Fish Report 12/15/21
Opening One Tog Trip 12/16/21
..& Two Sea Bass Trips.
Lost That Battle.
Another fight too, but only for those in the business.
Tog Trip Tomorrow! 12/16/21 - Anticipate action with shorts & some keepers. Hope to get off a bit further than my last trip. Should work! 7 to 3 at $130.00…
Sea Bass - Friday & Saturday - December 17 & 18 - Sea Bass Only! - 6:30 to 3:30 - $155.00 - Eighteen Sells Out. Yes, have had 12 boat limits in a row - but! - bigger they are, the harder they fall! Oyyyy.. Will try to keep the streak alive until 12/31!!
Reservations Required For All Trips - Call Anna (and sometimes daughter Hanna!) Reservation Line is Open 8am to 8pm at 443-235-5577 It always jams when I first open. Sorry! Anna goes by messages too for booking.
Boots! If anywhere near the stern - wet deck - wear boots in winter. (At least bring em. If flat calm you may not need them..)
As ever, 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
overslept or had a flat. No Refund or Reschedule for a missed trip!
Ticket Sales Limited To Four. (Let your friends take care of their own reservations!) Will sometimes sell all spots to one company on a weekday—as in a charter. Has to go through me and not terribly likely. I've built a livelihood carrying individual anglers and enjoy their company.
Trips Also Sometimes Announced (but later - email is always first) on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/ocfishing/
My personal and Morning Star FB pages get daily after action (or lack thereof) reports..
Bait is provided on all trips.
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!
It's Simple To Prevent Motion Sickness, Difficult To Cure. Bonine seems best because it's non-drowsy. This is truly cheap & effective insurance.
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 Cooler Is Fine For
Two People. Do Not Bring A Very Large Cooler. We DO have a few loaners - you'll still need ice.
No Galley! Bring Food & Beverages To Suit. A few beers in cans is fine for the ride home.
As of 12/15/21 we have 35,420 Reef Blocks & 412 Concrete Pyramids (170lb ea) deployed at numerous ACE permitted ocean reef sites - and we have 312 pyramids at Chesapeake Bay oyster sites working to restore blue ocean water…
Currently being targeted oceanside: Virginia Lee Hawkins Memorial Reef 99 Reef Blocks (+53 Reef Pyramids begun 8/18/20) - Capt. Jack Kaeufer's/Lucas Alexander's Reefs 1,856 Blocks (+44 Reef Pyramids) - Doug Ake's Reef 4,174 blocks (+16 Pyramid Reef Pyramids) - St. Ann's 2,797 (+8 Reef Pyramids) - Sue's Block Drop 1,582 (+20 Reef Pyramids) - TwoTanks Reef 1,223 (+ 11 Reef Pyramids) - Capt. Bob's Inshore Block Drop 912 - Benelli Reef 1,491 (+ 15 Pyramids) - Rudy's Reef 465 - Capt. Bob's Bass Grounds Reef 3,643 (+60 reef pyramids) - Wolf & Daughters Reef 734 - Al Berger's Reef 1,049 (+11 Reef Pyramids) - Great Eastern Block Drop 1,214 (+10 Reef Pyramids).. And a soon-to-be-named reef at Russell's Reef 30 Blocks & 49 Pyramids - We've also begun work at Capt Greg Hall's Memorial Reef with 212 Blocks & 2 Pyramids..
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Greetings All,
It's my understanding that in January managers will have to decide how to cut sea bass landings by 28%.. I think that's what happened.
I bet we could cut landings 80% or so by straightening out MRIP's recreational catch assertions.
Near about gaurantee it.
Will have to do a deep dive on that.
Real deep.
Another fight, just beginning anew, is the astoundingly invasive questions we must answer to NOAA's SE Regional Office (SERO). Why does Florida get to ask us anything?
Because they write the Mahi/Wahoo & King/Spanish Mack permits. Even though it will be 7 or 8 months before I need those permits again, SERO wants to Know more about my business than I do.
I am Soooo not kidding.
Here a letter I wrote to upper management & DC about my second "Spanish Inquisition" in the last few weeks.
**^***^***^**
Recent Letter to Fisheries & DC Reps..
Greetings All,
This is an e-mail (was below - In the spirit of all things DC I've redacted it here.. Simply TMI. You'll have no problem seeing what's at issue.) from Shannon with SERO(?). She seems to be a fantastic asset - very pleasant. Seriously. This lady is NOT the problem and deserves absolutely no grief on this issue.
However, today was my second phone call in a few weeks. I don't know who's telling her not to trust my submissions, but someone down in Florida sure doesn't.
I'm being harassed!
I do have one log book error here - Yes, I did charge clients to limit out on sea bass on 12/01/21.
BUT WHY IN THE BILLY BLUE BLAZES IS IT ANY OF THEIR DAGONE BUSINESS WHAT I CHARGE ANYWAY?!?
I'm telling you, their log questions are so penetrating it's hard to keep a civil tongue.
How deep's the water - 4x!! If I give NOAA, the premier charting agency IN THE WORLD, a location - why can't they deduce depth; Oh! and tell us in feet and fathoms!!
Daylight Savings or EST? Really? (NOAA has my location fished but needs me to tell em how the clock gets read…? Oyyy. It's busy work and I'm already plenty busy!)
(On our daily Fishing Vessel Trip Reports SERO a will ask..) How much fuel did I burn & what did it cost?!?
And how many pounds of bait now?? Really?!?
What is my percentage? Boy, that's a dandy.. How the heck would I know before expenses, payroll & taxes?!? It's mighty small to begin with, then in October I lost my entire summer to a breakdown. Is NOAA going to pretend they understand my business of 40 years - pretend like MRIP's Private Boats who can miraculously outfish All Commercial & For-Hire operators combined? It's amazing. Aside a few who are fish ninjas, many private guys don't do well with the sea bass fishery - it's too pinpoint, too exact..
I don't know who else is fed up with SERO's crap, but I sure am!
Make a NEW wahoo/mahi/king-spanish mackerel permit for above Hatteras.
All you need to know is what we caught.
AND MRIP WON'T USE WHAT WE TELL YOU ANYWAY!!
I see stark evidence of that everywhere I look in MRIP - and in MRFSS before.
Really, I just read a bunch of documents showing how we wicked rec fishers have overfished yet again - on sea bass with a population 200% greater than target!! Imaginary catch for pages - no mention of VTRs.
None.
I looked at MRIP's guess for Maryland Party/Charter sea bass in May/June — Laughably Low! There's No Possible Way MRIP considered data we provided to NOAA in conjuring up that estimate. Happens All The Time!
And MD's Private Boats? Oh, they probably caught more than untold decades of experience in the commercial & party/charter fleet.. At over 100,000lbs? You Bet!
A Wild Guess.. A USELESS WILD GUESS!
And VTRs? Our old VTR forms (paper since 1996 & electronic a couple years) were fine.
BUT YOU DON'T USE WHAT WE SEND YOU ANYWAY!!
It's too frighteningly different from MRIP's WAGs I'll wager.
Some repair!
Get SERO off my back! All our backs! We have PLENTY of stress w/o them.
Regards,
Monty
