Fish Report 11/12/16
Fall Cbass OK
Couple Special Long Trips
One Tog Trip
And A Thanksgiving Sale
Win The Most Beautiful 12Ga Auto I've Ever Held - http://www.benelliusa.com/ethos-shotgun -The Benelli Ethos Reef Foundation Raffle Winner Will Be Drawn Sunday After Thanksgiving at Atlantic Tackle.
Wish I could play!
Raffle tickets $10.00
Contact capt.montyhawkins@gmail.com or capt.monty@ocreefs.org for tickets. I can mail you some.. or pick them up at the boat!
I STILL have not gotten all the gremlins from my email system.. Hope to resolve everything shortly.
Opening The Reservation Book Up With This Email For The Period November 18th to November 27th. No, not fishing Thanksgiving or Christmas Day.. Will look at the weather later for the last of Nov/early Dec..
Schedule Through Thanksgiving:
Sunday - Monday, Nov 13 & 14 - Reg cbass trips. Forecast Gorgeous. Leave at 7, return at 3. $110.00 (but with rain & a wind switch on the way in Monday.)
Tuesday, Nov 15th - Last Tog Trip Of 2016? - West winds too stout for offshore sea bass, should be fine for medium range tautog. $110.00 - Trips sells out at 12 people - Have green crabs..
Wednesday, Nov 16th - Long Sea Bass Trip (Nice Forecast!) - $125 - Leave 6:30 at the latest - return 3:30 at the earliest - $125.00..
Thursday, Nov 17th - Regular Cbass Trip - 7 to 3 - $110.00
Friday & Saturday, Nov 18 & 19 - Long Sea Bass - 6:30 to 3:30 - $125.00
Sunday & Monday - Cancelled
Tuesday, Wed, Nov 22 & 23 - Long Sea Bass SALE - (You're Welcome Earl!) - 6:30 to 3:30 - (remember, we like to leave EARLY.. 6:30 is simply the latest I'll wait for all clients to be aboard) Buy Two Tickets, Get One Free on Nov 22 & 23 only - No Refunds AT ALL for those two trips. Reschedules only in the event of a weather cancelation.
Friday & Saturday, Nov 25 & 26 - Long Sea Bass Trips - 6:30 to 3:30 - $125.00
And Finally - Sunday, Nov 27th - Regular Sea Bass Trip - 7 to 3 - $110.00
Will look at the weather later for the last of Nov/early Dec..
Reservations Required at 410 520 2076 - 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..
Be a half hour early! We always leave early! ..except when someone shows up right on time.
Clients arriving late will see the west end of an east bound boat. With a limited number of reserved spots, I do not refund because you over-slept or had a flat..
Dramamine Is Cheap Insurance! (Meclizine's Better! Clients like "Bonine" brand best..) Crystalized Ginger Works Great Too. It's Simple To Prevent Motion Sickness, Difficult To Cure. If You Suffer Mal-de-Mer In A Car You Should Experiment On Shorter Half-Day Trips First! (Wockenfuss Candies sells crystalized ginger locally - We usually have some aboard - Better is Nuts.Com.. Chewable Meclizine is a good pharmaceutical, there's also a "less drowsy" meclizine pill that a lot of clients like, especially Bonine; Scopolamine Patches are the gold standard. Stay away from 'ginger pills.'
Honestly - If you get to go on the ocean once month, once a year, or even less; why risk chumming all day? Similarly, if you howl at the moon all night, chances are good you'll howl into a bucket all day.
Bring A Cooler With Ice For Your Fish – A 48 Quart Is Fine For A Few People.
No Galley! BYO Sandwiches & Soft Drinks. A few beers in cans is fine. (bottles break at bad times)
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!
14,419 Reef Blocks deployed at numerous sites: Doug Ake's Reef 2,515 - St. Ann's 1,531 - Al Giles/OC RUST Reef 1,065 - Eagle Scout Reef 880 - Sue's Block Drop 184 - Nichols' Concrete 690 - Capt. Bob's Block Drop 156 - Benelli Reef 329
Blocks Provided By Potomac Valley Brick - Thank You!
Support the Ocean City Reef Foundation! http://www.ocreefs.org (lots of reef pics here..) We're Nowhere Near Reef Building's True Potential. Thank You!
Greetings All,
Dealing with weather issues is the common thread of fall. Some of the year's best fishing always; but sometimes hard to catch a perfect day.
Looks like a couple of those flat calm days coming up though. See trip schedule above..
Sea bassing hasn't been perfect. We generally have at least some limits aboard, even in the MONSTER swell last Tuesday. (a long period ground swell, I measured waves of even 14 & 15 feet!) Did have a tough Saturday a couple weeks back. Also had a boat limit--where we couldn't legally take one more sea bass.
On my boat "legally" is a precise definition - no shrinking size limits or 'generous counting' is tolerated.
When we back into the slip & 5 DNR Police appear out of nowhere, I want no concerned clients -- none.
An inconvenience? Yes. But no tickets!
As ever, bluefish feed over our reefs in fall. Right now they're in the 1 to 3 pound class on local reefs & wrecks. I hear from contacts up north that "They won't let us fish!" numbers of bluefish are coming.. Yes, sometimes blues, big blues, can be so thick you cannot POSSIBLY reel up a keeper sea bass.
Oh, they'll let you wind in all your smalls, but as soon a a good keeper gets hooked - CHOMP!
Also seeing the odd flounder. Don't recall anyone catching them on purpose, though some have tried. These few nice fish bite unexpectedly on clam or squid, even on the top hook.
Rudder jacks, triggerfish, even a jumbo (to us) scup; all have come off the reefs lately.
Mostly it's a lot of throwback sea bass and some keepers as they slowly aggregate and move off the continental shelf for winter. Fishing as often as weather will allow..
Funny - everyone seems concerned when species aggregate for spawning. Yet, in the Mid-Atlantic, many of our favorite species are at their densest concentrations in winter when they are furthest from recreational fisher's thoughts ..and are being trawled in great number.
This summer we caught lots of super-small, even 9 inch, flounder (called 'fluke' north of Cape May.)
In fall we always catch jazillions (a precise measure) of small sea bass, especially if there was good summer spawning production. Just the other day we snagged a 3.25 inch sea bass. That's real small, especially for 125 feet of water..
The blues we see; scup, sea bass, flounder; very soon we'll even see bluefin tuna inshore & then stripers.
A singularly memorable moment in my career: I was anchored 9 miles offshore in January (2005?) with clients catching double-digit tog when a vast flock of gannets worked their way down to us. Birds diveboming in truly raucous fashion with striped bass, bluefish, bluefin tuna & fin whales all about; seeing so many pieces of the puzzle tied together at once was awesome.
NOAA has, thus far, been too busy to take note of seafloor habitat or my argument that the sea is greening. Oysters, submerged aquatic vegetation (or SAV), dam removals - Yes. But what scientists call the "benthic/pelagic coupling" is, however, inextricably tied to our ocean floor's health also. It's not just the estuaries - seafloor habitat & water quality count too.
Once eggs are fertilized - then, for a short while, it's ENTIRELY up to water quality. Shortly, egg nutrients are used and prey abundance joins habitat quality as vital components in spawning success. The better marine habitat & water quality are in those first moments and then weeks of life, the more successful spawning might be.
Fish, (such as flounder,) that everyone thinks of as "estuarine" often migrate far offshore, even to canyon's edge, come winter. The full spectrum of habitats will play a role if we are to achieve true restoration.
Lots & lots of "Overfishing" talk from this summer's estimates. I'm hoping I can get to the new MRIP (NMFS' recreational catch estimating method) changes & estimates soon. I hear there are some doozies. I promise this - bad catch estimates create AWFUL regulations.
Catch a pretty day and go fishing. I'd near about guarantee you'll be thinking of your trip while washing dishes..
Regards,
Monty
Capt. Monty Hawkins