[Capt Sal]

Overfishing in the eighties caused the decline? WRONG!! Commercial netting did it from North Carolina to Montauk to Mass. In the eighties they would put a big net out in the surf and haul the bass onto the beach and throw them in pick up trucks and off to the market. This was common practice in Montauk. Hook and line fishermen take the blame for what the commercial sector did.Fact not fiction! I am old enough to have seen this with my own eyes!