Morning Star Fish Report: September 2009

Fish Report 9/30/09

Cbass biting

Cbass closed - soon

Hi All,

Not sure if its Monday midnight or Sunday midnight, but black sea bass are then closed for 180 days north of Cape Hatteras.

This situation is fouled up beyond all repair.

Not a State decree, its Federal.

That they might find courage to exercise their duty to find, protect and enhance essential fish habitat rather than iron-fist those who have obeyed their regulations.

A population of fish does not fall from the sky, it is a product of its environment; reef in this case.

Fascinating that people paid very well to manage this fishery know nothing of that environment.

Yet.

When cbass close I will - must - turn to tautog fishing.

I fully expect that saving sea bass that don't need saving will create a situation where tog desperately need saving. Might already.

More on all of this later.

Couple days of cbass left..

Weeding smalls, triggers - best I can do. Actually, its often quite good if you're not set on a limit.

Relic of another time; watch for my handmade gunning decoys on eBay soon.

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

posted by Monty # Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Fish Report 9/23/09

Best CBass This Year

Road Crew

Hi All,

Fishing has been fairly kind. Though no more limits of cbass and still an incredible amount of throwbacks; its far and away better than we've had.

Some croakers too - just not consistent. Bigger ones have not settled.

Tailor blues, a few triggers, croakers, and cbass bend a pole; make a day - fish fry too.

Many fishers are deeply concerned with upcoming regulations. They ought to be. MRFSS data, though deeply and provably flawed, remains firmly in control of recreational fishers' fate. This 'best science available' has enough shortcomings that in no other circumstance would these statistics be acceptable as 'science'.

Late, but to the rescue, the Marine Recreational Information Program (MRIP, which fulfills the federal fishing license requirement) begins next year.

A fishing license gives an actual head-count to managers of the musket battalions in this modern artillery and air war. We're still going to have to deal with estimates, but they ought to be a lot smoother.

Smoother implies less friction. Less friction works better.

Work is what we need to do.

Right now our fisheries are like a huge stretch of super-highway badly in need of repair.

We've limited the trucks, buses, cars, motorcycles and pedestrians that can get on through catch restriction. We'll soon have MRIP crews counting all who enter so as to know their exact number. Some lanes are frequently inaccessible, backing-up traffic in others - as tautog are now getting pounded in our back-bays while flounder are closed. Scientists examine impassable--unproductive--sections of road and study diseases..

Study, study, study..

When traffic slows too much protests fill the phone lines, inboxes & hallways.

Many have long since given up and now use other routes - for their recreation.

Yet few are troubled that road-crews not only remain idle, they haven't been staffed.

We need to make repairs. Big repairs.

Yet we're all fussing over numbers.

Loss of hard-bottom in the estuaries & ocean negatively effects water quality, prey abundance, and has numerous direct effects on habitat dependant species. It can be fixed.

Striped bass infected with a fatal disease...

Lots of examples, hundreds: Fish live year-round, not just in summer. The whole system has to work or fisheries production falls-off.

Lost production always means more catch restriction.

Always.

I wrote in 2004/5 that numbers of small fall sea bass were frighteningly down; that trouble loomed. Even with the 9/10 inch limit regulations in the late-2000's it wasn't uncommon for high-angler to have a hundred plus cbass on a fall day. In the bitter-hard summers of unregulated fishing we'd catch 150/200 a man come fall.

Yet in the height of regulation, wasn't happening - less production.

In the last several years I wrote that the size of spawning males was decreasing - that I anticipated an upswing in production because so many more small cbass were entering the spawning stock.

Its going on now - right back where we were in 1997 or so.

Wonderful restart.

Croakers likewise - scadjillions of small croakers and weakfish inshore - whyszat!

We need to find out why and keep doing it.

Would that we could reduce friction within fisheries by declaring a truce while MRIP gets ramped-up.

Treaty signed by all parties - simple regional recreational regulations in place for several years.

Meanwhile, those who suddenly found themselves with less work could roll their sleeves up and man the repair crew.

All that brain-power unleashed with a new directive..

Just might find that simple recreational regulations were all that were ever needed.

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

posted by Monty # Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Fish Report 9/17/09

A Limit of Cbass

Hi-Def U/W Video - Link Below

No Statistics - Promise!

Hi All,

I last wrote that sea bass had gone off the 'up in the water' plankton/krill feed - they were biting.

Still are.

Or were..

Had a guy limit out on Wednesday. No rookie; Arrie worked mighty hard to bag 'em up - kept 1 in 7 or 8..

I do not anticipate that limits will be ordinary. Looks like one could count on a fish fry though.

Predicting anything in fishing is dangerous. Still, all those cbass I watched on the depth sounder this summer...

Lot of weeding through regulatory smalls required. That is, with the new 12 1/2 inch size limit and our region's spawning production ramping back up - lot of acorns in with the oaks!

It can be painful to throw back cbass fattened up from a summer season of feeding.

Man are they plump.

Had our first victim of the flounder closure too. Fellow I call 'Uncle John' caught one 24 inches on clam.. tagged it.

When the weather settles we'll have to wipe a tear or two as they go back by the rail in numbers.

Going to get some good tag data if that's a saving grace.

Been writing in opposition to the statistics that supported closures over the last few emails.

A rest...

Back in August I invited scientists on a drop-video 'research trip' to view natural, not-so-deep coral reefs in the region. After a couple false starts it came together. Thirteen hours; the day was likely the calmest of the year..

It was my sincere pleasure to also have Nick Caloyianis and Clarita Berger along on that trip.

Not too often you meet a couple that have photographed sharks under 10 feet of ice - filmed feeding orcas - great whites..

Oh no, I'll stay in the boat please!

They have decades of underwater video experience with National Geographic, Discovery Channel, recently an excellent resource guide with Dr. Greg Skomal, "The Shark Handbook" & produced many of their own works.

Awe inspiring stuff - really.

They shared a short clip of their work that day. Starts with stills taken inshore and transitions to video offshore.

When you see the triggerfish pic look at the orange sea whip, a soft coral, in the foreground. See any rock there?

We have no idea what the mid-Atlantic's seafloor looked like 70 years ago..

Whether your interest is: fishery management, marine ecological services restoration, modeling, geology, or simply conservation-based consumptive use with a graphite rod you'll find food for thought. In 2009 we still haven't "found" these habitat remnants yet.

Do see a day though.

Thanks to Larry at Coastal Fisherman for hosting it on his site. If the link doesn't work, google Coastal Fisherman and look under 'viewer videos'. There will soon be a link to it on my site as well.

http://www.coastalfisherman.net/video.cfm?v=C818ADC7-3048-71C2-171417F52AC98EBB

Bit of wind coming - ought to get the 18th in.

Fishing 7 days or whenever weather permits!

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

posted by Monty # Thursday, September 17, 2009

Fish Report 9/13/09
Flounder Go Out With a Fizzle

Sea Bass Bite - Weeding

Pandas

Hi All,

The ocean settled well after that NE wind all last week. Average sea height 20 feet at 2AM Friday morning - was a nice day Saturday.

Amazing.

Not too surprising was the flounder's response to all the foul weather. Well, I don't know their 'response' precisely - but they sure didn't bite!

Nicked a few flatties but changed focus to sea bass. They were biting.

Biting just as well as an old-time November pull, only now we have 2009 regulations. A lot had to go back.

I suppose krill are too camouflaged in the now-very dirty water for sea bass to feed on. Back to the bottom; best bite I've seen since May.

Weeding in September? That's what I call it when you catch a lot of smalls to every keeper - usually late October through November.

One poor guy had to bear his buddies catching a nice keeper here and there while he worked defense -- doing his best to keep the smalls busy & away from their hooks. Forty seven shorts in a row.. His line breaks with a 3 pounder at the rail. He did come back - put some in the box.

That's sorta like 10 weather cancelations in 14 days.

Ouch.

Ocean's completely jumbled up: sand sharks, small croakers, small sea trout, small blues - fish I would expect to see just off the beach were found offshore in 100+ feet of water.

I hope to find croakers settled by size shortly. Fish like Cathy's 18 incher Sunday would be nice.

I will focus mostly on cbass through at least October, but will mix it up with croaker if worthy.

I've also saved a lot of tags for the inevitable fluke that we'll have to release now that they're closed..

MRFSS, the marine recreational fisheries statistic survey, has become not only the single greatest threat to my and other recreational fisher's livelihood - it remains the foremost distraction to real fisheries restoration.

Slaying the beast is MRIP - the new federal fishing license that will allow the collection of much better data. Designers say the acronym means Marine Recreational Information Program. I'm thinking it really means Mrfss Rest In Peace.

Would that it might..

I/we can never prove there's been an overestimation. There's always a data-poor situation in which 'there could have been more fishers' -trained killers at that- who might have caught the rest of the estimate. That's why there needs to be a license - to count all participants.

Strikes me that if something's not falsifiable - its not scientific.

There's a big divide between the politics of fishery management and fisheries science. In an attempt to close that divide managers have had to use MRFSS statistics like hard data because that's all there is - there is no other source.

Except what fishers tell them.

Though we can never prove they have overestimated; time after time it can be proved that MRFSS has under-estimated.

No one can disprove -falsify- a fishing overestimate. Dern sure we can falsify some underestimates.

Should be a stake in Dracula's heart - scientifically dead. Won't be.

As I pointed out last week, on a one day tagging trip in 2002 with National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) - Maryland DNR Fisheries & Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council staff (MAFMC) there were 1,150 BSB tagged. We boxed-up a bunch for dinner too.

Now MRFSS has the entirety of Maryland's 2009 recreational cbass catch --all charter, party & private boats --everyone-- forecasted at 1,192 fish.

Tagged 1,150 in one day, on one boat - The whole fleet killed 1,192 in a year.

That 2009 data point is from the very set that almost closed the whole coast's scup, sea bass & fluke fishing.

If everyone in fisheries, people that would never question the validity of the day's tagging data, believed this year's estimate I'd hope for a serious investigation into the crash of sea bass.

Instead, I doubt seriously that MDDNR Fisheries, MAFMC, ASMFC, NOAA, NMFS, nor anyone else has faith in that 2009 estimate at all - not a soul.

Since they can not believe that number, management then ought to gather an estimate that's more realistic. They would have to turn to fishers for that.

Perhaps while they're at it --redoing a MRFSS estimate-- they, using reasonable proofs that participants offer, may want to change some overestimates that we fishers don't believe..

In a few short years MRIP will have fully replaced MRFSS. Catch estimates will be much firmer.

As simply as Dr. Semmelweis' hand washing after autopsy prevented many women's birthing deaths -- allowing common sense evaluation of catch estimates could save this industry...

And turn our attentions back to the real problem at hand - fisheries restoration.

Chinese panda restoration focused on stock replenishment - making more bears. Zoos must now be found for newborns because there's not enough wild habitat.

Shall we house our wild stocks in aquariums until we resolve habitat & prey issues?

There is a tremendous amount of discovery left to do. Work that will not even get started while opponents are hunkered in the trenches. A very simple set of creel limits set coastwide --with some wiggle room-- could be made while MRIP comes alive.

I know what overfishing looked like. This ain't it.

Our focus must broaden in order to achieve our goals.

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

posted by Monty # Sunday, September 13, 2009

Fish Report 9/8/09

Of Sea Bass & Fluke

Call For Witnesses

Hi All,

Labor day weekend wasn't too bad. Got out - caught some dinner. For most anyway..

Sea bass bit a lot better Saturday. Some pretty fish. Had a few shots of mahi-mahi Sunday - the first, and with this low slowly crawling up the coast, likely only dorado this year.

('Ol Murphy, feel free to smack down that prediction..)

Tried the croakers for a few minutes on Saturday - very small - left 'em.

Not quite a dozen keeper flounder each day - more throwbacks.

Because of last year's MRFSS catch estimates, this coming Sunday is 'it' for our flounder fishing. Some clients will be targeting fluke, others bass; its all structure fishing.

There is a tendency on holidays to see a customer or two with self-inflicted sea sickness, the kind they'd have suffered on land too - only hangovers are way worse at sea.

Lot of different ways to make a vacation memory..

Twelve and a half inches -up a half- that's been the cbass size limit this year. There have been many days when that extra 1/2 inch caused a lot less stink in our skillets.

In 2001 we had the first creel limit, 25 fish, and an 11 inch minimum. Prior to that there was never a number limit on how many sea bass you could keep.

Man did we pound on them. I could clearly see where regulation was going to make fish flourish - I thought.

In 2002 it was 25 again (and has remained so) with an 11 1/2 inch limit.

I fondly recall the federal tagging trip in September of that year. About 25 volunteer anglers & a similar number of biologists and MAFMC staff went out on the Nichol's sleek Lydia that I ran for 12 years, the OC Princess.

A few of these biologists and managers have retired, most are still in the fisheries business - many have 'climbed the ladder'. Included were some of the east coast's best & brightest.

We put in a very long day, tagging in 5 different locations. If memory serves me, we tagged 1,150 fish that day; quitting only after one of my all-time favorite biologists threw his clipboard down in surrender.

Then the volunteer anglers bagged up some limits to take home.

It was a marathon.

That many fish in one day.. But in those days I often carried 85-90 anglers - the boat's creel limit would have been 2,250 fish..

One day - one Maryland boat - over 2,000 legal fish. Not terribly uncommon.

Sometimes in the fall we'd go catch a limit of croakers after limiting on cbass.

Now, the fishing has slacked off quite a bit, no doubt. Still, those biologists that day saw what they saw & recorded every single tag.

I have witnesses.

I think the the data acquired by MRFSS interviewers is nearly pristine. I heartily encourage cooperation with field interviewers. It's what happens to the data in the upper stories of some office building that causes heartburn - and in the manner used by managers that is wholly inconsistent with good governance.

I hold that this 'intercept' data --what actually got counted in a cooler - what really existed-- will prove invaluable when there is broad, reliable fishing effort data to work with, likely MRIP's. They'll be able to back-track with it; figure out what really got caught back in '08 or '98 - maybe even '88.

Scorn, contempt, derision, condescension - Those words neatly sum up what I heard on that conference call a week ago when the marine recreational fisheries statistics survey --the 'MRFSS Emergency'-- caused regulators to consider shutting down the coast's cbass, scup & fluke fisheries: "We all know how anglers feel about MRFSS statistics."

You had to hear the inflection - point being made was, 'Yeah, yeah, MRFSS. This discussion is a total waste of time. We need to get back to work.'

Try as I might, it can not be well-enough proven that a catch estimate is too high. There's always the argument that other boats & other fishers spanked 'em leading to higher numbers.

This like the new Delta Force/Green Beret/SEAL Team shore-fishers sneaking about coastal Maryland - these folks steal into the night like ninjas after racking-up huge catches that never get heard about in the grapevine. Crazy uncle MRFSS hears their voices though..

Well.. You can't push on a string. The 'spirit voices' say they caught a lot - we say we caught a lot less - that leaves room for more catch - guvmint knows where they'll side.

But this is statistics: What if you have seriously well credentialed witnesses that can look at a MRFSS number and know that they're looking at a ridiculously low number. What if some digging was done and many more instances were found among the states?

Is the statistically purifying correction needed then transferable as a plus/minus percentage to other MRFSS numbers? Is it not then true that not only are there are exceedingly low catch estimate numbers - but enormously high ones as well?

Worse still is that these statistical spreads not only sometimes arrive on managers desks bad - they then have to use a single, precise center-point from this foul data.

An example of a typical MRFSS spread has NY's center-point landings at 12,391 sea bass in 1998. Considering the percentage of standard error (PSE) of 36.3 - then the catch is as high as 16,889 cbass, or as low as 7,893. So far as the statistician is concerned - that is their precise answer to managers' query of how many fish were caught. The whole and complete answer includes PSE - the spread.

From Wikipedia: The larger the margin of error, the less faith one should have that the poll's reported results are close to the "true" figures...

Read the Wikipedia entry on 'percentage standard error' - it wasn't written by a fisherman.

Therein lies the trouble. We require managers to use the center-point of a statistical spread - a spread often so large that pollsters would not use the data at all.

To wit: MRFSS has projected all of Maryland's party-boat, charter and recreational effort at 1192 sea bass for the year 2009.

That's just 42 more fish than biologists tagged with me in one day back in '02.

One boat - one day.

This catch number, 1192, is directly from the data that almost closed us down along the whole coast.

Yeah, cbass fishing wasn't great this year, but if managers won't argue the validity of these types of errors - that's scary.

The witnesses need to come forward.

For many party/charters along the mid-Atlantic dark days loom if these extremely loose figures continue to get used as hard data.

Worse still, its NOT fixing the fishery.

Left with the system in place, our creel limit could be astonishingly low next year, the size limit higher than ever, a season closure that would prevent any liquidity within the industry, and a mighty brawl as participants try to get the closure best suited to their region's sea bass -- we still manage them under a one set of regulations fits all "coastwide" plan.

We had better fishing with a 9 inch limit and no creel. We had stupendously better fishing when a creel limit was first introduced.

With tighter catch controls than ever; we now have worse fishing than before official management began.

Its not working - something's wrong.

Management that examines and then regulates via sub-stock's habitat boundaries can succeed where catch restriction alone has failed.

Management that acts to preserve and enhance the places where cbass spawn & feed will do better still.

Management that takes a hard look at varying sizes of the spawning stock in response to fishing pressure, and understands the potential for reduced production in a climax population, could create a fishery better than we've ever known.

There's where we want to go.

It starts by managers/regulators ceasing to use MRFSS in the same manner.

Reasonable limits set regionally are next.

Habitat protections & enhancements; the recognition of their production values follow.

Then maximizing that production via spawning stock manipulation - determining how to get the most fertilized eggs.

I closed my recent letter to Dr Lubchenco with: I believe that fisheries management can restore our fisheries. Using habitat technologies & protections, I believe that some species can be made more abundant than ever before.

I also believe that we are not going to succeed in the least with the present strategy.

Its all doable.

Regards,

Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

posted by Monty # Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Fish Report 9/7/09