Windy But Fishable

By Scott Lenox

Windy But Fishable

Today started off pretty chilly with some frost around, but it warmed up into the mid 50s by the afternoon.  The wind was blowing a little again which made the bay a little rough, but the sun was shining so it was a decent day to get out and do some fishing.

Captain Jason Mumford of Lucky Break had George Toppinga and his granddaughter Lucy on board today and had a great day catching and releasing some rockfish.  Lucy was able to catch and release her first fish ever!  Way to go Lucy!

Captain Wayne Blanks of Bayside Guide Service had his first trip of the season today and he made it a successful one.  Captain Wayne had some catch and release rockfish action and his first throwback flounder of the season.

Tim Crough and Janice Semanick fished Janice’s dad’s boat today and had a bunch of throwback rockfish at the route 90 bridge.  They fished the end of the outgoing tide with shad baits and released 20+ fish up to 20″.

Donny Post had a field day today with the rockfish catching over 30 fish on trolled baits and shads.

Captain Monty Reef Report

Greetings All, 

Writing from the Bass Grounds today; doing video monitoring work. Pretty happy with what I’m seeing too. 

Well, actual water clarity/ visibility today was near terrible, but we saw boats/blocks/& barges growing in with mussels; found they stayed where we put them too. 

The green water will have to be fixed with oysters in our major estuaries, while hardbottoms lost 50 and more years ago must be repaired by building artificial reefs. From there we can get a real taste of what “restored fisheries” will be like. 

Sakes.. I keep telling everyone we have two barges coming – and we do! 

Dang things are at a military base though. For some reason those fellows have gotten awful busy in the last month. (Ukraine!) 

One is ready right now. Has been. The hold-up barge is scheduled to be brought  to their wharf on 4/20. After we’ve done a thorough pump out and inspection, then I can have Coast Guard inspect for a ‘permit to proceed.’ After that? We’ll need two days of absolutely perfect weather when there’s a tug available. 

What could go wrong?

Ah well. 

I had wanted to deploy them before I went to print with new charts – ain’t going to happen.  I’ll have to publish the charts with the bearings where I intend to sink them instead. 

Looks like we’ll have a reef dinner too – maybe!

Probably? 

More on that very soon. 

My volunteer work at OCRF has had to take a back seat this winter. Just finished a 12 day stretch at my desk researching, writing & doing the math for a piece on catch estimates. 

NOAA’s recreational catch estimates (MRIP) cut DelMarVa out of 3 weeks of our best early winter sea bass season. Said we were overfishing. Hit everyone else to our north hard as well. 

Private boats, it seems, are always able to outcatch trawlers & trappers by a wide margin – even double. Partyboats like mine don’t even factor in at all. Not even a little bit. 

Something’s really wrong there. Been trying to fix it a long time. 

Biggest difference now is that NOAA, across the top, is listening & reading. 

We’ll see. 

Promise this, if we don’t soon repair those catch estimates our fishing seasons & regulations will continue to tighten until there’s no season left. 

Look up Fish Report 4/10/22 if you’d like to take a deep dive and perhaps even write legislators/fisheries folks. 

http://morningstarfishing.com/report.htm

It’s on Facebook too. 

Have an Eagle Scout reef project coming up. Young man and his fellow scouts  have made 50 pyramids in his grandad’s backyard. Then he bought two pallets of tog penthouse blocks! Going to knock that one out of the park. Will build a fitting reef for Jacob’s old friend and mine, Peter Kangas. 

Cheers All, 

Monty 

Check out the cool underwater flounder vid from last spring in the Thorofare, Ocean City, MD.

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