I've fished enough with Mike to make a valid observation that though his Eastern Sound fishery is still quite good, it is not what it was even five seasons ago. He is working harder (and smarter) in order to keep his catching consistent. And the size is down out there as well. Most eastern sound captain's are reporting that the instances of large fish in the 7lb - DD range is not what is has been in even the recent past. Bottom line - still a very good fishery out there, but not what it was.
Since you asked, George, here my observations on the Eastern LI Sound Tog fishery. As both Lep and Matts have noted while we still have pretty reliable Tog action out east, it too appears to be showing some signs of a fall off.
Ther is no doubt the number larger Tog, especially DD fish is way off. We were fortunate to see one real beast, just under 12# but that was relatively early, the third week of October. On that day I had a fellow working as my mate who goes to RI regularly and he said that day was as good as any he sees in RI. But that's just one trip. BTW, another well-known Captain and friend of mine also saw only one DD his entire season.
Then we spent another month before the second largest fish of our season hit the deck at 8.5#. In recent years we would always see at least 3- 5 fish in the 8-9# class. Not this season. Most days our top fish was in the 6-7# class. Sure, we always break off some that feel a lot larger on the bottom on each trip. But who knows the real size of those fish. Again, other North Fork Captain's I stay in touch with appear to be having the same experience.
Here is another interesting observation that I can't explain. Early on this year we did see the crazy numbers of shorts mixed in with the keepers, upwards of 70-80 shorts per trip. For the last 2.5 weeks the overall numbers are down, but thankfully the keepers are still available. So, although the ratio of keepers caught has improved the total numbers of fish boated is about half what it was during the first half of this season. Seems strange.
At least the keepers still seem to be spread out over a large area in the Eastern Sound where I work. For the last 3 trips I have been fortunate to manage a boat limit with just one drop of the anchor so least there is some consistency. However, I hope this fall off in shorts is not the start of any further decline in our coveted Tog fishery.
