Fish Report 6/12/11
CBass
A Fluke Teasing
Make Comment
Thursday - 6/23/11 - Long Cbass Trip - 5:30 to 4:30 - $135.00
Two spots left for Tuesday's exploratory 18 hour trip - June 14th -- $225.00 -- 3AM to 8PM -- 10 very patient people sells out the rail -- Reservations Required.
Sunday, June 26th, almost wide open rail, 8 hour trip. Fishing nearly everyday...
Hi All,
Could have combined all weekday clients on one trip this week -- took 'em fishing when they wanted to go instead.
Tuesday's long trip was quite the private charter. Saw excellent sea bass fishing with a couple clients in the twenties. Rather than pushing through to limits, I elected to then pursue cod. Only 3 keepers - tagged 27.
Nice day.
My first stop Wednesday - crickets; Caught one short tautog & a throwback cod after fifteen minutes. Tone set; High man had 7 keepers at day's end with very few throwbacks. Burnt a lot of fuel with a light rail. Ah Well..
Thursday's long trip was a sea bass fishers dream, nice steady pick of large fish. Moved here & there -- good fishing. Caught cod too, tagged 18 plus a 25 inch mahi.. Not that we wanted to tag a dorado or that there was any particular use in it but my dolphin/wahoo permit is in process: I can't land mahi/dorado/dolphin or wahoo just yet.
I really don't know how many permits I have; Lots of 'em: I do know that the SAFMC's dolphin/wahoo permit is the most archaic renewal and shouldn't be a separate permit anyway -- Dolphin/Wahoo should be under the HMS or Highly Migratory Species permit.
I really don't know how many permits I have; Lots of 'em: I do know that the SAFMC's dolphin/wahoo permit is the most archaic renewal and shouldn't be a separate permit anyway -- Dolphin/Wahoo should be under the HMS or Highly Migratory Species permit.
No Worries; We threw back a nice mahi, an early inshore fish. Maybe the tag will pop-up in some far-flung place. Everyone had plenty of fish to take home that day. Looking to repeat it with another long trip June 23rd...
Friday I had to rise extra early to drop a package off at the accountants' uptown office. Drove back down through Ocean City at almost sunrise to get to the boat. Saw all the young people --OC's senior week visitors-- getting ready for fishing; surely there was no other reason for them to be awake. Some, weaving as they were, appeared to have been out in very rough seas; perhaps over-acclimated & still wobbly on sailor's legs.
Got coffee at a local & usually well-kept convenience stop. Trash littered parking lot; Car door open with young man passed out; Beer and poorly-chewed sandwich pieces graced a trash can's side & adjacent dew moistened pavement--This grand finale to someone's evening witnessed before early morning clean up crews had begun.
High summer and sweltering hot
..a good and proper heat too as, along with the rest of this early summer madness, it disappeared when we cleared the inlet--Ocean Bound.
That Friday's bite was epic. A short hop, a shuffle was all that was needed to keep them biting. Acorns in between oaks--threw back many smalls. A hammerhead got too nosey; discovered circle hook's sting. Young man on the rod then discovered what it's like to lose a fish through no fault of your own.
Disappointment easily tempered in youth; perhaps a useful life lesson..
Saturday...
Though we caught cbass it was not a day I'd like to offer clients.
Just my sense of it; the day somehow lacked camaraderie.
We did see a few flounder--A tease. Perhaps another part of summer comes.
The fishing is consistently fishing. . . . .
From NOAA's "Fishnews:"
On June 2, 2011, the National Ocean Council announced that the public will have 30 days to comment on the strategic action plan outlines for each of the nine objectives in the National Ocean Policy. Writing teams composed of representatives from the National Ocean Council agencies developed these outlines to provide an initial view as to how federal agencies might address the priority objectives. They are preliminary documents that serve as an early and valuable point in the plan development process for focusing public and stakeholder input. The deadline for public comments is July 2, 2011.
If you're interested, copy & paste the above. On the right hand side of the page there is a link to make comment.
A lot of fishers are worried about National Ocean Council proceedings. All the NOC really does is regionalize for purposes of regulation--Big Regulation. Regulation where there's real money; Windmill & Oil Well money.
Government assumes that their work is inclusive, is absolutely correct: That, like those who must use the official recreational catch estimates; Where science says the bottom is all sand & mud -- That's What It Is.
If, however, you were a party boat skipper who appreciates the necessity of windmills but surely doesn't want them driven into the bottom among our coral reefs that NOAA still hasn't discovered, here would be a chance to stand on a chair and shout at goverment: "Hey, There's fish habitat off here.." So I did.
Comment as submitted in reference to #6; Regional Ecosystem Protection & Restoration:
A fisherman 31 years, I am heartened to see this on the NOC's to-do list..
I feel certain, however, that a discovery component needs to be added: For over a decade I've been trying to get the attentions of regulators regarding the shallow water corals of the Mid-Atlantic.
To truly restore many of our fisheries there must first be habitat restoration; to protect and restore habitat you must know where it was & what it was composed of. YouTube search "Maryland Corals" for video evidence.
Recreational catch estimates are destroying fisheries at a faster pace than foreign factory trawling did: Where MD's tiny fleet of private boats can be held with legally binding certainty to have out-caught the whole coast's tautog party boat effort; here is evidence that routine policy has displaced any sense of discovery, any desire for truth.. Where habitat fidelity remains unused in fishery management, huge fluctuations in stocks will occur; Where habitat fidelity is factored into quota management and habitats are protected & expanded: Fish Will Flourish.
Monty Hawkins
I feel certain, however, that a discovery component needs to be added: For over a decade I've been trying to get the attentions of regulators regarding the shallow water corals of the Mid-Atlantic.
To truly restore many of our fisheries there must first be habitat restoration; to protect and restore habitat you must know where it was & what it was composed of. YouTube search "Maryland Corals" for video evidence.
Recreational catch estimates are destroying fisheries at a faster pace than foreign factory trawling did: Where MD's tiny fleet of private boats can be held with legally binding certainty to have out-caught the whole coast's tautog party boat effort; here is evidence that routine policy has displaced any sense of discovery, any desire for truth.. Where habitat fidelity remains unused in fishery management, huge fluctuations in stocks will occur; Where habitat fidelity is factored into quota management and habitats are protected & expanded: Fish Will Flourish.
Monty Hawkins
Or: Hey! Anyone In Government! Focus on Maximizing Spawning Stocks, Find & Protect Habitat, Re-Reef our Bays and Ocean, Ensure Prey Availability, Use Habitat Fidelity -- Fish & Fishing Will Flourish. (you know, become a larger, more solid & predictable tax base.)
Re-Reefing the bays and seafloor... Historical charting shows exactly where the oyster reefs were; None reveal our corals--Yet.
Discovery: That it stems from windmills and not fisheries is no concern, Just that we get to work on it.
Regards,
Monty
Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/
