Posted on November 17th, 2023
Hit the vid for the Daily Catch at the Ocean City Fishing Center!
Today was one of the more beautiful November days we’ve had in a very long time. Temps were in the low 70s in some spots, skies were sunny and there was little to no wind to speak of. It was an awesome day to be on the water. I joined my old friend, and some new friends, with Captain CL Marshall of Tangier Sound Charters and had a lot of fun catching rockfish over on the Chesapeake Bay. Reports from the ocean were good too with mirror like sea conditions and loads of sea bass.
Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler enjoyed today’s weather immensely and said the fish cooperated as well. Anglers had sea bass, flounder and some nice scup on today’s trip.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star enjoyed two things today. The weather, and another boat limit of sea bass.
Underway before dawn; did not find sea conditions I’d anticipated. Instead of light southerlies pushing an easy chop? A true calm developed.
Adm D. Cornflower sent today’s loose blocks into (or near) Uncle Murphy’s landing craft reef. Perhaps eight or ten years out it shall already be known as an incredible tog reef. Given the mussels growing nearby, however, I’d not be surprised if tog take up residence by spring.
We began fishing on a spot I call Murray’s Rocks. Was neither his nor anyone else’s lucky spot this day – throwbacks! Also nearby was Hurricane Reef – and that didn’t work. . . (I have many tiny patches of natural reef named after clients aboard – certainly close to a thousand. Artificial reefs we build, however, are named by donors.)
No matter – this day was too pretty not to make the bite happen.
Seeing the writing on the wall with Hurricane’s luck, my third stop was named instead for witness to the Nazi invasion of Denmark as a youngster (and he’s forever grateful for US and Allied forces liberation!) long time regular, Flemming’s wreck treated us very well. Zig, in fact, was bagged out by 11:15..
Still breathtakingly calm as I double anchored atop Flemming’s – for a while even the deck seemed motionless owing the stillness of the sea. On the Beaufort Scale this is ‘force zero’. It’s a rare sea condition and is described in Beaufort as, “sea is like a mirror, smoke rises vertically”.. This as opposed to, say, Beaufort Force 7 “Sea heaps up and white foam from breaking waves begins to be blown in streaks along the direction of wind. Necessary to lean slightly into the wind to maintain balance. Smoke rises at about 5 to 10 deg. Higher pitched moaning and whistling heard from rigging. Halyards still whip slightly. Heavy flag extends fully and flaps only at the end. Oilskins and loose clothing inflate and pull against the body”..
Yup.
We’ll have none of that, Thank You.
It was only as we began fishing this third spot when the least breath of air rippled the ocean’s surface. Though it was certainly still calm, the magic of a mirror-like sea was gone.
Dern sure made for a nice day and nice fishing.
For most!
On one end of the Luck Spectrum we had Scott who’d won a nice St. Croix as a weekly prize in the annual reef raffle and picked that up this morning – he also won the pool today & the daily 50/50 reef raffle!
Nice!
(see ocreefs.org — lots and lots and lots of great prizes coming!)
Perhaps as different as possible without injury; although first to limit & giving away keepers to help pay block yard rent–even a pool winner in previous days; Hurricane Murray’s baits today seemed infused with eue’de skunk. Now Maestro le’ Pew – keeper of the piano key beast; a man well known for mirth turned this day to tears; Hurricane’s joy was lost as completely as the sweetness of one of his many empty pie plates – Yes Dear Reader, perhaps owing the absence of his trusty sidekick Cathy; today was Hurricane Murray’s turn in the barrel.
Nearing day’s end & best part of the bite long worn away, time slowed to a crawl as everyone pitched in to help Hurricane bag out.
Funny how the luck goes. This is hardly a fishery requiring great skill. Doesn’t hurt to know what you’re doing though. As noted in my attempts to entertain and inform, it’s common to see a very good angler’s luck turn south.
More coming soon on the ‘inform’ part of my writing. Regulatory season has begun – and NOAA is still insisting on using recreational catch data even they don’t believe.
Having announced perhaps just two months ago that MRIP catch estimates will be shorn as much as 40% (more than that in places I bet!) – we now know it’s their intent to cut cbass 10% & summer flounder approx 40%. Who could guess what other species are in regulatory trouble..
Back to the computer keyboard and, if we can not see two month wave data yet? Perhaps even to DC.. The data being used to accuse us of overfishing needs to be accessible to all!
Regards,
Monty
Brian Reynolds had a nice tautog bite on the south jetty today that included three keeper fish and a couple of small sheepshead.
