With the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico grabbing international headlines, environmental devastation and destroyed fisheries are the themes of the moment.  But in Wareham, it's a different story.

"The Weweantic has really improved," said Sam Gunter, 21.  "The fish are a lot bigger in size, and there are bigger populations of fish."

Gunter should know.  On Memorial Day weekend, he and his brother Steve, 25, caught four "keepers," striped bass over the legal limit of 28 inches for recreational fishermen, in 45 minutes.

"It was very, very good," said Steve. "And it was midday and every troll hauled in just massive fish."

The brothers were trolling at about four knots in roughly 15 feet of water, Steve said, and just hit a school at the right time. Steve hauled in the largest fish, at 47 inches.

It's not the largest striper he's caught, he said. But that monster, a 57-inch fish that weighed in at 40 pounds, was hauled in off Cuttyhunk...not in a tidal river.

But the brothers, who fish together on the river at least Saturday through Monday evenings from Steve's 17-foot Triumph, both have been impressed with this year's haul.

"We've had so many good days," Steve said.

And they have a lot to compare it to - their parents own Sportsmen's Outfitters in Berkley, and they have been fishing as long as they can remember.

"I've been casting fishing poles since before I could walk," joked Sam.

Steve lives on the river and tries to fish every night after working at Atlantic Boats.

But they've never had the success of their Memorial Day haul.

"People always asking me, 'are they catching any fish?'" said Steve's girlfriend Sandra Gibbs who works at the Fan Club.   "And they are."