Hmmm, I've been thinking about that lately myself. I'm working on a season retrospective and I can't help but think about the vast numbers of truly small fish I caught this summer.
When I say "truly small" I mean fish in the 6-8" bracket, a size that I didn't even know existed until this year. There's a couple of factors I attribute to this, not all having to do with the fishery.
First, I changed my whole fishing style this season and spent 99% of my time fishing from shore. It's always been the opposite for me, a couple shore trips a year, but most of the time out of the boat working rips & rocks. I fished a lot of river type areas, and feel that the size class of fish I took was somewhat limited. Before you get the flame throwers going, I'm not saying that big fish can't be taken from shore, after all look at the line class record that came out of Chatham, or the consistent success some folks have at the canal. In fact, I did get a couple really nice bass this year. I'm just more experienced with boat angling, hence I have more confidence in it.
Obviously, we've got a huge resurgence in bass population, which is a good thing. I can only hope it continues. This may be causing the smaller fish to flee the traditional nurseries in search of food, less competition, etc.
Are the big fish gone? I don't believe it for a second. I still see guys like Abba in Boston bringing in keeper fish almost every trip. Many of those guys (the old school bait guys) wouldn't fess up to a decent catch if you put a gun to their head. I've also seen huge schools of fish in the 28 range (pounds, not inches) pushing bait, etc. off Monomoy. The fish are there, but the patterns they are following don't always lend themselves to the shore bound angler. As I've mentioned before, I honestly believe that a lot of the larger bass remained offshore, feeding on the abundant bait in the rips at places like Davis Bank, which is why we have heard so little about them being caught. If they've got bait, nice rips and water in the proper temp range, there's no reason for them to move inshore.
Not all fish are created equal though. Some fish are predestined to reach large proportions if they live long enough,while others could live the next four hundred years and never get over 20 pounds. Fisheries managers have seen this not only in the striped bass population, but also in Lake Trout, and other salmonids. The big question is (in my mind) what makes one fish grow to 35 pounds, while another doesn't? Is it strictly genetics, or are other factors, such as diet, etc. the cause.
Right now, it may be too early to tell. Over the next couple seasons, we'll see if the management nay-sayers are right, that abundant fish means smaller fish.