Fish Report 9/10/12

Fish Report 9/10/12

Precise Ambiguity

A Fishery's Pulse

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Summer Fishing of Flounder & Black Sea Bass continues. Hurricane Leslie, now far off our coast & leaving, has probably kicked-in a bit of fish instinct with her long-range ground swell, but I don't think fishing will change significantly until we've had a heavy NE wind or worse. We're still targeting flounder over precisely the same reefs & wrecks where I've spent a lifetime targeting sea bass---except when sea bass bite better at those reefs: Happened Once This Week In A Downpour.

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Sea Bass & Flounder Fishing 7 to 3 Everyday - Longer on Saturdays - Now Fishing Sundays - Plenty Of Spots Open - Always Try To Leave Early & Stay Late - Reservations Required @ 410 520 2076 - Leave Your BEST Contact Phone Number In Case Of Weather Cancelation - We Obey Regulations Whether We Agree With Them Or Not - Bring Food & Beverage Plus A Cooler & Ice For Your Party's Fish - Cheap Styrofoam Coolers Rarely Survive A Day - A 48 QT Cooler Works Great - Dramamine The Night Before Is Cheap Insurance - Be A Half Hour Early, We Like To Leave Early, Rarely In On Time..

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2,400 Oyster Castle Reef Blocks By The Rail.

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Hi All,

Only fished a couple days; heavy weather's been keeping the fleet in.

Did have a crowd fish right through some ridiculously heavy rain. Probably 3 or 4 inches; Sea bass seemed enthused (although flounder were not!) which had a lot to do with people fishing in a downpour.

Sun came out when we got in.

Another day a flattie pushing 7 pounds came up on the first drop. Didn't see many more keeper fluke, did nick enough sea bass to stink a pan..

If you're in dire need of filling a freezer I'd advise Sam's Club

..but if you want to box a few fish up for dinner we're here to help - just can't promise which species

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..except Sunday, Sept. 16th, 2012, I'm going long.

Really Long.

Sea Bass, Not Flounder.

Pain of summer-Sunday traffic now past, maybe some will want to come fishing..

Sea Bass - 5:30 AM to 4:30 PM - 21 Sells Out - $150.00 - Yes, we count & measure on these trips too. Magic Rulers, where every fish is a keeper, don't work on my boat.

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So There.

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One of the barges our SCUBA community is building coral castles on has over 400 blocks for them to Tinkertoy into habitat. A long-time reef supporter also found concrete planks these SCUBA reef builders can use to create better lobster habitat.

Sure is nice of them to think of the lobsters.

Fellow's been diving nearly 40 years tells me oyster castle blocks will make better bug habitat with concrete planks - I'm listening.

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Hey NOAA, Easiest way to double a population of reef fish is by using management to promote early spawning & double their habitat.

Same formula can take a reef fish population up 10-fold.

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Do you think?

Naww...

Coral-schmoral; They're looking at catch data. But it really is as easy as rolling rocks off a barge. You can't stop corals & fish from colonizing.

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Because we can't afford bargeloads of rock we build with pallets of reef blocks..

Google OC Reef Foundation if you're of a mind to help.

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Or write a letter to Pew.

Only thing they see is these Overfishing Demons too.

I can't imagine what reef habitat would look like in 20 years if fishery restoration's 800 pound brachiating biped decided catch-data was full of cage droppings; Decided the data was misleading all involved..

Google "Pew Fisheries Policy" for contacts. The gorilla really doesn't like overfishing. They don't like to write back either but you can try..

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Speaking of writing back, Forbes Darby - MRIP's Outreach Coordinator - still hasn't written with any discussion of the NJ shore tog estimate.. He advertised for questions on the New & Improved catch data. Didn't like mine I guess..

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When Massachusetts private boats' catch-estimates rocketed from an acceptable 4.5% of the recreational spring cod catch to 96.3 percent; When they're catch shot from two thousand to 1.5 million--despite the region's for-hire fishers thinking March and April's private-boat/for-hire split is greatest, that private boats would never-EVER catch even 5% of Massachusetts' cod during that time of year; When on computer screens an astronomical rise in catch despite ever more restrictive regulations appeared, MA anglers saw their estimate rise from 2,663 cod in Mar/Apr 2004 to 1.5 million in 2010: People trained only to find over-fishing did not see cage droppings.

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If there were a method to spot likely errors in the data before they saw light of day perhaps management could ponder, "How does habitat fidelity factor into fisheries management?"

When we bore in on THAT and gain finer focus on local fish production we'll be on our way..

Fishing can be engineered better than ever before. Pretty sure we could have 10x as many sea bass along our coast simply by focusing on the percentage of fish in the spawning population--then double that new population of fish each time the habitat footprint were doubled.

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Wonder if my diving friends are onto something with lobster..

They're the ones who do the hillbilly hand fishing thing, not me.

People who put anchors down & hands in dark, eel-filled crevices probably have worthwhile observations to offer.

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Those who only watch a computer screen for upticks in catch miss a wealth of indicators. Even downticks such as MD party/charter's dramatic slide from 160,000 cbass to 130,000 to 14,000 between 2002 & 2004 are thought completely irrelevant in a system hunting only over-fishing.

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If private boaters' percentage of catch climbs from 10 to 20% -- That's A Double, A 100% Increase.

Without reality-check MRIP has NJ's private boats climbing from 26.5% of that state's sea bass catch in 2003 to 75.4% in 2010.

I bet that's not true.

Nor is it for Massachusetts or New York.

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Though a violent example; there's a surveillance video on True TV where a motel clerk is being beaten with an old-fashioned desk-top phone; "Stop, Stop! You're Killing Me!"
Clerk was right.

So am I.

This witch-hunt has to end.

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Fishery restoration is best accomplished with a balance of habitat restoration & protection; by maximizing spawning production & exercising realistic catch control.

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Some good weather coming.

Have a fish-fry soon.

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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/