Morning Star Fish Report

Atlantic - NOAA Reopens Scoping on Striped Bass Fishing in the EEZ; Public Invited to Comment

NOAA Fisheries Service is seeking additional public comments on a preliminary draft analysis document containing Federal management options to open the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to striped bass fishing, as recommended by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC). The stock of Atlantic striped bass, once overfished, was declared fully rebuilt in 1995. New regulations were later established to allow limited fishing in state waters. Under the current closure of the EEZ-- the zone of federal waters that extends from 3 to 200 miles offshore-- any striped bass caught there must be discarded. The fish are often dead when thrown back. Reopening the EEZ could reduce waste by allowing some of the discarded catches of striped bass to be landed and counted toward quotas. NOAA first announced that it was considering proposed rulemaking to reopen striped bass harvest in the EEZ during 2003. After reviewing comments from the public, NOAA decided to further evaluate the potential impacts of this proposal. Public scoping meetings were held in nine Atlantic coast states. In 2004, the ASMFC Striped Bass Technical Committee prepared a new stock assessment. However, members of the Technical Committee did not feel the assessment was an accurate representation of stock status. Given the uncertainty, NOAA decided to delay the analysis of new management options until the 2005 stock assessment became available. Due to the significant time that has passed since the initial scoping hearings in 2003, together with widespread public interest in this matter, NOAA Fisheries is now seeking additional public comments on management options that could open the EEZ to the harvest of Atlantic striped bass. Comments may be sent to: Striped-Bass.Comments@noaa.gov. Please include the following in the subject line: Striped Bass Scoping. The deadline for public comments is May 24, 2006. The preliminary draft analysis document and other background materials are available online. Please contact Tom.Meyer@noaa.gov with any questions.

Fish Report 5/4/06

Cbass limits

Fossil oyster shell dredging below

 

Hi All,

Always a cheerful thing - to have someone declare the first cbass limit of the year.  Three limits yesterday, seven or eight today; most everyone else just shy. Nice.

It wasn't a super-slam-crush kind of bite ~ just picking along. Box one, throw one back: Box a double, catch three throwback singles. Still, they added up.

Limits are a curious thing. For some 'the limit' - catching it - defines whether a day a has been successful. Too bad really, but it serves as a useful barometer of how trips are going.

It can also serve as an indicator of how a particular angler's luck is going on a given day. Lets say the first two anglers to bag out today had a buddy who was way - way - over on the left side of the curve - ahh - despite great skill, just not hitting on all eight. Perhaps his friends would use the measurement of 'limits' in order to engage in some 'raillery' ~ a little friendly joshing. The dictionary definition is "good-humored teasing" but it doesn't specify how long it lasts. In this case I have to wonder - months or years...

You know, it might be that we just had the two best days of the year. Or, it might be that this is the very beginning of a great sea bass season - time will tell. 

Sailing daily...

Regards,

Monty

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

 

 

The Chesapeake Oyster Fishery:

Sad to say, but I have seen it's management held up for review in several articles and books as 'what not to do' in fisheries management.

True.

With a few centuries effort, the oyster has gone from a navigational problem and economic driver to a fishery so depleted that it is used as a study.

A few years ago I was at a meeting where a life-long commercial fisherman probed the numbers aloud. In that year Maryland had spent 16 million on 'oyster replenishment' and by years end the commercial yield was 18 million dollars. He wondered if it was the most heavily subsidized fishery in the world.

We should all wonder about that.

Now there is interest in making the subsidy even greater by once again funding the removal of ancient fossilized reef bottom from one place and using it as bedding in another. This so that oyster dredges can have somewhere to catch the oysters grown in a Maryland hatchery.

And, it's all part of the 'oyster recovery program'.

It would be like dynamiting the few remaining corals on the coast and spreading them thin so the trawlers could catch more flounder - flounder that the state had raised in a hatchery.

Great Scott.

It's just a thought, but every day barges loaded with rocks of every shape and size travel the length of the Chesapeake. I bet oysters would take to 'em if we spilled a few. The world's greatest estuary is in perfect position to use the most durable and scientifically unassailable artificial reef material. Dredge operators wouldn't like that though - nope, wouldn't care for that idea at all.

Depends on which definition of 'recovery' you pick I suppose.

A chance to voice your opinion on the matter can be found at http://www.ccamd.org/Homepage/Alerts/AA_2006May03_Oysters.htm

 

Fish Report 5/4/06

Fish Report 5/1/06

Ocean City Reef Foundation Dinner ~ Wednesday, May 3rd ~ Hall's Restaurant 60th Street Bayside ~ Tickets $15 ~ All you'd care to eat plus Auctions and Raffles.

Hi Folks,
I was just kidding! Really Mr. Murphy, when I said I'd catch a limit of cbass before May 1st, I didn't mean to insult you! Will you ease up on the wind now??? Please!
Murphy's Law - It may have begun as a description of why luck is often sour, but it's turning into deification...
Well, we did sneak in a couple days before this "dry nor'easter" moved in. Wednesday's start had me thinking that we might just see that limit of bass - didn't happen, but a couple fellows had close to 10 cbass; some pretty ones too. We kept more bass than tog, but the tog were biting quite well - t'was easy to get distracted from bassing. Certainly a good sign of the 'transition' from tog fishing.
Forecasted to start blowing Thursday: the wind held off 'till almost midnight. 'The calm before the storm' often occurs - it's a beautiful thing. Had a sold out rail too ~ err, a piece of a rail ~ umm ~ Well, almost had the stern sold out anyway!
Let's just say it was a light crowd. "Damn the torpedoes - Full speed ahead!" (At $2.70 a gallon Admiral Farragut's famous cry might have been "Damn the Torpedoes - Give 'er half throttle"...) But anyway, we had paddled on offshore a good bit when I came across a temperature break. Down 3 degrees - Rats! Bass don't care for a sudden temperature drop, especially this time of year. Although we did catch a few good ones; it was not the action I had come for. Still, we took some limits of tog - only 2 of the fish were females - and tagged 64 more up to 24+ inches. It's going to be an early spawn for tog; they're loaded with roe. We also had the first few blues.
Perhaps the best 'bad day' of bass fishing I've ever had ~ 'Cept some of those 'bass turned flounder' trips last summer!
Hard to say what will happen after this blow. I hope the sea bass come on.
We'll be sailing daily - weather permitting!
Had a fellow email a few weeks back - a welding teacher. No stone unturned: I asked if the students might want to make some reef units. Two weeks later 5 heavy steel reef units were sitting on the Reef Foundation's barge waiting for deployment. There's talk of many more to come. Stranger still, now I hear that a whole welding class is going fishing - free! Too many for my rig; Capt. Victor offered me an afternoon charter on his Ocean Princess at cost. Y'all keep playing that raffle - we do good stuff with it!
As I write, NE winds are pushing 30 knots - seas are 10+ feet with a brutally short 6 second period ~ it's rough! For this, the reef units that the kids built are awesome - perfect for shallow water sites where the wave action is most ferocious. Along with the usual suspects -tog and cbass- the tops of shoals are where spadefish, amberjack, triggerfish and other southern species can be found - cobia too.
Seeing a school of huge amberjack swimming around structure is something you'll not soon forget, but what really has my interest with the 'hilltops' is the loss of this region's scup (porgy) fishery. Several times I've seen schools of small scup on the video camera over shallow artificial reef. Habitat fidelity remains to be learned; special tagging equipment for these small porgies is on it's way from Woods Hole...
Near as I can tell, the last good porgy fishing in this region occurred in the early 70's. From the time when the inlet was cut in 1933 there were many years, judging from tales of those who fished in that era, that porgies made up 1/2 - maybe more - of Ocean City's recreational bottom fishing landings.
Imagine, if you will, 30 to 40 boats anchored on Fenwick Shoal (4NM off the MD/DE line) where there are several pieces of wreckage. At most, 3 or 4 boats could have been actually over the debris ~ the others were tied off to each other's stern cleats; catching fish over bare sand...
There were no USCG regulations on how many customers a boat could carry. I've heard several tales about charter boat passengers fishing out of the cabin windows! And catching! Charter boats would do 20 plus porgy trips before the marlin fishing started.
Sea bass were a bonus, as were sea trout. They'd catch trout by simply drifting a piece of cut squid without a weight.
Fishing solely for sea bass would begin later in the summer. According to numerous sources, most of that fishing occurred 7 - 8 miles out on the 'Bass Grounds'. Interestingly, it wasn't until December 30, 1958 that the first wreck occurred in the area. That unfortunate accident was the grounding of the "African Queen". In heavy weather she struck the Bass Grounds shoal and broke in two. Although the actual wreck drifted some 8 miles to the south, pieces of debris from the initial grounding are still fished today. (Last week!)
That's odd. Thousand upon thousands of successful sea bass fishing trips occurred in an area with no wrecks.
Ah well, there are still a few remnants of natural reef there. It's too bad that there were so many surf clams in and around it. A prime example of habitat loss caused by fishing...
Did I mention that the 1958 marlin tournament winner caught his whites there, right on the inside break?
Yes, I think artificial reef building's a good thing. And, I don't think it's all about the bass and the tog either. There's lots more to do, so buy a few friends dinner at the Reef Foundation dinner or sponsor the OCRF with a donation - http://www.ocreeffoundation.com/main.html
And, no worries, if you don't often fish this region, press for reefs where you do go. Yes, I know, every coastal state from New York to Texas funds a marine reef building program -Maryland doesn't- but, how much more reef would there be if, say, half of the Jersey and NY boats did a 50/50 raffle everyday for reef building...
I can't wait to go porgy fishing.
Regards,
Monty

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