David Pickering – Friday January 3, 2014

“…I landed over 1200 stripers in 2013, my best year of the last 5 years as far as numbers.  Yet, numbers don’t tell the whole story.  My numbers of keepers were down compared to recent years and large keepers were really down.  This is probably the first time in the last five years that I did not land a 40 inch fish from shore in RI waters (got some at the Cape and from the boat though).  There are lots of complaints out there about the declining numbers of keeper fish, particularly from shore fishermen. Unfortunately, I think this trend will continue as keeper bass are highly targeted by commerical as well as recreational fishermen.  I see 2014 as a year of big numbers of schoolies but even poorer numbers of keepers.”  more…