Good Fishing and A 373 Pound Thresher Shark

By Scott Lenox

Good Fishing and A 373 Pound Thresher Shark

Hit the vid for rockfish and bluefish rigs available at Atlantic Tackle!

We had enough south wind to make the ocean a little bumpy today, but it was still doable and there were plenty of folks out there fishing.  The weather was nice and warm inshore too so the bay had folks trying for bluefish, rockfish and flounder and many had success.

The crew of Mike Riley’s 10-7 had a nice day in the ocean thanks to their Seakeeper gyros and they had a nice day of fishing.  The crew put a nice thresher shark on the scale at Sunset Marina that weighed in at 373 pounds.

Back bay fishing was pretty good on the outgoing tide today thanks to some clean water.  Rich, Brian and Dave had a nice day in the Thorofare with the flounder putting six keepers in the boat between 16.5″ and 21.5″.  Dave mentioned that the biggest 21.5″ fish was caught on the Fish in OC Deadly Double in white.

Captain Jason Mumford of Lucky Break Charters had a nice day for his anglers putting them on two keeper flounder and a big bluefish.

Mike Razmus has been killing the flounder up in Mystic, NJ the past couple of days putting a bunch of fish in the boat.  Today he had his personal limit with a big fish of 24.5″.  Several of the fish have been caught on the Fish in OC Deadly Double in pink.

Shaun Flaherty paddled over to Assateague Island this afternoon and caught himself a couple of bluefish on Roy Rigs.

Monty Carey and his son Stone fished the route 50 bridge today and put some very good bluefish in the boat using the Fish in OC Thing A Ma Jig.

Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star had a bumpy, but good day on the ocean today with loads of sea bass and a pollock.

A summer southerly this day. Enough wind to make the ocean a bit saucy; enough wind to keep it cool off there too. 

Michelle and Arianna U did the deed on today’s blocks. Have 3,861 blocks and 74 pyramids there. Makes a nice addition to Capt. Bob Gowar’s Memorial Reef. 

Bite was not on fire today. You could tell by looking in Ted’s cooler. That dagone nor’easter just before season really shuffled fish around. Good bite or not, Mark managed a limit. Others were in double digits – including Ray. Had to keep a shoulder into it, for sure. There were several old timey pool contenders as well with Dave from St. Marys’ jumbo taking the money. 

Did a little math to bolster my lobbying efforts. Regular readers will know I find NOAA’s recreational catch estimates a complete farce. They portray Private Boats as a far more powerful extractive force than all Commercial Trap & Trawl–Yes, NOAA believes Private  Boats land far more sea bass than all the trawlers & trappers combined. 

Be a neat trick if it were so. 

The Party/Charter industry isn’t even a consideration for NOAA when recreational sea bass catch is measured. But NOAA sure makes us acquire permits & turn in daily catch reports. Wonder why.. We often don’t even catch 10% of many species including sea bass – at least not on computer screens at the fisheries data palace in Silver Spring. In reality, however, we probably catch in excess of 75% of Maryland’s sea bass. Other states are similarly lopsided. Only Massachusetts and Rhode Island’s For-Hire skippers think Private Boats out-catch them in sea bass. 

Here’s a bit of truth NOAA needs to wash down that bitter bologna. 

With guys watching I have 43 private boat trips so far for 6 days of MD’s 2022 sea bass season. Call it 50. Call it 60. Doesn’t matter because last year during this time NOAA has about 180 Private Boats going everyday(!) 

At 60 boats after six days so far that’s 210 anglers at 3.5 persons per boat. 

Party/Charter in MD has already carried about 940 anglers sea bass fishing in the same 6 days. That’s nearly 4.5X the Private Boat number of anglers. 

You can see how I think it’s completely upside down when last year MRIP has 103,000 pounds of May/June sea bass for Private Boats & about 9,000 for Party/Charter (even though we told them about 12,500 sea bass in daily reports – I swear.) 

Believe me, the fantastic elevation of Private Boat catch has seriously messed up fisheries science; has taken management down with it. 

Needs fixing. 

Rumblings I hear say NOAA will soon make another attempt at repairing MRIP. I believe new people are in position now to have an honest go at it. 

When we know the truth of catch, biology & ecology will come to the fore as best tools for management. 

Regards,

Monty

Captain Marc Spagnola and his crew of Dusk to Dawn Bowfishing laid the smack down on some cow nosed rays today!

Anglers fishing in the Frederick Saltwater Angler’s Club had a great time fishing in Chincoteague, VA this weekend and they caught a bunch of flounder!

Hit the video below for our first ever Back Deck Fishing Report!  More to come this season!

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