Sunday, September 12, 2010

Fish Report 9/12/10

Fish Report 9/12/10
Cbass Bite
Bucket List
A Revealing Chart
32 Hour Trip - Maybe
 
Hi All,
The sea bass bit better Friday and Saturday than all summer.
Earl must have stirred instinct. Whether hurricane's swell or current-forced dip in water temp; The reef's inhabitants are putting on fat. That doesn't mean they got bigger, just bit better.
Certainly were some nice fish in with the throwbacks. Nice catches, but no limits.
Even had 'One Stop Shopping' Friday; Where we set the port anchor one time all day. Kites up too. Catch a hundred-plus pound hammerhead; One clean release for 3 run-offs.
And Saturday, for the first time in over twenty years, I was able to quickly troll a few circles and catch everyone who wanted a little tunny.
Fun, fast . . . .
We were the beneficiaries of excellent weather forecasting for that 18 hour trip. Beat up for a bit going out--as forecasted, Then calm getting calmer: So calm we couldn't fly a kite. Then fair wind home--as forecasted.
Fellows fishing out-front thought we were getting pummeled.
Nope. Beautiful.
 
6:21, Near sunrise, first strike since leaving the dock at 2:15 AM: Ben's wahoo.
Curiously, The rod that got bit was a gift from a fellow that used to run his sport-boat from New Jersey to the Jackspot in its billfishing heyday; The reel was from a scuba diver friend--a recovery, & The lure from a retired marlin fisher turned flounder skipper..
"Used to catch a lot of wahoo on this one."
Still works.
 
Trolling while looking for bottom, new bottom -- new reef or wreck..
Wander offshore; This spot looks good. First test of our new deep-water anchoring system: Spot-on.
It's quiet on the rail, electrically quiet, mechanically quiet:
But not people quiet.
"That's a big tilefish!"
"Nice Bass!" 
"Net!"
"Ah man, all that winding for a pair of throw-backs.."
There's no push-button reeling, No noisesome buzz & whir, No fancy apparatus that does everything but take the fish off, No "I only seek meat" mentality; Just old-fashioned turn-the-handle reeling: Angler versus fish: And that fish is way the heck down there.. 
Quiet.
 
I'm sure that the electric reel's buzz and commotion is sweet music to some; There's plenty of boats that encourage their use -- even rent them.
I'll go the other way. . . . .
 
Blueline tile is some fine-eating fish.
Sea bass caught are often dandies.
Some smalls too though. Very small. Born this year small.
Awful long way from an estuary..
Nah, couldn't be marine reef production. According to current science fish're more likely to have fallen from the sky than to have been spawned, settled and grown to maturity in the open ocean.
Ain't no reef here anyway; At's what the papers say.
Hmmm..
Hey, where'd those small bluelines come from then? Never saw them in the estuarine science..
 
Nice trip.
Not smoking-hot. Lot better than OK though.
 
Do it again.
18 hours not enough.
Longer.
32 hour trip.
Leave Wednesday, 9/15 at 9 AM - Return  9/16, Thursday Evening, 5ish..
Maybe. Forecast is in flux.
Golden Tiles are high on my bucket list.
Bluelines closing in on 'best eating fish.'
Neck & neck with wahoo.
Trip Details & Rules at the bottom of this email below signature . . . . . .
 
 
I think the chart of the eastern seaboard's coldwater corals matches perfectly with where the research money flows.
North & South of the central mid-Atlantic: Yes, there are cold/deep-water corals.
But offshore of the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays there's been no discovery of these reef communities.
Found an oyster though. Important too. SAV as well.
 
Still undiscovered in the literature; I don't know what they'll call the near-shore corals when they're found.
 
Need a camera.
One that can go deep.
Pretty sure I'm looking at tens of thousands of years worth of coral growth on one particular reef.
Wonder what the last 40 years have brought to those corals.
Wonder what species grow there.
Don't think it's going to be sea-whip & star coral like inshore.. 
 
Ptolemy's works all finally cast aside in time; No one doubts that Copernicus's "On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres" created great change in scientific thought.
So far as I'm concerned the Copernican moment in fisheries was with Auster, Lindholm & Kaufman's 1999 work: 'Habitat-mediated survivorship of juvenile (0-year) Atlantic cod..'
A better title might have been 'On the necessity of healthy hard-bottom habitat in fisheries restoration..'
As I recall, just 2% of juvenile cod survived in rock/sand habitat that mimicked freshly trawled hard-bottom, While 67% survived -recruited to age 1- in undisturbed, well grown-in, reef-like bottom.
Don't need a calculator to see where we want to be..
 
A very common "Spiritualistic" explanation, An excuse, for a fishery management failing is "Recruitment Failure" -- Where catch-restriction based management must then force every fisher to tighten their belts further because there are not enough juveniles surviving to replace what's been caught while still regrowing a population.
Presently there's a 'recruitment failure' going on with striped bass, A recruitment failure going on with Long Island Sound lobster...
 
"What happened?"
"It was a recruitment failure."
 
As illustrated in the collapse of the southern stock of red hake or failing any attempt to even try to restore scup in their southern range: When managers don't know, or don't care to know, or just can't be bothered with a fishery issue - They break out the Big Gun -  "Restoration is being hampered by ongoing recruitment failure due to climate change."
 
Not mycobacteriosis in stripers, Not gross over-use of pesticide in LIS, Not that live scallops are crucial in the early life stages of red hake: And certainly not the near-sighted approach to restoration that fails to take fishes' regional fidelity into consideration, Nor ever any seafloor habitat association with recruitment.
 
It failed. You know, Recruitment. 
 
Strikes me we need to look beyond catch restriction, Need to look into some of those 67% -habitat mediated- survivorship/recruitment rates too.
Might find it really boosts fishery restoration.
Be good for the waterfront's economy: Folks eat lobster, catch fish - Spend Money.  
 
It's a simple posit: Increasing seafloor habitat will make for greater recruitment success in the reef fisheries.
Ought to try it: Protect what's left..
Then barge one mountain top from VA, WV, & PA.. Just one rocky hillside from each state would re-reef the bays and give a heck of a kick-start out front too.
Knock rock off by the bargeload; Oysters, corals and fish will respond as they must: Especially if we nudge them along, manage them regionally..
 
Build big reefs.
 
"What happened?"
"We managed for recruitment success."
 
Be some good fishing.
 
Regards,
Monty 
 
Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/ 
 
32 hour trip.
Leave Wednesday, 9/15, at 9 AM - Return  9/16, Thursday Evening, 5ish..
The forecast just changed and not for the better -It will change again- I'll call the trip on or off by 7 Tuesday evening at the latest.
Golden Tile, Blueline Tile, Sea Bass, whatever bites at night & whatever bites on the troll..
32 hour trip: Ten head sells out the rail - $325.00 each. Rental Rod $20.00 includes all rigs.
Please understand that I do have confirmed locations but that I will be exploring and looking for more - trolling all the while & trying spots when found.
Accommodations are lacking. Benches and floor for napping. Bring all your food & water - Maybe a yoga mat from the dollar store - sweatshirt for a pillow - possibly quite chilly at night.
Dramamine is very cheap insurance.
 
Rules:
No Electric Reels.
No 3, 4, 5, hook rigs -- Two Hooks.
No Booze whatsoever -- None. Beer is OK but not in ridiculous quantity.
You may bring several rods, even a spinner for mahi and squid, but only one rod in the water at a time. We have trolling tackle. Deep drop reels should be spooled with 50 to 80 pound micro-braid - lots of it. 300 yards may not always work. Best rods are 6 to 8 feet with plenty of backbone.
Get caught with a GPS -engage in electronic theft of fishing locations- and you go home with nothing. Nothing.
Limits: 25 sea bass (Federal) - 7 Blueline tiles (as VA) - 3 golden tiles - All only if we were ever so fortunate. 
Fish caught trolling will be split amongst everyone if appropriate. There will be a lot of fast trolling.
 
Book's open if you want to go.
410 520 2076.
Leave the very best phone number - Weather has to be near perfect or I'll cancel.
Offshore forecast looks very nice now - Did!
We'll go see..
 
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