Quote:
Originally Posted by cletus109
had to comment when i saw the weakfish, like others hadn't seen one like that since late 70's very early 80's when i used to fish delaware bay around the lightship and brandywine shoal, caught them till my arms ached.....all on spinning tackle and bucktails. when we went at night and turned on the boat lights many times the would pop up , there dorsal fin out of the water corralling bait fish right in front of us.....my largest was 16lbs and change, that was terrific fishing.
back then in the time when we were fishing weakfish it was just stupid, however no real striper action but now it is terrific , as so goes the cycle
hope everyone has a safe and great holiday
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Cycle in this case is the result of the fishery being destroyed by complete fisheries mismanagement in the form of no protection for the big tide runner females, purse seiners netting acres of juvenile fish during their traditional inshore southerly fall migrations and too liberal recreational and commercial harvest limits. The amount of fish we saw in the fall migrating south never seemed to reappear the following year.
Most people on this site have no idea just how fantastic this fishery was and still can be with proper management. Personally I'm glad these big girls are migrating 70 miles offshore avoiding the same gauntlet of netters which destroyed one of the greatest fisheries ever in our local waters. One of the most beautiful fish you'll ever see in salt water, I hope they continue staging a comeback. God knows there's millions of spikes we see every fall, those classes have to be protected as do the big female breeders. Catching a 10 lb. weakfish was the equivalent of landing a 10 lb. brown trout. I never thought weakfish were great table fare but catching them was an absolute blast and boom to the local economy. I remember the late afternoon / evening trips in Sandy Hook drifting sand and or jelly worms along channel edges. It was another unbelievable fishery which like too many others went belly up.
Captain, thanks for sharing those pics! They bring back great memories and shows what is still possible with sensible regulations and proper management of the resource.
