First Time Ever....A Blank for December

For the first time in decades, I have blanked in the month of December.  In past years, I had caught holdover stripers in the upper Bay along with migrating fish along the oceanfront in December.  Even back in the days when there weren't supposed to be many fish around I was catching in December.  But, not this year.
I have gotten out about a dozen times in December focusing my attention on the Upper Bay where I was hoping the fishing would improve. But, I was not able to land a single fish in December.  Heck, I didn't even see anyone else land a fish.
Bottom line....the fish are not around. Some will point to the weather, the lack of bait, the fact that the fish seem to be in different spots, etc, but the bottom line is that the number of stripers is way down. We saw the proof of that in some poor summer fishing along the RI mainland shore, inconsistent fishing in the fall, and now the poor winter fishing.
I see little reason to think the winter fishing will dramatically improve in the coming weeks and months. I only hope I am wrong.