Morning Star Fish Report

Fish Report 3/29/06

Hi All,

Toggin' today, for most, was as good as I can imagine. Bit of a pain in heavy current for a while but almost everyone aboard had a 10 pounder - Some had a limit of 'em! The kind of day that is very difficult to repeat...

We made 3 short drifts on midwater marks that I thought might be mackerel - no joy- not even a herring.

I will be going toggin' on the last day of March 'till next Tuesday - 31 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 4th... Crabs provided. Leave 7AM return 3ish. 16 people sells out the rail.

Weather link below - Saturday is not looking too sporty! But, who knows, it might be the best...

http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/fmtbltn.pl?file=forecasts/marine/coastal/an/anz650.txt

If you reserve a spot make sure we get a good phone number in case of a cancellation!

I just got a letter from Congressman Gilchrest about the Magnuson Stevens Reauthorization; I expect the next 'fish report' will have some thoughts on that...

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservations 410 520 2076
www.morningstarfishing.com

Fish Report 3/29/06

posted by Monty # Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Fish Report 3/26/06

Thoughts on Mackerel.

Hi All,

Lost Saturday and Sunday to weather. Friday though was as pretty a day as could be had - little chilly in the AM, but gorgeous thereafter. Set up on a big piece of structure and had a nice grade of fish. Sweet. When I had tried that same spot 2 weeks ago we drew a blank. Quite different this time! But a very small hang nearby beckoned, so, in direct violation of Rule #1 ~ Never leave fish to find fish ~ we picked up anchors and moved. Sweeter! - up to 15 1/4 lbs. That fish wasn't too long; only 25 1/2 inches, but very deep - sorta like a cross between a tog and a porgy. Still vigorous; she swam away with her new yellow ribbon (tag). I wish her many successful spawns!

It looks like the weather's going to warm a bit - that's a good thing! We'll try the tog again on the 29th and 30th of March (Wednesday and Thursday) - 7AM to 3PM - 16 People sells the boat out and again I'll be looking for the elusive mackerel as we go, but won't spend more than a 1/2 hour on 'em.

Tried the macks for a while on Friday and searched all the way home too - no joy. Did catch some herring though. How often I've seen a shot of herring turn into a flurry or bail of mackerel... Been a long time since I seriously tried the macks; might just happen this year. I guess it's been 15 years since the "Foreign Joint Fishing Venture" disaster. Foreign boats were allowed to process American caught mackerel - the fish were transferred at sea. The price on mackerel generally plummets after a few days of good fishing but that year the price stayed artificially high.

Lets see: Huge Demand & High Price + Too Many Boats & Nonexistent Landings Regulations = Fishery Collapse. Yup - that formula works every time!

Oh well, that was 15 years ago; just a tough lesson learned. It keeps coming back though, seems like every other year someone's trying to get the foreign boats in. (Shades of Abramoff???) The 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone that the US claimed back in 1976 - the first Magnusen/Stevens Act - banned foreign fishing inside US boundaries. Prior to the EEZ, mackerel - and everything else - were pounded just outside of the 12 mile federal boundary by anyone. I've spoken with people in OC that can remember watching the huge foreign factory ships work well within sight of land. At times they could even see people walking on deck; maybe the 12 mile line wasn't too rigorously enforced!

Recreational fishers still caught plenty of mackerel back then despite unlimited and unregulated domestic and foreign pressure. I therefore hold that the breadth of the mackerel's overfishing is grossly understated. There's a huge - incredibly huge - difference between the recreational mackerel fishery of today vs. 2 decades ago.

Back then, if you called in late February looking for a Saturday charter for any boat - a bathtub - No way! All booked up! Newspapers that normally wouldn't touch a fishing article, TV stations too, were constantly looking for news of the first mackerel - that the run was on! No more. Some of the boats up in Lewes have had some decent shots on 'em in the last couple years - Capt. Ricky especially - so there's hope that the "management plan" has had the fortunate accident of allowing the fish to recover enough so that the recreational sector might capture a few...

I suspect the only fishery in which the recreational allocation is more out of balance is the menhaden fishery!

Boston mackerel, or, more properly, atlantic mackerel, remains a huge commercial fishery. In '04 there were 1,500,000,000 pounds of menhaden landed (yes, 1.5 trillion pounds!), 190,000,000 pounds of east coast herrings and 120,000,000 pounds of atlantic mackerel. Third place - numbing.

(( Data from http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/commercial/landings/annual_landings.html ))

In contrast, the Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey holds that all recreational landings of atlantic mackerel in March and April of 2004 equaled 1049 pounds. How very different than the 1983 figure of 5,500,000 lbs for the recreational sector. No one has a lot of love for MRFSS's numbers, but still; something's wrong with that picture...

(( Data from http://www.st.nmfs.gov/st1/recreational/queries/index.html ))

My hat's off to the Recreational Fishing Alliance for staying on top of this one - I'm pretty sure that the RFA was the spearhead that killed the latest effort to allow foreign fishers in for the mackerel.

It wouldn't do to allow a 'fish report' to slip by without some mention of habitat. You'd have to be pretty far out of the loop to not know that there's a big brouhaha going about the menhaden fishery - they feed some of our favorite predators.

Mackerel are quite similar. One of the most awesome sights I've ever beheld was a group of fin whales feeding on an incredibly dense school of mackerel. We were in 150 feet of water and you absolutely could not drop a rig deeper than 25 feet. It was like hitting bottom! The whales were 'bubble net' feeding - that is, going round and round the fish while releasing air to make them school tighter and tighter. Then, taking turns, the whales would push through the school to feed.

I've heard that the tunas, among many apex predators, enjoy a mackerel snack too...

We'll do a few more things on the boat - then go fishing!

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservations 410 520 2076
www.morningstarfishing.com

Fish Report 3/26/06

Thoughts on Mackerel.

posted by Monty # Sunday, March 26, 2006

Fish Report 3/23/06

Hi All,

Last weekend's toggin' was pretty decent - all the more so because of a super light rail. Old Man Murphy (you know him - he wrote Murphy's Law) rode along with us on Sunday feeling jestful. As is often the case, a father and son team came fishing too; by mid-day Murphy was swinging from the outriggers in a belly hurting, knee slapping guffaw: he just couldn't stop! Finally he did though ~ then dad caught a few. Might even be a family Thanksgiving story there for them...

We caught boat limits both days and tagged 29 & 71 respectively. There were also 3 more tag returns - I'd wager they were tagged at the same spots and will find out soon enough.

The Coast Guard inspection went perfect - it's fishing time now. We'll go tog fishing with an eye out for boston mackerel - that is, if I see some I may try the mackerel for a 1/2 hour or so. I've been hearing some interesting reports on them and, since I've forgotten what they look like, would like to nick a few. If it looks real good I'll switch over to them with the next email - or not!

We're fishing Friday, Saturday and Sunday - March 24, 25, 26th from 7AM to 3PM - 16 People sells out the rail - We may try the macks for a 1/2 hour but otherwise these are tog fishing trips - a variety of crabs provided.

I have beat the drum for the idea of protecting the 'live bottom' - natural reef areas - along our coast for a number of years. I've researched, written and filmed these areas and notified every possible governmental agency ~ I mean, coral is protected by law...Yawn.

Spring is upon us; there's more interest in fishing and writing about it. I spent a good while talking with one fellow about the regions coral beds and how they have remained unprotected. He writes for a weekly and was sure that it would make a heck of a story - I agreed. Then I got a call from his editor - seems protecting seafloor isn't a good idea at all 'cause that would end up bringing the dreaded MPA to our region - the evil greenys will make it happen. An MPA is a Marine Protected Area. Some hold that any MPA will close fishing to everyone. I don't think this has ever occurred in any MPA but that's what the guy thinks. And, sure as Hoover dam blocks water, that story is dead. What's really needed is a GPA - Gear Protected Area. It's unconscionable to destroy essential fish habitat to gain a day's catch. We have a GPA right in the back bays of OC. About 40% of the bottom is off-limits to hydraulic clam dredging and that protects the submerged aquatic vegetation areas, or SAVs.

Evil greenys - enviros - tree huggers; I wonder what they think of a bunch of folks that love to go fishing and don't mind the signs posted warning anglers not to eat more than 2 meals a year or wear gloves to handle your catch.

Looks to me like a lot of fishers are turning pretty green - I think I'll be a fish hugger with a lean toward consumption. But isn't that a conservationist? Yep - pretty sure it is... I bet we even buy magazines!

Anyway, another writer called, looking for material for his outdoor column and said "...coral? off Ocean City?"

We'll see - I think there's cause for hope if he'll run with the idea - dern sure it would take a lot of juice to pull this guy off a story. His circulation falls right where it could do a lot of good too!

Why bother?

Just as a for instance, long years ago an 8 knot boat took folks twice a day from Indian River to nearshore parts of the Old Grounds. He'd come in when everyone had a bushel of sea bass.

I'm pretty sure that there's a long way to go before that kind of fishing can be replicated with any consistency in the 1/2 day trade.

But it is possible! Fish populations can be rebuilt.

The stories from many decades past are worth looking into - there's a lot of knowledge tied up in the memories of the old salts that still fish today.

Who knows, maybe one day we'll fit that piece into the puzzle.

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservations 410 520 2076
www.morningstarfishing.com

posted by Monty # Thursday, March 23, 2006

Fish Report 3/17/06

Hi All,

Seems like me and the weatherman ain't gettin' on so well. Hmph. He says it's gonna blow and it's beautiful - twice this week! 'Course one day he was right on about a pretty day and I was too busy thinking about paint. Now they're calling for almost a gale of clearing wind (NW) Saturday and then doable, but not fantastic, weather for awhile. OK, we'll try Sunday and Monday, March 19th and 20th and see how that plays. These tog trips are 7AM to 3PM and limited to 16 people. A variety of crabs provided...

Last weekend's fishing was mixed. I'd expect if you asked everyone aboard both days how the fishing was you'd get a range of excellent to rotten! That then, is how the fishing was. At one point Saturday a sharpy was fishing mid-ship stb side and catching every drop. Around him they were just picking one once in a while. Fair's fair though, his Gal had wiped everyone's eye - especially his, in the first drops of the day. Saturday saw some good tag returns too - the rarest of the rare - a tog over 25 inches. The fish was recaptured on the same wreck it was originally released at, as was another 17 1/2 inch recapture. That 25 1/2 inch fish, a female, was retagged and let go again!

On Sunday two fellows that enjoy going quite a bit were aboard; in fact, the big tog recapture was initially one of theirs. Old Man Murphy must have been camped out in one of'ems cooler. One had 'high hook' (most fish caught) and two of the three biggest fish. The other? Well, he didn't get skunked!

Point is, when you're tog fishing the old "Flying Fickle Finger of Fate Award" (from the TV show "Laugh-In" - couple/three/four decades back - my apologies to you youngsters) may be yours to keep for a day. Skill is important, yes - but if it's not your turn...

The pool winner Sunday (also won the reef raffle) was an awesome 27 1/2 inch male just shy of 13lbs. I'd anticipate that the fish would have gone 15+ in a few months; he was lean from the winter.

So, how was the fishing last weekend? Depends who you ask!

Here's the weather link that I use; local marine forecast. Lots of westerlies - should be able to make that work.

http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/fmtbltn.pl?file=forecasts/marine/coastal/an/anz650.txt

The boat has her annual USCG safety inspection on Thursday. I don't try to just pass ~ I try to Wow 'em! As with any inspection though, you don't know 'till it's over. She'll exceed every safety regulation that I can think of!

Have a safe St. Patrick's weekend.

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservations 410 520 2076
www.morningstarfishing.com

posted by Monty # Sunday, March 19, 2006

Morning Star Fish Report

Fish Report 3/29/06

Fish Report 3/26/06

Fish Report 3/23/06

Fish Report 3/17/06

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