It should come as no surprise that the number of April schoolies was way down compared to the last five years. Management experts have been saying all along that the numbers of schoolies is off about 60% compared to five years ago. And, I believe they are right on target with that assessment. I looked back on my logs and found that in 2007 I landed exactly 177 schoolies in April. This year I landed 82. I fished about the same number of days. Guess what....that is about a 60 % drop.
While many fishermen might think that catching 82 schoolies in one month is a big number, it is not. Back six to ten years ago in the heyday of the comeback, I was averaging 300 fish in the month of April. Thirty and forty fish days were not uncommon. So, times have changed. Get used to it.
