Fish Report 10/10/09

Fish Report 10/10/09

Triggerfish, Tog & ..Drum?

Closure: RFA's Response

Decoys For Sale

 

Hi All,

Very light crowds offering no fiscal relief; derned if it ain't fun though. Triggerfish have been the main target. They're almost out of here; very late to have them now. Been some wonderful fishing.

Fall rules - we're tagging them under 11 inches, boxing the rest.

Come to think of it, fall rules will remain until the state accepts management of this important fishery.

Too busy with triggers to really get down to business with the tog. Today I decided to give it a little more effort..

Dang those fish are fun.

Unforgiving too; we broke 3 off close to 10 pounds, one may have gone 12/13.

I will have my toggin gear aboard come morning.

Water temperature is slipping, that's key.

Season opens back to 4 fish later, still at two now.

Couple nice dinners in a pair of good tog. A fishery that folks love or hate; heck of a lot of fun if they're biting..

 

My customers have caught four black drum in almost 30 years of bottom fishing off Maryland's coast. All caught this week; three of them by Hurricane Murray.

Talk about odd.. Hurricane 3 -- tens of thousands of others 1.

Caught on triggerfish rigs, they weren't big, just 10 - 12 pounders. Cooked one, tagged the others....

 

The Recreational Fishing Alliance, RFA, is going to court over the sea bass closure. And not solely for this particular closing, they want to see clarity brought to the whole process.

An honorable suit, the RFA is trying to raise money for their legal defense fund.

If you're so minded the website Googles easily...

Fair to say that I have a conservation minded client base, perhaps the most so for a party boat. Still, raising the size limit to 12 1/2 inches was bad for business. We had the highest release ratio this June of the last ten, maybe ever: 86.15%.

Having seen the cbass stock grow fantastically at closer to 50% releases--even when there was no creel limit, throwing back almost 90% diminishes the experience as the enjoyable camaraderie of this type of fishing doesn't stop until the dishes are washed.

 

Slowed by regulation and now closed, a coastal small-business economic disaster has been created by MRFSS data that no one believes: or should.

I know the statistics are not meant to be a hard number - they're a spread. How it came to be that managers 'have to' use the centerpoints of catch estimates I do not know, but there --the centerpoint-- is the crux of the problem.

That and with all this squirrel hunting, no one's gone to see if there's any trees..

Common sense regulation would carry the day better than data best handled with a wide pitch-fork.

 

A couple years after the new federal fishing registry, MRIP, has been up, the back checking will make for some interesting reading. The firmer 'number of participants' license data, overlaid on field intercepts--real, actual fish counts--will show just how crazy some of these estimates have been.

 

Fishing 7 days a week for tog, triggers--its a water temp thing--and whatever else we can find. The rail is limited to 15 for tog fishing; limited far more by other pressures.

 

Now selling decoys I made 20 and more years ago on eBay. Rather my daughter's children had done that..

 

Sunrise, pleasant company, catch fish, maybe some big fish.. With all the ills in this world I could certainly have far, far worse.

 

Regards,

Monty

 

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/