If you fish for and love striped bass, Charles Witek is a national treasure. He stays on top of nearly every important meeting, issue, and decision regarding striped bass stock management, and reports back to us. Here’s a terrific essay from his blog, One Angler’s Voyage, “ASA Striped Bass Webinar Omits Key Rebuilding Issue.”
I can’t remember the last time I took a legal fish. Might have been Block last summer.
currentseams.com 
Although it won’t make you feel much better (and doesn’t mean Witek is wrong), they have caught a ton of big fish, 38-45”, in Boston Harbor (aka The Hahbah) this year. I’ve seen the photos and I know some of the anglers.
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Sure they have. And in the CC Canal. And on the Ledge off Block. The problem is, there are so few places where larger bass congregate today. Savvy anglers and boat captains know this, and that’s where they’re fishing. It creates an illusion that slot and above-slot fish are plentiful. As anyone who fished/is fishing from shore in CT this spring, RI this summer, or non-CCC Cape locations, that’s simply not the case.
I watched live eel fishermen and women get large bass in the channel near where you and Mike Oliver fished at night on Cape Cod. It was broad daylight and the bass can’t seem to turn down a live eel. Bill
Thanks for the report, Bill. I’ve gotten mostly shorts there but every once in a while a bigger fish comes through. Bass frequently treat live eels like candy and it can be a very productive way to fish.