Day 1 at Tuna & Tiaras and Some Jumbo Flounder

Posted on June 24th, 2022

Hit the vid for the Angler’s Advantage at Atlantic Tackle with Hook Optics!

We had our first day of fishing Nantucket Shoals up here in Massachusetts today and I’ve got to say it more than lived up to the hype.  I’m fishing with a great crew in Chris, Myka, Mike, Mike and Kevin and we all caught great fish today.  We ended the day with a limit of flounder (releasing anything 20″ and under) and had the biggest fish at two 8 pounders, two 9 pounders, a 10 pounder and a 10.5 pounder.  It was insane.  Day 2 is tomorrow and I’m already looking forward to it!

Back home, today was day one for the 2nd Annual Tuna & Tiaras ladies only tuna tournament at the Ocean City Fishing Center.  There are 33 boats competing this year and here are the leaders after one day of fishing.

Mahi

Chain Reaction     12 Pounds

2nd Place Tuna

Blood Money     32 Pounds

1st Place Tuna

Billfisher     47 Pounds

Congratulations to the day one leaders and good luck to the ladies tomorrow!

Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler reported a tough day despite marking mountains of sea bass.  It wasn’t a total loss with some nice fish coming on board for some lucky anglers.

Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star had a pretty good day today with some real big sea bass and some keeper flounder on board.

Ocean finest kind this morning. Light cool air from the NE, fair current same; young Mr Cash from Crofton MD dropped our 20 blocks and a togominium atop Tyler Long’s Memorial Reef. 

We pressed on. 

Gorgeous. 

Couldn’t say sea bass were chewing the bottom off my boat, but it wasn’t as hard as yesterday’s mid-day  frustrations. The bite may actually have improved owing a bit of balloon karma — Vic picked up a 3 pack of “Congratulations Grad” mylar turtle choker balloons and we caught better. 

Yeah, umm.. While I certainly don’t think it honestly changed our luck; after the sun burns off much of the color—a couple months—these balloons mimic the jellies our largest sea turtles hunt. Their throats lined with cartilaginous teeth as far down as you can see; once a balloon is taken, there’s no getting it out. 

It can’t end well.  

That’s why we pick em up whenever circumstances allow. . . 

Sure had some nice cbass. Jigmaster Tom was high hook on this picturesque day with 13. A number of anglers were in double digits. “WF” had the trophy for ‘most improved’ (and enough about that!) Among a few other long time regulars aboard was Flounder George. While he took the pool with one of the day’s first fish, I’ve had concerns for his monicker of late. There was relief when I saw a net going down the rail – then dipped. 

Not a jumbo, but glad to see George getting back his game.

Other clients nicked a few fluke too. Will this be the year we turn our attentions back to some flatties? Spent the last few summers riding the crest of a sea bass spawning wave I’d predicted in 2016/17. 

For the record I also predicted it would slow about now but clients would catch some nice ones. 

We are. 

Will next year too. 

The down side of my sea bass forecast has yet to come. When recreational extraction has been greater than spawning production ensuring sea bass’ diminishment, we’ll also have wind energy construction off the coast. 

Diminished sea bass in 2024/25 will be 100% the fault of age at maturity or “age to begin spawning” shifting from age one, as after the recolonization of the MD Wind Energy Area, to age 3 and more as those now replenished populations have grown into NOAA’s 12.5/13 inch size limit. 

Once sea bass perceive the threat of over extending available resources (as higher order animals will) given the SIZE of the fish in a population – and not the ‘number’ of fish in that population – spawning production becomes diminished. 

When I saw it the first time in 2002/03 it took me several years to figure out why we had declining numbers of sea bass despite the largest number of, & the biggest females I’d ever beheld. 

When I saw the same set up coming in 2015/16/17 I predicted what would happen – correctly. 

If you’re like me you’d think fishery management would be interested in a way to shoot a population of fish straight up. 

You’d be mistaken too. (Enter recreational catch data which is all managers are allowed to use for management’s purpose. What could go wrong?)

We witnessed the complete absence of sea bass within 4 miles of the wind area’s boundaries after 3 years of sub-bottom profiler surveys drove them out (surveys to site towers, cables & such.) Once surveys concluded—though BOEM swore there were no impacts of any sort to any fish—sea bass spawning began anew at its most energetic pace. Our sea bass went from the worst spring run anyone had ever seen to the second best ever over 5 years. And it happened with no change in recreational regulation. 

You might watch a YouTube video I filmed in late August 2015 but had edited in Jan 16: “https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=46ahNqo8geE

.”There were NO sea bass at all back then & on some of the very reefs my clients enjoyed today; yet they’d been amazingly full in 2004 when we first filmed them. The video has several direct comparisons of a reef’s population in 2004 & 2015 throughout its 4 minutes.}

We have already fished through the population spike that began in 2016 with the wind area’s recolonization. Fishing’s still OK, plenty OK, but our catch numbers will fall – are. NOAA has squandered this fantastic opportunity to learn fishery management’s greatest strength – of forcing a maximized spawning population; and, as sea bass catches decline harshly in a few more years – wind tower construction will take the blame. 

I just hope wind’s resources are turned, in part, to help re-reef the seafloor.. 

Wind could be a nasty industrialization, or a big part of making the ocean far more productive.

Cheers 

Monty 

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