Mediocre

Here's a  hefty schoolie I got a few nights ago. Fishing this spring
has been mediocre at best and way off compared to recent years.

It's not bad, but it's not great either.  Mediocre is the best way I could describe the striper fishing thus far this spring. The problem here is that we have been used to GREAT fishing in recent years, and this year lags way, way behind recent springs.
I was out the last two evenings in a very good spot in the Bay.  I had the right wind, the right tide and the right surf conditions. I worked a lot of shore and came away with exactly 6 schoolies.  In past years I would have landed 20 to 25 fish an outing in this spot in these conditions.  It has been like this in other places that I am fishing too. Just mediocre.
My numbers at this point are about half of what I have landed in the last few years at this point. The few fish I have been catching in the Bay have been decent schoolies in the 20-25 inch range, bigger than the micros that seem to be in numbers along the oceanfront.  Keepers remain rare.  The last one I saw was the one I caught about a week  and a half ago.
So, what's the problem?  Some say the cold and rainy weather is the culprit. Others blame a lack of bait. Still others point out what the fisheries managers have been saying recently.  They say numbers of stripers, especially larger ones are in a major downward cycle.They claim the whole fishery is in trouble.
For now, the fishing is simply mediocre.  Still worthwhile in my book, but not what nowhere near what we have been used to in the spring.