Done

[Chessie27]

I barely fished this year. I think I made 7 trips and most of them were fundraisers. I’ve been training for a moratorium. I’m not sure what the right answer is but I sure hope SOMEONE does.

[Spot77]

If I was a migratory fish, I'd probably learn to not migrate into the bay.

Low oxygen, debris fields from Exelon, millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled annually into the water, runoff from over development and stormwater systems that are incapable of slowing the flow of asphalt heated stormwater.......

We can make all the fishing regulations in the world but I'm pretty certain those rules would have a negligible affect on the fishery. Practicing good techniques like reducing treble hook use, minimal fish handling of catch and release and not keeping small fish is what good fishermen already do. We don't need laws to tell us that, and the people ignoring these obvious common sense techniques couldn't care less about the rules or laws.

I guess we'll all have to get used to catching catfish and snakeheads.

[Mako mike]

I truly believe most of theses fish are no longer breeding in the bay. I think most are favoring cleaner coastal waters in New Jersey. Most of the back bays on the lower jersey shore are pristine compared to the Chesapeake. I say Marty Carter’should be appointed to the secretary to the DNR

[Finprof]

Originally Posted by Mako mike

I truly believe most of theses fish are no longer breeding in the bay. I think most are favoring cleaner coastal waters in New Jersey.

For some direct evidence on the fish changing behavior, I live in New Jersey most of the week but have a house and boat in St Michaels so I fish both Jersey and the Chesapeake. Last April my boat stayed in its slip in St Michaels and Dan's boat stayed on its trailer while we went on a six pack out of Raritan Bay.
The captain and mate were so sloppy that Dan was thinking there was no way we could catch fish with four rods and muddy parachute tandems. Dan was wrong. We caught a nice mid-30s fish about every 15 minutes and went over pods that were good enough to jig. These fish are staging to go up the Hudson and there is some recent evidence that they are going into the Raritan as well. The fishery in the Hudson keeps getting better while the Chesapeake keeps getting worse. The fish are probably not as numerous in Raritan Bay than they were in the Chesapeake simply because Raritan Bay is so much smaller so it doesn't mean that the stock is fine. We were fishing within sight of the New York skyline and the water was cleaner than any Chesapeake water. There were also lots of adult bunker on the screen but not the acres of bunker on the surface that you see off Belmar in Spring.

[Spot77]

Originally Posted by Finprof

For some direct evidence on the fish changing behavior, I live in New Jersey most of the week but have a house and boat in St Michaels so I fish both Jersey and the Chesapeake. Last April my boat stayed in its slip in St Michaels and Dan's boat stayed on its trailer while we went on a six pack out of Raritan Bay.
The captain and mate were so sloppy that Dan was thinking there was no way we could catch fish with four rods and muddy parachute tandems. Dan was wrong. We caught a nice mid-30s fish about every 15 minutes and went over pods that were good enough to jig. These fish are staging to go up the Hudson and there is some recent evidence that they are going into the Raritan as well. The fishery in the Hudson keeps getting better while the Chesapeake keeps getting worse. The fish are probably not as numerous in Raritan Bay than they were in the Chesapeake simply because Raritan Bay is so much smaller so it doesn't mean that the stock is fine. We were fishing within sight of the New York skyline and the water was cleaner than any Chesapeake water. There were also lots of adult bunker on the screen but not the acres of bunker on the surface that you see off Belmar in Spring.

A couple of us here have a friend who charters out of Montauk. I think he spends most of his time in the ocean but I know he catches tons of great fish in Block Island Sound. The last time I fished with him he put me on a 40" Striper in about 5 minutes then said, "Ok can we go catch some real fish now?" as we headed out to catch sharks. I see pics all season long of his crews' catches. The variety of great fish in different species is amazing.

I think the upper and mid Chesapeake is doomed to mediocre fishing for a long time. DNR can make all the rules in the world but the pollution and general water quality is far more detrimental to the fishery.

But I know good seasons and bad seasons come and go, and they're often really hard to predict.