Posted on August 11th, 2021
Registration for the 2021 Captain Steve Harman Poor Girls Open is going on right now and it looks like it’s going to be a good one. When I left Bahia Marina after dropping off some rigs the parking lot and registration tent was absolutely packed. I’ll have a total boat count and purse tomorrow sometime, but I’m expecting a great turnout and an awesome tournament. The Hooked on OC crew and I will be bringing it to you LIVE for the first time ever so if you can’t make it to the scales at Bahia Marina you can watch it online at www.PoorGirl’sOpen.com
There wasn’t a lot of offshore action today thanks to some stiff wind out of the south, but that didn’t stop Captain Ronnie Fields of the private boat Big Stick from having a crazy good day of trolling in preparation for the Poor Girls Open and MidAtlantic Tournaments. Captain Ronnie had two blue marlin releases and seven white marlin releases on today’s trip for an epic day of offshore trolling.
Captain Kane Bounds of the Fish Bound has been tearing up the flounder recently and he has been putting anglers on some very nice fish. Captain Kane reports that limits aren’t out of the ordinary and there have been some big fish over 5 pounds.
Anglers on board Chasin’ Tides Charters with Captain Chase Eberle laid the smackdown on a bunch of nice sea bass on today’s trip to the rip.
The ocean going party boat fleet stayed closer to the beach today thanks to the bumpy sea conditions, but there were still plenty of fish to be caught. Captain Chris Mizurak of the Angler reported some nice flounder, a few mahi and some sea bass on today’s trip.
Captain Rick Shoaff of the Judith M found the triggerfish hungry and put some good fish in the coolers of his happy anglers.
Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star will take mahi any day of the week
Enough south wind to get my attention this morning; most large offshore charters had either cancelled or reversed course for home. Not headed to 100 fathoms; looked to be OK inshore by my forecasts – off we went.
After dropping blocks we paddled a tiny bit more.
First fish in the boat was a mahi. Hooked and landed perhaps five all of a sudden—first moments of the first drop—when some summer clients still have no idea how to use their reel or bait a hook—Right Now—BAM—comes a crash course in fishing with beautiful mini-mahi; ‘bailers’ they call em, & all dancing into a fine tangle. Pandemonium seems an accurate word.
Didn’t boat many sea bass. Wasn’t much interest in dropping to the bottom.
Caught more mahi though.
Bite like that might not happen again for a decade ..or maybe tomorrow.
“Nice when it happens” sort of fishing.
Glad for August clients to have pleasant memories and a family fish fry. Wasn’t always that way.
In fact, in the 1980s August used to be my worst month. Even with no regulations at all sometimes we’d have just 6 or 7 (tiny) fish on the boat.
That’s what “overfished” looked like.
Wasn’t long after I put a size limit on sea bass in 1992 when things began to improve.
Amazingly.
State & fed put the same limit on in 1997.
By 2002 even the oldest old timers had only seen it as good once before – when a dead zone had formed off NJ because of NYC sewage and pushed all their fish down below the South DE shipping lanes. 1976/77?
I’m told fishing was just amazing.
Have to find a way to get NOAA to listen. We can make sea bass incredibly productive. (w/o impacts from sewage TYVM)
No one can know what they do not know, and boy is there a lot NOAA and management don’t know about sea bass production.
Force them to spawn young and all will soon be well again.
Stay on present course and we’ll likely crash all sea bass populations (reef by reef – & here habitat fidelity becomes a hindrance) within 20 miles of the inlet.
After that? 25 miles – and so on..
It’s coming down to the wire.
Looks like overfishing inshore – but it’s really overregulating. Sure needs fixing.
Cheers
Back in the bay Captain Wayne Blanks of Bayside Guide Service found a good class of rockfish at the route 50 bridge landing several fish up to 27″ and one nice keeper that hit 30″.
Matt Abell down at Sea Hawk Sports Center reported some good fishing on the Chesapeake Bay and on the Eastern Shore of Virginia where folks are catching big red drum, flounder and Spanish mackerel.
