Fish Report 5/1/12
Going & Went
Mark Twain
Help Wanted
Unfunded Restoration
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New Tog Trips - May 4th, 5th & 6th - 6 AM to 4 PM - 10 Hour - $125.00 - Twelve Sells Out - Capt. Tucker Working The Rail.
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Reservations Required at 410 520 2076 - Leave Your Best Contact Number In Case Weather Forecasts Change.
NEW SIZE LIMIT IS HARDER - 16 Inches..
Green Crabs Provided; You're Welcome To Bring Any Hard-Bait.
This Is Tog Fishing - It's Possible Some Clients Will Be Skunked.
Fishery Regulations Followed Or Exceeded - Yes, We Check Coolers & Fish.
If You Want To Be A Commercial Fisherman And Sell Live Tog - Do It On Someone Else's Boat - No Live Fish Leave My Boat.
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Hi All,
One client makes for a pretty light rail.
Went anyway.
Loaded the boat with concrete coral castle blocks. Took mates Ritch & Mike plus Dennis out to build on--and harvest from--our reefs.
Dagoned tog bit like piranha.
Really.
Best bite I've seen this year..
That 16 inch limit is going to be a great thing.
Tautog Nation.
Saturday a couple guys were showing off. My Russian friend put back some dandies; Greg a 25 inch female.. Then the bite tapered for hours--Slow: Only picked up again with the current. That second bite soon fizzled too. Where I thought the current was going to pick-up even more speed, it rolled around to the WSW and slacked..
Sometimes our tog bite in slow water - not often though.
Tagged a lot of keepers - Did not send everyone home with a limit - Could have - Many of my clients find catching big tog is more fun than eating them..
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Like Samuel Clemens, rumors of my next hospital stay are premature..
Don't know how it got started - I'm not in a hospital
..though crew may tell you I have a room reserved at the funny farm.
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Year Round Deckhand Wanted.
Drug Testing Mandatory - Willing To Learn Required - Seamanship Deeper Than Tying A Rig - Sanding, Painting, Plumbing, Glassing, Cleaning...
Email if interested - Do Not Call - I already have some applicants.
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Ocean City Reef Foundation Dinner May 16 at Hall's Restaurant - 60th Street, Ocean City, MD - No formal dinner this - 5 to 7 - tickets $15.00 at the door - please email if you have auction items.
Reef building requires money. Although Maryland is closer than ever to embracing the concept of re-reefing her waters, Construction Remains Unfunded. When it does get funded (er, If it gets funded..) The Chesapeake Bay (Oyster) State will have to be beaten about the head and shoulders before considering coastal corals..
There's Hope Though: This week's truckload of Allied Concrete Oyster Castles is being funded privately by the OC Diver, Fin Chaser & Morning Star (thanks Baldy!) but also in large part by the Ocean City Reef Foundation (OCRF) and, in smaller part, the Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative. (MARI)
The first pallet (72 blocks) of oyster castles (now coral castles) donated by The Nature Conservancy have already made a difference off our coast -- here come 16 more pallets..
Go to the reef dinner.
Contribute to these .orgs
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Scientists certainly wouldn't expect to discover robust & virgin oyster reef in the Delaware or Chesapeake Bays; No newly found & unmolested oyster reef as early settlers had to avoid.
When & if scientists ever begin to look (and they are) they will not discover new, pristine reefs offshore either. Reefs found will be leftovers of an exploited habitat, the "reef remnants" I often write about..
In the 60s & 70s every HoJos in the country was selling clam-strip sandwiches as fast as they could make 'em.
Many of those surfclams came from our seabed.
I guarantee just that one fishery (nevermind other stern-towed gears for now) ..just those 10 & 15 ton hydraulic dredges fishing 7 days a week and in fleets of 20 or 30 boats decreased our hardbottom's footprint & fishery production.
Capt. Ward Brex, 1981, "We had the best sea bass fishing on the coast and let them destroy it." He was talking about the natural sea whip meadows at the Bass Grounds 7 to 9 miles east of OC.
The surfclam fishery is very different today - it can't possibly do the damage now it did then...
There's a huge reality gap in our fishery restoration efforts. Where early catch restriction/regulation had a few stunning victories such as striped bass & summer flounder; The truth is other species now bear an ecological burden for those 'special' fish that have gotten attention. To truly restore fisheries we must also restore habitat ..even habitats no one's discovered are missing yet.
Few grasp its importance.
Reef Restoration Makes Fishery Restoration Simple.
Regards,
Monty
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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/
