Posted on November 3rd, 2015
Captain Monty Hawkins of The Morning Star is steady building reef off the coast of Ocean City….and catching some fish on it!
Greetings All,
Tuesday, Nov 3rd was flat calm – gorgeous. I only had two clients on the Morning Star, so we loaded up a bunch of 110 pound concrete blocks and rode out to a nearshore reef where we deployed some two and a half tons of reef material ..and then went fishing a while.
We tagged & released 42 tautog – most of which were legal. Our two clients limited on tog (kept for dinner) as did a volunteer. My crew & I took but a single tog between us because we have plenty of sea bass to eat from regular trips..
At about 10am we met the OC Reef Foundation’s barge at “Mr. G’s Parkside Reef” at Kelly’s Reef. There we monitored a perfect deployment of concrete and Parkside High School welding class reef units. Deployed from a heavy mooring, these pieces joined material sited earlier this year with the Iron Lady.
MD Fisheries has a “Restoration Plan” for tautog. In that plan there’s no mention of habitat.
We know how to ‘make fish’ by building habitat that’s essential for feeding, growth to maturity & spawning—but that’s not in the restoration plan.
With a 16 inch size limit & more nearshore reef than ever before, it’s now my understanding that tautog have had their highest Young of the Year samplings ever. (ask a homicide detective if he believes in ‘coincidence’..)
More Coral, More Fish.
Regards,
Monty
See Captain Monty’s detailed fish report here…MORNING STAR FISH REPORT.
My buddy Nick Denny has been steady pounding the route 50 bridge for rockfish and the local rock piles for tautog. Today it was the north jetty for Nick where he caught some throwback size fish and one that met the 16″ minimum.
