It was another warm, humid day with a pretty stiff breeze out of the south, but that breeze was nothing compared to what we might see next week. Tropical storm Humberto is forecast to make his way toward the east coast of the U.S. sometime midweek next week and we may see some sort of impact toward Wednesday and / or Thursday/Friday. The models are currently all over the place, but it’s definitely going to be something to keep an eye on. In the meantime, there is some great fishing going on.
Joe, Anna, Hailey and Broderick Bushnell joined Andrew Dolle on board the Marli with Capitan Mark Hoos today and had a great trip to the canyons. The group ended up with 35 mahi, two golden tilefish and some blackbelly rosefish in the fishbox.
The crew of Boss Hogg with Captain Alex Beane had a great day in the canyon with four white marlin releases.
Captain Chase Eberle of Chasin’ Tides had a good day in the ocean for his crew putting them on a nice pile of mahi and sea bass.
Captain Dave Caffrey of On the Run had a short two hour trip this afternoon that produced four sheepshead for this lucky lady.
Anglers fishing on board the Morning Star with Captain Monty Hawkins had a nice catch of sea bass on today’s trip.
Uh Hu..
Yup.
Weatherman changed his mind about this day. Went from probably pretty nice; to, ahh, probably not nice.
At all, really.
Was right about that.
Was fishable though.
Started fishing soon after Jane & Dave sent 19 reef blocks over the stern rail atop the forgotten block drop – bite was on.
Never lasting very long, but the bite was good to begin with every time we dropped.
Before you know it? Mark and Patrick had limited-out on cbass and our Portly Prince of the AUCE pie bar (which Hurricane Murray his dern self provides!) had taken the pool.
Not too bad on the way out – nice even. Rock and waddle on the way in!
Beyond exciting for many (or perhaps not!) I’ve begun a new look at NOAA’s MRIP recreational catch estimates..
Shocking – it’s not looking good for NOAA’s system of WAGgery.
Sakes. They can’t even get close with fish we Tell Them We Caught.
Yes – every Party/Charter that catches sea bass has to report that catch.
Every Day.
NOAA’s MRIP catch estimates come in under/low almost every time for ForHire in this series I’m looking at.
As has been the case of late, today there was one partyboat & one charter boat — zero private boats – on a large, well-known reef.
In recent memory I’ve only seen one private boat on a reef targeting sea bass or fluke with up to sixty anglers aboard Party/Charter boats.
Are there other Private Boats? Sure.
But is there 10+times more Private Boat cbass catch than Party/Charter off MD?
Absolutely not.
But that’s what NOAA’s recreational catch estimates often hold: what NOAA’s MRIP estimates claim becomes ‘fact’ for management’s purpose.
Just starting to nose around in the VTR/MRIP wave 3 data (that’s Vessel Trip Report {daily electronic submissions of catch} & MRIP {Marine Recreational Information Program} -where ‘Wave 3’ is May/June.)
After telling NOAA what we caught in daily VTRs – ofttimes quite precisely – .guv underestimated our cbass landings in every wave I’ve looked at so far.
Here’s a standout:
MRIP Private Boat 2021 Wave 3 MD Sea Bass says there were 103,300 sea bass boxed by Private Boats (by all the ghost boats I never see.)
(That’s a LOT of sea bass for MD – Here Private Boats are ‘landing’ two or three Year’s worth of MD’s Annual ForHire catch in just two months..)
MRIP’s MD ForHire W/3 – NOAA’s official estimate for May/June that is used by management – an estimate though we Tell Them what we caught. MD Party/Charter boxes 11,400 cbass in May/June 2021 by MRIP estimate.
MD ForHire VTR Reported Catch (Vessel Trip Report) what we TOLD THEM we caught is 14,900 sea bass in the same period.
It’s likely MD Private Boat caught somewhere around 20/25% of MD’s ForHire landings – around 4 thousand cbass then.
Not over a hundred thousand..
Just started digging – VTRs so far resemble the last decade’s catch as I recall it – a steep nadir in 2014/15/16 that improves well/wonderfully with much improved spawning production before tapering again in 2023..
Haven’t worked it up yet.
Still, MRIP definitely isn’t painting that picture.
How on earth can fisheries biologists get a handle on restoration strategies?
And how in blazes can regulation be devised fairly when estimates aren’t vaguely close?
We’re about to lose 9 days of cbass season because VA’s Private Boat catch shot up an order of magnitude – then did it again.
I’d be pretty surprised if their catch even doubled.
It really needs fixing if we’re to see management methods devised where fish populations & catch can both climb.
It’s Doable.
Really is.
The ocean can be turned blue again and fish made as numerous as post WWII.
Seriously.
But never with the distraction of awful recreational catch data blinding fisheries science.
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