Posted on July 27th, 2022
Today started with heavy rain again, but by midday it had moved off the beach and left us with sunny skies and a very nice day. That rain moved off over the fishing grounds and made things a little dreary, but the fish were biting and the wind wasn’t blowing so not all was lost and anglers were happy.
The crew of the Spring Mix II with Captain Chris Watkowski were very happy returning to the dock at the Ocean City Fishing Center with five yellowfin tuna from the troll.
Big Bird Cropper and Shawn Flaherty took advantage of this afternoon’s nice weather and tossed some Roy Rig’s at the OC inlet and route 50 bridge where they release some small rockfish and boxed their limit of bluefish.
Big Bird also took this picture of Rob Storm with his 24″, 5.5 pound flounder and then Rob dropped one on me in a message a little while later.
Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler reported good fishing today with a bunch of big sea bass and a few keeper flounder coming aboard.
Anglers fishing on board the Judith M out of Bahia Marina had a great day catching sea bass with a few triggerfish.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star had to abide by Murphy’s law today……just like everyday.
Rain showers driving into work this morning. Quit before we got underway. Thought we were done with precip until late afternoon.
Yeah, no.
Great Scott did it pour. Radar still showed targets, large ones anyway, so we weren’t completely blind. Everyone was suited up as we began fishing.
And the fish bit.
Well, cbass did.
Not sure the bite was worth fishing in a monsoon, but offshore rains soon quit too. Became a nice day indeed for a cbass trip – sunny with a somewhat confused light swell/nearly calm.
A few of my clients wanted the more difficult target of flounder – summer flounder. What everyone north of Delaware Bay calls fluke.
They’re there. On the reefs & rocks. I think the stock is pummeled because, using recreational catch estimates as their guiding beacon, management raised commercial fluke quota 49% a few years ago following a recreational “recalibration.” NOAA’s already inconceivable rec catch estimates from the MRIP program were fluffed up even more – crazy way more.
Insane levels.
Result?
NOAA and management said, “Gosh, if they’re catching that many from small private boats, we’d better assign a lot more quota to fellows with industrial fishing gear so they can keep apace with the weekend recreational crowd.” MRIP’s catch estimates often show Private Boats catching more fish than all Party/Charter/Trawl/& Trap.
Make sense?
No?
Well, that’s exactly what happened. Commercial quota went so high they haven’t even reached it in recent years.
Might be a way to guess, just a hint, if catch is not being restrained by quota – you know, when fishers cannot land it.
Summer flounder much diminished since impossibly high assessments were made and skyhigh quotas given; they’re not extinct. We still see a few fluke. Even OK fishing sometimes. That story will continue to play out. I’m confident they know what they’ve done—management’s aware a huge mistake has been made. How in blazes can they possibly repair it without correcting MRIP’s insane recreational catch guidance is beyond me. Not sure I’ll be able to resist a “Told you so..”
I won’t.
Now, old man Murphy, the guy in charge of making sure toast falls jelly-side down and rec estimates climb far higher than could ever be true; Murphy saw a perfect set up along my starboard rail today. A few anglers wanted fluke and were doing everything they could to target them. An old sea-dog fishing forward; Capt Chris was into double digits with nice sea bass & had already tagged a near DD blackfish/tautog/chinner/chiseltooth/tog when he boxed a decent flounder too – on a sea bass rig with a kitchen mop’s worth of squid. (Any fluke fisherman worth his salt will, if he must use squid, have a beautiful strip, perfectly cut, swimming enticingly behind the hook.)
On the stern-side of my fluke anglers (to their right) was the reason I carry a few 4X life jackets – bringer of both mirth and heavy winds – our very own Prince of Portliness – man/myth/legend his dern self – Hurricane Murray hooked a long fat fluke on a sandflea.
Yup, a mole crab.
So; a nice tog bit squid.
A nice fluke bit sandflea (one of my favorite tog baits and not at all a fluke bait.) Another fluke took a squid mop.
And the guys with flounder rigs? Hand tied/Gulp assisted experts? They didn’t get bit – period.
Not by fluke anyway.
Had three anglers in double digits with sea bass. Capt Chris was high hook. Hurricane himself, who may have shaken his recent malaise, was second highest. Pretty sure everyone else had dinner and a bit more.
Weather tomorrow looks perfect.
Cheers
