can expect when togging... Reading the reports on the net from many sources, you would think limits are the norm, and big fish 10 + are an every day thing...

Look I understand some guys don't catch because they can't get the feel, but I never had that problem.. I have been togging for well over 40 years, and feeling tog hits and hooking them was never an issue.. Its just that for several years, there don't seem to be any hits to hook more often than not.. Crabs keep coming back up unmolested... For most of my trips the past 8 or so years, the entire boat experienced the same lack of life...

I was in the bow yesterday, and the slightly better bite was certainly in the stern except on the first drop which is where I caught my one keeper and my 2 shorts.. Never caught another tog after that, and the only hit was the dogfish, and a few bergals the size of my index finger.
Many regulars moved to the stern from the bow, but I didn't feel comfortable pushing my way in.. These guys all knew on another, and they support that boat on a regular basis.. I don't feel I have that right, for some dopey reason.

I am starting to think I might be better off going somewhat further south for blackfish. I think there is more potential bottom thats suited for tog, and yesterday the number of head and charter boats from both NY and NJ in a limited area was staggering.. Part of the day yesterday, we were fishing in an area where there were 4 party boats so close you could hit any of the 4 with an underhand sinker toss... None of those other boats were catching either..

I dunno, either I am picking bad days whenever I go for blackfish, or the numbers of them are way down... I personally have not seen a limit caught in the past 7 or 8 years on any tog boat I have been on, 4 keepers was the most I have personally witnessed, and 3 has been my personal best day in years,, My son who is 31 refuses to drive down with me for any more after several trips with no one catching, and no life around the boat . He said to me last night, "blackfishing is always like that -you should have gone out for stripers".. Probably right..
He and I have gone on some sea bass/ling trips that were kind of slow for us as well, but that was our fault.. Just not dialed in real well that particular day.. I have had trips where we just stunk, but others did fine.. Thing is there was life, it was just not our day.
.. Blackfishing for me seems to simply be nobody home down there. Been that way for a long time now.

Is this really the way all NJ blackfishing is today, or do I simply need to change venues and drive a little further south??

I still see those big piles of tog on the net, and still see great reports from private boaters, so tog aren't extinct yet I guess..

That pile of head boats yesterday on such a small area, really got me thinking maybe there just aren't enough fish within the reach of so many boats... It wasn't even the weekend.

Each and every captain and crew on these trips I have written about were terrific, and worked very hard and I would recommend any of them both sponsor and NS... They worked very hard at finding fish, just seemed as though there wan't much to find.
I am simply questioning the actual number of fish out there in this modern age.
I may just need to pick the right days to drive down, instead of days when the fish are totally turned off... Next trip down will probably be for ling-stripers will be gone, and I am actually afraid to go out for tog again this year... maybe next year. No flaming please.. Just kind of confused more than anything else..bob