Morning Star Fish Report: May 2010

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posted by Monty # Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Fish Report 5/17/10

Near Done Toggin

Ready For Cbass

Jimmy's Reef

Half Managed

Hi All,

I reported last week that we had stuck 40 tags and gotten in early on our Sunday trip. I wish I could have foretold for you Monday & Tuesday's action.. 61 tagged on Monday with just three passengers--in early. Then, on Tuesday & with a slightly more crowded rail, we could have easily been home by 11 after limiting and tagging 42.

Instead we took the opportunity to tag 30 more tog and move them to a brand new artificial reef 4 miles further away, one of the reefs we had put NYCTA units on last year. 'Seeding' as it were.. I suspect those railcars are grown in enough to support a few tog; Give 'em a head start.

And, fair enough, the reef they were taken from we had seeded years ago from another artificial reef..

Will go toggin' again Thursday & Friday -- May 20 & 21st -- if we get any interest....

Then & Finally, on May 22cnd, having served our undue, undeserved, unmerited and wholly unreasonable time in the penalty box for our region's not having participated in the sea bass overfishing that never actually occurred last year but we had to pay penance for nonetheless:

Guvmint's gonna be lettin' us go'a C bassin agin.

Just have a few spots remaining for that first week of season. Lot more openings the second week. Still waiting for some sort of announcement of final regulations on the remainder of the season. Appears as though it's going to be a lot longer than two months as they had first announced. I hope to open the reservation book beyond June in my next email.

I also hope you'll strongly consider a contribution to Jimmy's Reef. My friend died too young. Through his knowledge of boats he was instrumental in saving my business; It's very important to me that we get this one right. An Ocean City Reef Foundation project - Please See http://www.coastalfisherman.net/issues.cfm?issue=869D8348-5056-9F21-090676CDCD5DFD41&story=873D7929-5056-9F21-09B4809FB1C78C94 or the May 12th issue of Coastal Fisherman, Letters to the Editor.

$10 - $20 - More - Thank You!

Incidents such as the death of a young man help set your compass. Still further a recent evening trip with a father and his 5 daughters, youngest 10, laid trivial so many things. We went to scatter his wife's, their mother's, ashes. I did my best to give those girls, especially the little one, a positive memory of a place where dolphin swim off unspoiled beaches.....

But I'm still mad-at & working toward better fisheries management.

This cbass reopening will be watched precisely as the State of Maryland sternly warned us of for our longer flounder season in 2010 - "Don't you dare overfish: We will be watching You."

So too will the fed be watching sea bass.

More focus on numbers that don't fix anything, that don't represent anything real: Tens of thousands of paid hours that focus on cooked-up data sets where, for instance, MD's straw-hats fishing from shore out-fish the party/charter fleet by a super-huge margin; Where Massachusetts private boats caught 150,000 more sea bass last year than normal; Where MD's private boats catch zero tog -completely skunked- in '06 then 63,588 in '07...

I can't absolutely prove those things didn't happen: But they didn't happen.

I am not a fisheries scientist, I am simply a constituent of fisheries science: Boy is it irritating when they're full of stuff. . .

Everyone thinks we'll see slam-dunk great fishing when we start cbassing next Saturday; I hope they're right. In truth, our upcoming year mostly depends on the number of trawl-caught sea bass where our region's fish spend the winter. And, now that some commercial fishers are locked into a set number of pounds that can be caught as assigned by permit, their Catch-Share, I understand that there has been a very real increase in the number of jumbo sea bass landed. You see, cbass are worth much more as they get bigger. There could be a $40,000.00 difference between 10,000 fixed pounds of mediums and jumbos; The fish that were once landed in mixed-grade and then sorted with no fixed poundage have suddenly started to swim in age-specific schools..

Just jumbos..

In reality high grading must be acknowledged and dealt with.

Yes, we could very easily have a poor year of sea bassing if many different ports' commercial effort occurred on our region's stock---if we had the bad luck to be this winter's commercial hot-spot.

The smalls, mediums, even a few larges having drifted off as dead-discard --while jumbos were sold to market-- make a situation where too much pressure regional fishing pressure could and sometimes has occurred become even more risky because of fish size selection.

Some would call the result a down-cycle.

You know, cycle, natural cycles, that's what fish do.

We need regional quotas for sea bass--especially in winter: Habitat fidelity logically demands it. . . .

Speaking of logical demands: The only way this fishery's management can possibly not want/need habitat restoration is if they assume there either never was any sea-floor reef habitat, or hold that none has been disturbed & lost.

I did not invent the concept that seafloor habitat is important. There are works --really thick books-- from around the world that have demonstrated sea floor habitat's importance. Those same books also show in clear, unambiguous language that stern towed commercial fishing gears destroy sea bed habitat.

We've had some of that here.

We will not successfully restore a reef fishery such as sea bass without undertaking reef restoration.

There would be many other species that benefit as well.

Derned if I get it.. Scientists and managers that see nothing artificial in dredging fossilized oyster shell then piling it two feet thick to get an inch of usable habitat object strenuously to rock or concrete 'artificial reef'.. Dang..

Decades turn into centuries. We keep trying the same approach.

Elevated substrate, by whatever means, when succesful in colonizing the desired oysters or coral will be indistinguishable from natural reef in a century or two -- while instantly contributing more than barren seafloor to the region's marine ecology.

Scattering that nearly-sacred, hard-won oyster shell atop artificial substrate will tremendously boost it's value.

Fishers need restored reefs' contributions for fishery restoration. Others might simply enjoy clearer waters and renewed ecosystem services.

Catch restriction is less than half of management.

We have to put the reefs back.

Await natural reef recovery and we will have lost.

Further delay of reef's discovery & management off our coast will result in same.

German torpedoes and sinkings by storm-winds are all that preserved our marine reef fisheries through their darkest days. Now the efforts of some create small, but important, artificial reefs..

Restore the natural footprint and we'll wonder where all the fish, lobster & squid came from.

With renewed habitat's concurrent economic benefit one has to wonder what we're waiting for.

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, May 18, 2010

Fish Report 5/17/10

Near Done Toggin

Ready For Cbass

Jimmy's Reef

Half Managed

Hi All,

I reported last week that we had stuck 40 tags and gotten in early on our Sunday trip. I wish I could have foretold for you Monday & Tuesday's action.. 61 tagged on Monday with just three passengers--in early. Then, on Tuesday & with a slightly more crowded rail, we could have easily been home by 11 after limiting and tagging 42.

Instead we took the opportunity to tag 30 more tog and move them to a brand new artificial reef 4 miles further away, one of the reefs we had put NYCTA units on last year. 'Seeding' as it were.. I suspect those railcars are grown in enough to support a few tog; Give 'em a head start.

And, fair enough, the reef they were taken from we had seeded years ago from another artificial reef..

Will go toggin' again Thursday & Friday -- May 20 & 21st -- if we get any interest....

Then & Finally, on May 22cnd, having served our undue, undeserved, unmerited and wholly unreasonable time in the penalty box for our region's not having participated in the sea bass overfishing that never actually occurred last year but we had to pay penance for nonetheless:

Guvmint's gonna be lettin' us go'a C bassin agin.

Just have a few spots remaining for that first week of season. Lot more openings the second week. Still waiting for some sort of announcement of final regulations on the remainder of the season. Appears as though it's going to be a lot longer than two months as they had first announced. I hope to open the reservation book beyond June in my next email.

I also hope you'll strongly consider a contribution to Jimmy's Reef. My friend died too young. Through his knowledge of boats he was instrumental in saving my business; It's very important to me that we get this one right. An Ocean City Reef Foundation project - Please See http://www.coastalfisherman.net/issues.cfm?issue=869D8348-5056-9F21-090676CDCD5DFD41&story=873D7929-5056-9F21-09B4809FB1C78C94 or the May 12th issue of Coastal Fisherman, Letters to the Editor.

$10 - $20 - More - Thank You!

Incidents such as the death of a young man help set your compass. Still further a recent evening trip with a father and his 5 daughters, youngest 10, laid trivial so many things. We went to scatter his wife's, their mother's, ashes. I did my best to give those girls, especially the little one, a positive memory of a place where dolphin swim off unspoiled beaches.....

But I'm still mad-at & working toward better fisheries management.

This cbass reopening will be watched precisely as the State of Maryland sternly warned us of for our longer flounder season in 2010 - "Don't you dare overfish: We will be watching You."

So too will the fed be watching sea bass.

More focus on numbers that don't fix anything, that don't represent anything real: Tens of thousands of paid hours that focus on cooked-up data sets where, for instance, MD's straw-hats fishing from shore out-fish the party/charter fleet by a super-huge margin; Where Massachusetts private boats caught 150,000 more sea bass last year than normal; Where MD's private boats catch zero tog -completely skunked- in '06 then 63,588 in '07...

I can't absolutely prove those things didn't happen: But they didn't happen.

I am not a fisheries scientist, I am simply a constituent of fisheries science: Boy is it irritating when they're full of stuff. . .

Everyone thinks we'll see slam-dunk great fishing when we start cbassing next Saturday; I hope they're right. In truth, our upcoming year mostly depends on the number of trawl-caught sea bass where our region's fish spend the winter. And, now that some commercial fishers are locked into a set number of pounds that can be caught as assigned by permit, their Catch-Share, I understand that there has been a very real increase in the number of jumbo sea bass landed. You see, cbass are worth much more as they get bigger. There could be a $40,000.00 difference between 10,000 fixed pounds of mediums and jumbos; The fish that were once landed in mixed-grade and then sorted with no fixed poundage have suddenly started to swim in age-specific schools..

Just jumbos..

In reality high grading must be acknowledged and dealt with.

Yes, we could very easily have a poor year of sea bassing if many different ports' commercial effort occurred on our region's stock---if we had the bad luck to be this winter's commercial hot-spot.

The smalls, mediums, even a few larges having drifted off as dead-discard --while jumbos were sold to market-- make a situation where too much pressure regional fishing pressure could and sometimes has occurred become even more risky because of fish size selection.

Some would call the result a down-cycle.

You know, cycle, natural cycles, that's what fish do.

We need regional quotas for sea bass--especially in winter: Habitat fidelity logically demands it. . . .

Speaking of logical demands: The only way this fishery's management can possibly not want/need habitat restoration is if they assume there either never was any sea-floor reef habitat, or hold that none has been disturbed & lost.

I did not invent the concept that seafloor habitat is important. There are works --really thick books-- from around the world that have demonstrated sea floor habitat's importance. Those same books also show in clear, unambiguous language that stern towed commercial fishing gears destroy sea bed habitat.

We've had some of that here.

We will not successfully restore a reef fishery such as sea bass without undertaking reef restoration.

There would be many other species that benefit as well.

Derned if I get it.. Scientists and managers that see nothing artificial in dredging fossilized oyster shell then piling it two feet thick to get an inch of usable habitat object strenuously to rock or concrete 'artificial reef'.. Dang..

Decades turn into centuries. We keep trying the same approach.

Elevated substrate, by whatever means, when succesful in colonizing the desired oysters or coral will be indistinguishable from natural reef in a century or two -- while instantly contributing more than barren seafloor to the region's marine ecology.

Scattering that nearly-sacred, hard-won oyster shell atop artificial substrate will tremendously boost it's value.

Fishers need restored reefs' contributions for fishery restoration. Others might simply enjoy clearer waters and renewed ecosystem services.

Catch restriction is less than half of management.

We have to put the reefs back.

Await natural reef recovery and we will have lost.

Further delay of reef's discovery & management off our coast will result in same.

German torpedoes and sinkings by storm-winds are all that preserved our marine reef fisheries through their darkest days. Now the efforts of some create small, but important, artificial reefs..

Restore the natural footprint and we'll wonder where all the fish, lobster & squid came from.

With renewed habitat's concurrent economic benefit one has to wonder what we're waiting for.

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, May 18, 2010

Fish Report 5/17/10

Near Done Toggin

Ready For Cbass

Jimmy's Reef

Half Managed

Hi All,

I reported last week that we had stuck 40 tags and gotten in early on our Sunday trip. I wish I could have foretold for you Monday & Tuesday's action.. 61 tagged on Monday with just three passengers--in early. Then, on Tuesday & with a slightly more crowded rail, we could have easily been home by 11 after limiting and tagging 42.

Instead we took the opportunity to tag 30 more tog and move them to a brand new artificial reef 4 miles further away, one of the reefs we had put NYCTA units on last year. 'Seeding' as it were.. I suspect those railcars are grown in enough to support a few tog; Give 'em a head start.

And, fair enough, the reef they were taken from we had seeded years ago from another artificial reef..

Will go toggin' again Thursday & Friday -- May 20 & 21st -- if we get any interest....

Then & Finally, on May 22cnd, having served our undue, undeserved, unmerited and wholly unreasonable time in the penalty box for our region's not having participated in the sea bass overfishing that never actually occurred last year but we had to pay penance for nonetheless:

Guvmint's gonna be lettin' us go'a C bassin agin.

Just have a few spots remaining for that first week of season. Lot more openings the second week. Still waiting for some sort of announcement of final regulations on the remainder of the season. Appears as though it's going to be a lot longer than two months as they had first announced. I hope to open the reservation book beyond June in my next email.

I also hope you'll strongly consider a contribution to Jimmy's Reef. My friend died too young. Through his knowledge of boats he was instrumental in saving my business; It's very important to me that we get this one right. An Ocean City Reef Foundation project - Please See http://www.coastalfisherman.net/issues.cfm?issue=869D8348-5056-9F21-090676CDCD5DFD41&story=873D7929-5056-9F21-09B4809FB1C78C94 or the May 12th issue of Coastal Fisherman, Letters to the Editor.

$10 - $20 - More - Thank You!

Incidents such as the death of a young man help set your compass. Still further a recent evening trip with a father and his 5 daughters, youngest 10, laid trivial so many things. We went to scatter his wife's, their mother's, ashes. I did my best to give those girls, especially the little one, a positive memory of a place where dolphin swim off unspoiled beaches.....

But I'm still mad-at & working toward better fisheries management.

This cbass reopening will be watched precisely as the State of Maryland sternly warned us of for our longer flounder season in 2010 - "Don't you dare overfish: We will be watching You."

So too will the fed be watching sea bass.

More focus on numbers that don't fix anything, that don't represent anything real: Tens of thousands of paid hours that focus on cooked-up data sets where, for instance, MD's straw-hats fishing from shore out-fish the party/charter fleet by a super-huge margin; Where Massachusetts private boats caught 150,000 more sea bass last year than normal; Where MD's private boats catch zero tog -completely skunked- in '06 then 63,588 in '07...

I can't absolutely prove those things didn't happen: But they didn't happen.

I am not a fisheries scientist, I am simply a constituent of fisheries science: Boy is it irritating when they're full of stuff. . .

Everyone thinks we'll see slam-dunk great fishing when we start cbassing next Saturday; I hope they're right. In truth, our upcoming year mostly depends on the number of trawl-caught sea bass where our region's fish spend the winter. And, now that some commercial fishers are locked into a set number of pounds that can be caught as assigned by permit, their Catch-Share, I understand that there has been a very real increase in the number of jumbo sea bass landed. You see, cbass are worth much more as they get bigger. There could be a $40,000.00 difference between 10,000 fixed pounds of mediums and jumbos; The fish that were once landed in mixed-grade and then sorted with no fixed poundage have suddenly started to swim in age-specific schools..

Just jumbos..

In reality high grading must be acknowledged and dealt with.

Yes, we could very easily have a poor year of sea bassing if many different ports' commercial effort occurred on our region's stock---if we had the bad luck to be this winter's commercial hot-spot.

The smalls, mediums, even a few larges having drifted off as dead-discard --while jumbos were sold to market-- make a situation where too much pressure regional fishing pressure could and sometimes has occurred become even more risky because of fish size selection.

Some would call the result a down-cycle.

You know, cycle, natural cycles, that's what fish do.

We need regional quotas for sea bass--especially in winter: Habitat fidelity logically demands it. . . .

Speaking of logical demands: The only way this fishery's management can possibly not want/need habitat restoration is if they assume there either never was any sea-floor reef habitat, or hold that none has been disturbed & lost.

I did not invent the concept that seafloor habitat is important. There are works --really thick books-- from around the world that have demonstrated sea floor habitat's importance. Those same books also show in clear, unambiguous language that stern towed commercial fishing gears destroy sea bed habitat.

We've had some of that here.

We will not successfully restore a reef fishery such as sea bass without undertaking reef restoration.

There would be many other species that benefit as well.

Derned if I get it.. Scientists and managers that see nothing artificial in dredging fossilized oyster shell then piling it two feet thick to get an inch of usable habitat object strenuously to rock or concrete 'artificial reef'.. Dang..

Decades turn into centuries. We keep trying the same approach.

Elevated substrate, by whatever means, when succesful in colonizing the desired oysters or coral will be indistinguishable from natural reef in a century or two -- while instantly contributing more than barren seafloor to the region's marine ecology.

Scattering that nearly-sacred, hard-won oyster shell atop artificial substrate will tremendously boost it's value.

Fishers need restored reefs' contributions for fishery restoration. Others might simply enjoy clearer waters and renewed ecosystem services.

Catch restriction is less than half of management.

We have to put the reefs back.

Await natural reef recovery and we will have lost.

Further delay of reef's discovery & management off our coast will result in same.

German torpedoes and sinkings by storm-winds are all that preserved our marine reef fisheries through their darkest days. Now the efforts of some create small, but important, artificial reefs..

Restore the natural footprint and we'll wonder where all the fish, lobster & squid came from.

With renewed habitat's concurrent economic benefit one has to wonder what we're waiting for.

Regards,

Monty

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

posted by Monty # Monday, May 17, 2010

Fish Report 5/9/10

Toggin'

Ought To Be Sea Bassing

Note to Dr. Lubchenco & Mr. Schwaab

Goin fishing every day. On 5/14 we have our last long tog trip. Tog creel lowers to 2 fish on 5/15. Selling May 22cnd onward as sea bass trips. Call 410 520 2076 for availability. Sea bass season is on the verge of being much longer than thought - Stay tuned - Seems some wrote to their Congressmen and Senators - Many Players - Special tip of the hat to Capt. Adam.. If you want to go toggin' see trip particulars below signature.

Hi All,

Nicking away at the days; Dropping down leader sizes, sinker sizes, hook sizes, lighter rods; Throwing most back, keep a few for dinner, tag legal releases: It's fun. It's sport toggin.

Not that all toggin isn't sporty, just that this is a far cry from what we were doing in January and February.

Then in Sunday's 30 knot NW winds we had too much sport. Bagged out & 40 tags -- In early.

Best sort of sport toggin.

Supposed to be different though. Now it's time to make the donuts, Time for making hay while the sun's shining, Time to carry my many sea bass clients to our well managed primary fishery resource that's thriving on all the restored & protected natural coral reef, Time to allow anglers to have that first, Oh-so tasty, spring cbass fish fry..

Mmmmm. Mix Panko bread crumbs and House Autry seafood breader.. some lemon pepper - roll once dry - dip in egg & roll again - Fry Golden - Pow!

Nope.

No donuts.

No hay.

Can't go sea bass fishing just yet.

No habitat in the mid-Atlantic except oysters and SAV; No coral yet.

And the fish are still under emergency closure.

Perfect.

Let me tell you about that emergency sea bass closure.

Dr. Lubchenco & Mr. Schwaab, I know you're busy with the disaster and rightly so, but we have a smaller one here too: You ought to reopen the sea bass fishery at once.

We know from tagging that each region --each area's population of sea bass-- is distinct by its habitat's location: Irrefutable fact.

Along DelMarVa the size limit increase last year caused a huge drop in actual landings: We could not have contributed to any overfishing.

The overfishing, er--alleged overfishing, that caused the closure occurred up north where, owing to its colder waters, the sea bass fishing season is naturally shortest.

A huge and apparently now well-accepted MRFSS catch estimate error occurred in the Massachusetts wave 4 --July & August-- private boat landings. This single faulty catch estimate claims a 1,122.28% catch increase, a year over year jump from 13,000 to 164,000 fish, which, I believe, tripped the emergency regulatory action.

This one error -- in one part of the recreational fishery -- in one state's fishing area -- Closed the whole coast.

When this 'emergency closure' went into effect in October, the area thought to have overfished was finished anyway or nearly so. When sea bass reopen on May 22cnd they'll be about ready to start.

Machiavelli would have blushed in its perfection: The closure that brought many more-southern businesses to their knees barely affected those that are thought to have actually overfished.

Churchill: "However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results."

The population estimate numbers were reexamined by the Science & Statistical Committee in January and the quota revised upward - It's now considered safe to catch twice as many sea bass.

Forecasted recreational catch estimates used to justify the closure last season were wrong: MRFSS estimates now only suggest the need of a 20-some percent reduction instead of a 44% -- This is very far down from estimates that ran as high as 225% early last fall had we kept fishing.

In reality the marine rec-fish catch estimates are so bad we don't really know if Massachusetts usually catches 160 thousand cbass in July & August --that would be about 14,000 anglers averaging 12 fish apiece-- or if these private boat fishers generally catch 5 or 6 thousand -- We don't know.

For anywhere else either.

Drop 10 ice-cream cones near the dog walk and statistically it's safe to eat them..

Fiddle.

Here's what we do know.

Black Sea Bass Are: A species whose population we can't estimate well because it lives on remnant natural and robust man-made reefs that are not suitable for scientific trawl studies; A species for which no Essential Fish Habitat has been found other than in the estuaries where we ALWAYS look for & fund fish habitat; A species for which--like so many others--management has a difficult time estimating even parsec-close to the actual recreational catch; A species for which management has been too busy & underfunded to create effective management strategy from well known behaviors..

A species whose unnecessary closure absolutely crushed small businesses in locales where the fish weren't thought to have been overfished at all.

Dr. Lubchenco, Mr. Schwaab: You should open sea bass immediately.

Then see if anyone on NMFS/NOAA payroll has "In charge of Essential Fish Habitat for sea bass" in their job description. I haven't met them. Would like to.

Then see how much was lost to the States and Fed in tax revenue when sea bass were closed. Compare that to what it would cost to divide up management regions as the fish actually use them -- Create 'Regional' management instead of 'Coastwide' management.

Then --as in sausage making with fresh pig intestine casings-- create policy that insists on many 'sniff checks' before bad data can again bring down an industry.

The closure is now indefensible. Open the fishery.

Regards,

Monty

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

Goin fishing every day. Tog drop to 2 fish on 5/15. On 5/14 we have our last long-tog trip. Selling May 22cnd onward sea bass trips. Call 410 520 2076 for availability.

Boat sells out at 14 for tog trips - Green crabs provided - Leave as scheduled or earlier if all are aboard - PLEASE be a little early so we can leave early - Return as scheduled or a little later - Reservation a must, that phone number in signature - Email does not work for reservations - Call - Leave a good phone number--Cell--in case of cancellation.

Tog Limit is 4 fish @ 14 inches - We encourage the release of all females under 16 (and some way bigger too!!) Fish Pool is decided by length so tagged and released fish count too.

Yes, we have caught some big tog this year and in years past. No, I can not pick what size, if any, are going to bite on any given day -- We are going fishing. Inexperienced tog fishers frequently find this an exasperating sport.. So do the sharpies some days. It's more about presentation than in our other fisheries.

posted by Monty # Sunday, May 09, 2010

Fish Report 5/3/10

Keep On Toggin - Going Long Again

Oily Distraction

MRFSS Numbers Changed

Ocean City Reef Foundation Dinner - Hall's 60th Street Bayside - May 5th - 5 to 8 PM - Raffles - Chinese Auction - Live Auction.. A Good Time.

Hi All,

Still toggin.

Would sure have at least a start on the sea bass were they open. Even seeing some early would-be keepers just 3 miles off the beach; tagging them over 13 inches or so.

Friday we had a few limits of tog and dropped a super-dandy. Could have easily limited all aboard but were releasing the girls best we could.

Saturday's super-long trip was enjoyed by almost all. Three of 7 stops were extra-sweet. Dropped a dandy then too: When you see a rod catch 6-8 & 10 pound tog frequently and then see that same rod with no control on a fish steadily pulling drag -- and it gets off -- I think it's safe to say a big one got away..

Will fish some more: The reservation book is now open for tog trips from Wednesday, May 5th to Friday, May 14th. The Saturday, May 8th trip and Friday, May 14th trips will be from 5:45 to 5:30 for $150.00 -- All the other tog trips are our regular 7am to 3 pm days for $100.00 -- Tog regs change to summer season on May 15th.

I also have the book open for sea bass trips from May 22cnd to the end of June.

If You Want To Go See Trip Particulars Below Signature.....

Production: It certainly appears that Friday evening, likely just before dark & on the very edge of this full moon, many of our region's tog spawned. There was a 40 to 1 female tog ratio on Friday; each one obviously swollen with roe. On Saturday the boys bit; What few females we caught Saturday were roe-depleted.

These fish spawned early, as early as I've seen, and will spawn several more times before mid-summer.

Fishing much closer to OC Sunday on fish that hadn't really come out of the winter doldrums until late this year, we saw no evidence that they had just spawned.. Certainly on the next moon -- late May; if in fact moon phase acts as a trigger.

While I believe that black sea bass are seafloor nesters, I have witnessed tog spawning very near the surface of the water: Female in front, males behind - all swimming rapidly. It's called broadcast spawning, you may have seen it in other reef species on the TV nature shows; it leaves the eggs that become fertilized very much a part of the plankton, unguarded--drifting in early development.

A scientist I trust, Richard Wong with the MAFMC, found the next stage of a tog's life in the macro-algaes of our bays--the 'sea lettuce' and various 'sea weeds' that some curse when it fouls their fishing line. These young fish feed & hide from predators in the growth - perfect chameleons; brown in brown algae, green in green algae.

Now, some hold that this production ---And it is right here, this egg fertilization and juvenile survival: This is fishery production. It is crucial to what we catch in the following years and decades: Some, many even, believe that all our tautog and sea bass production occurs in the estuaries.

I very much believe that this is not the case. I believe we remain ignorant of much of our region's production. I believe that the long-held view that the mid-Atlantic has a "continental slope comprised of sand and mud with a few ship-wrecks" theory has so distorted scientific thought that no one has looked for this type of early production in what has been called the "non-habitat forming corals.."

If Essential Fish Habitat policy writers are to stand upon the shoulders of giants, it would be helpful to know if these earlier works were actually correct.......

Our new administrators of NOAA & NMFS now find themselves staring at what may become--if no solution is soon found--the world's largest marine oil spill. I suspect it will distract them, at least for a while, from the greatest ever regulatory disaster in the fisheries; these many closures associated with the MRFSS recreational catch estimates & the assumption that we have sound enough data with which to create the firmest of regulation.

No figment of data's imagination; There is now a 10 day emergency closure--not just of one species but for all fisheries, declared in parts of the Gulf.

Wow.

I hope those fishers don't get it like the Prince William Sound guys did: 2 decades of lawsuits and high expectations came to nothing - or nearly so.

Hope they get that oil spill buttoned up with the least ecological & economic impact possible.

And I hope the federal response is a pleasant footnote in the careers of those now in charge..

BP and the government are likely exploring every possible method of controlling and absorbing the oil -- perhaps even with millions of the 2 foot square oilsorbs we all use in our engine rooms. I am sure many, even all, of the fishers & their families -- side by side with the environmental community -- would jump at the chance to make booms, to deploy booms; to protect their livelihood and most sensitive habitats..

Crisis can and does create opportunity for change. I hope they resolve the oil spill soon............

I have often quoted the MRFSS statistic for Maryland's party/charter 2009 annual tautog catch of eleven fish. It was so far wrong that no one could have disputed the assertion that it was incorrect.

Now MRFSS has changed it.

When you go to the data's web site there is a disclaimer button which you must click to access the data: A "You understand that we can change statistics before they become final" button.

I wish it said "... we can keep changing all these statistics until they're sorta close."

Still, there was change: Now our official party/charter estimate is no longer 11 tog, it's 2,216 tog caught in 2009.

A much better estimate.

On discovering this change I experienced a surge of hope; Went and checked the Massachusetts private boat landings estimates for sea bass last July & August..

..Rats. Still at 163,000 some thousand---When the best year previously was around 13,000.

Just like that 11 fish tog estimate, it's an error.. one that has cost fishers real money already and started costing a lot more just a few days ago.

I have often sold-out many a weekday in May for sea bass...

Hope whoever changed Maryland's tog estimate casts a similar eye at that MA sea bass data -- Bet just that one error would make the whole cbass closure issue evaporate..

Then we could go back to worrying about the weather & the bite.

And try to rebuild the economic destruction wrought of this ongoing emergency closure.

Meanwhile, we'll keep toggin.

Regards,

Monty

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

Boat sells out at 14 for tog trips - Green crabs provided - Leave as scheduled or earlier if all are aboard - PLEASE be a little early so we can leave early - Return as scheduled or a little later - Reservation a must, that phone number in signature - Email does not work for reservations - Call - Leave a good phone number--Cell--in case of cancellation.

Tog Limit is 4 fish @ 14 inches - We encourage the release of all females under 16 (and some way bigger too!!) Fish Pool is decided by length so tagged and released fish count too.

Yes, we have caught some big tog this year and in years past. No, I can not pick what size, if any, are going to bite on any given day -- We are going fishing. Inexperienced tog fishers frequently find this an exasperating sport.. So do the sharpies some days. It's more about presentation than in our other fisheries.

posted by Monty # Monday, May 03, 2010

Morning Star Fish Report

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