Fish Report 12/23/13
Try Cbass Again!
Please Write..
Two Trips To Offer..
Sailing for Sea Bass Saturday & Sunday, December 28th & 29th — Last Of The 20 Fish Limit I Fear — Depart 5:30 Return 4:30 — $150.00 — 15 Anglers Sells Out (nephews coming too) — Expect A Long Ride..
Reservations For Sea Bass Trips at 410 - 520 - 2076 — They Answer 24/7.
LEAVE YOUR BEST POSSIBLE CONTACT NUMBER - Weather Cancelations Are Common - I Make Every Attempt To Let Clients Sleep In If The Weather's Not Going Our Way..
Bring A (not terribly big) Fish Cooler With ICE For Your Party.. A 48 or 54 QT Cooler Is Good For 2 Guys. Even Now You Should ICE Fresh Fish.. If You're Keeping Bluefish – Bigger & More Ice.
Be A Half Hour Early - We Like To Leave Early.
Clients Arriving Late Will See The West End Of An East Bound Boat..
If You Won't Measure & Count Your Fish The State Will Provide A Man With A Gun To Do It For You. We Measure & Count — ALWAYS — No Exceptions!
Will Open More December Sea Bass Trips By Email-Only Pending Weather Forecasts.
(still) 8,100 "Oyster Castle" reef blocks by the rail – 2,414 at Jimmy's Reef – 1,468 at Ake's – 288 at Lindsey Power's Isle of Wight Reef..
Need a new batch of blocks. See ocreefs.org if you'd care to help fund this truckload, or snailmail a check – any check! (Thanks In Advance Donald, Rob & Pat!)
Ocean City Reef Foundation
P.O. Box 1072Ocean City, MD 21843
My @mediacombb address is a memory. Please use mhawkins@siteone.net for correspondence..
Managers must be relieved of mechanical response when presented with bad catch estimates.
New York's private boats did not catch fully 25% of the Mid-Atlantic recreational sea bass quota in July & August. They did not catch more sea bass in those 2 months, the hardest 2 months, than all party/charter effort from Florida to New Hampshire caught in the first 10 months of 2013 combined..
Greetings All,
No trips to report on. Haven't been in the ocean.
Will though. Want to catch at least a few sea bass trips before season closes. Would prefer them on a jig.
Soon be toggin.
One fellow wrote to wish me a "White Chin Christmas." Looking forward to just that..
We'd better mind that tog fishery too..
If MRIP catch estimates continue to have their way, we'll soon lose not just our traditional sea bass season & fishery, but erase any possibility of restoring true sea bass productivity along the coast: Any chance of an actual "Fishery Restoration" will soon disappear into collections of well-satisfied coast-wide data.
Its been my sincere pleasure to have met many members of the MAFMC & ASMFC; Staff too. While occasionally you can observe integrity bent to the whim of a political 'bring home the bacon at any cost' agenda, its far more often the case that a pure & honorable intent to restore fisheries is their single focus.
Sadly, our most resilient fishery; lasting even into the final days of unregulated, real & unarrested over-fishing, is about to disappear behind the black plastic smoke of a computer-driven statistical burning: This economic pillar of the coastal partyboat trade, this ecosystem service to apex predators if in abundance; indeed, This wonderfully regenerative human food source is about to disappear behind a false sense of 'management success' - when all that's truly occurred is a fishery diminishment. I believe if Council & Commission can not be made to see fishery management's real power in applying enough fishing pressure to drive a more energetic response from sea bass's spawning instinct, then any chance of an actual cbass fishery restoration will have been lost.
Permanently.
Yes, its that bad.
Our wrecks and reefs will all have a few large sea bass that somehow satisfy computer's demand of a fish population.
A false sense of Reef-Fish restoration achieved, we'll continue to have no concern or need of understanding reef habitat's role.
Because we were fishing the 9 inch sea bass size limit for half a decade before the rest of the Mid-Atlantic it makes sense that we would see the production spike & then tapering as size limits increased first; It makes sense that the population bloom driven by younger age at maturity was delayed where regulatory implementation lagged; It makes sense too that where water's warmth is just coming into sea bass's spawning sweet spot; the instinct to spawn at age 1 or even age zero is—as on large new artificial reefs—driven not only when surrounding fish are spawning young & not old, but this urge to spawn as soon a biologically possible also kicks-in when surrounding habitat is vacant: The Mid-Atlantic's sea bass population center is not "Moving North," especially considering the SAFMC claims their sea bass are doing wonderfully; Management's effect of a populations spike then reduced productivity by delaying age at maturity is what's moving north.
I believe as northern habitats warm and those sea bass populations also achieve a minimally productive stasis; as their spawning drive too becomes idle until their 3rd or 4th year; We'll end up with a Mid-Atlantic/Southern New England sea bass population that's a tenth of what it might have been.
Tilapia & pond-raised shrimp on our plates; computers will clap for joy.
I doubt one manager in 20 believes MRIP's sea bass catch estimates. They do, however, believe its their duty to react to them as the well-worn path of regulation demands.
First step to this fishery's restoration is sourcing our science from what is true – and not from what we know is false.
Managers must be relieved of mechanical response when presented with bad catch estimates.
New York's private boats did not catch fully 25% of the Mid-Atlantic recreational sea bass quota in July & August. They did not catch more sea bass in those 2 months, the hardest 2 months, than all party/charter effort from Florida to New Hampshire caught in the first 10 months of 2013 combined..
The assertion we have overfished our recreational sea bass quota is false. Management's perception they must now tighten regulation & restrict catch further still is false.
I believe letters to NOAA's new chief, Dr. Kathy Sullivan, is our best hope of sourcing regulation from truth.
Please write to:
Dr. Kathy Sullivan – CINC NOAA
Room 5128
1401 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20230
Ask her to see if the 'new & improved' catch estimates meet her standard of 'science.'
Meanwhile, watch a short piece of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. Starts at about 1:14:40.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnLIMWLs0b8
Lady in red is Elina Garanca. Good as it gets..
My Regards & Merry Christmas To All,
Monty
Capt. Monty Hawkins
