Get your fluking in

[bulletbob]

Originally Posted by Broad Bill

Fish are here but in tight patches. Find those patches and fish are chewing hard. Great fisherman are crushing it, regular recs are struggling! I agree with Dan but isn't that the red flag? Are party and charter boats crushing it, all you have to do is read the reports. You've been fishing long enough to remember what this fishery was like when we had 8 fish bag limits, the entire season was productive and not just the last month and September was off the charts great. Compare that to today's mess.

This is September. The month forever that fish were schooled up over wide areas with more fish pouring out of the bays everyday. Best fishing month of the year. Now it's sharpies who happen to find small patches. What does that say about the fishery?

You must remember that many guys just haven't been around as long as others.. years ago, we had great fluke fishing right through October into early Nov some years, and you didn't need to go out to rocky areas in 60 FOW.. Those fish were often stacked up 50 yards off the beach, and guys in 14 footers had no problem going after them. I am old enough to remember the days[decades actually!] when there were no stripers.. They were virtually non existent for many many years. No charters or head boats even targeted them. They were a rare by catch for the most part. Even then though, when the species was rarely seen, there were a few guys that knew where a few could be caught, certain times ,certain places, on certain baits, and when they caught some they got their names published in the Asbury Park Press, or the NJ Fisherman. For those individuals, sure the fishing was fine, however they just knew how to exploit a fishery that was in deep trouble, and knew the techniques to catch the remnant.. That is NOT indicative of a healthy fishery by any stretch of the imagination. Got into a recent discussion locally about the total collapse of walleyes in the susquehanna river.. I have had long discussions with NYS DEC biologists that assure me the fish were basically gone.. No young of the year fish, and only a very few large specimens in their surveys last year,, However a local guide says he still has nights where he can catch 20-30 fish.. I catch maybe 1 every 2 years these days, where I used to catch 20-30 a night as well... All this means is that he knows how to exploit the tiny remnant of a once healthy population...

Same with commercials.. They know where the remnants are, when and how to catch them until there are totally gone... Just because a few pros are catching, does not indicate a good population by any means... bob