It's been declining for a long time IMO. Its not the one thing, its the dismal tide. More pressure, more guides, and better technology. Used to be jack plates were a novelty and many flats were protected and inaccessible except for adventurous or hard core fuckers willing to walk or push a boat at times. I member, it was very fruitfal. You needed knowledge and experience. With Accurate Gps, drones, internet etc plus modern boats you can be an idiot and go just about anywhere easily and find whats left to catch with a bit of effort. - one Caveat, Harvey fucked up most of my preferred spots -second Caveat I tend to fish relatively close to Poc until I'm forced not too ~Third a lot of my crew relocated to Galvatraz so less intel. But I'm fortunate enough to get several guide trips a year with top guides, and they get skunked more frequently than ever. See Jay Watkins etc advocating conservation, and he used to try and kill em all. But it's inarguably harder. Large schools of fish are way less common. I'm smarter than I was 25 years ago and catch less. I do catch more 23-29 trout tho because I have more wading time