Forecasting interannual variability in the supply of young fish to the fishery remains a significant problem after 100 years. A comprehensive metric of larval success is the interaction of growth (G) and mortality (M), sometimes referred to as the recruitment potential. Both M and G require estimates of age, arduously obtained from daily growth increments, at fine spatial and temporal scales. However, we have recently shown that the descending slope of the size-frequency distribution of a growing population is a robust measure of the M/G ratio, without having to age the larvae. We applied this method to larval surveys of Pacific hake, from the California Cooperative Fisheries Investigations winter surveys, between 1978-2021 where eight strong year classes appeared in the fishery. The annual average larval M/G, based on the size distribution, was not correlated with the subsequent fishery year class strength, estimated from the age-specific harvest. There was however, a weak positive correlation using spring surveys of pelagic juvenile hake (2005-2021). Routinely incorporating the competing effects of growth and mortality for the first time will re-invigorate fisheries oceanography, particularly with regard to the ephemeral coastal features, adjacent to substantial coastal fisheries.