Public hearing for Draft Addendum II to Amendment 6 for striped bass
July 22nd, 2010The turnout was a bit disappointing, only 20 people showed (not including council members) if you count the one media outlet that was there to cover the meeting. About half gave public comment. The major groups in attendance were the The Recreational Fishing Alliance, Jersey Coast Anglers Association, Hi-Mar Striper Club, Manasquan Fishing Club, Bay Head Shores Fishing Club and the Newark Bait & Flycasting Club. If I missed anyone I am sorry…going by memory.
Some very good feedback and suggestions were made for changes to the addendum in regards to the reference point changes. All that gave comment were against Issue I, any increase in commercial quota and in favor of Issue II, the reference point change.
Basically the reference point change is a good thing. It will allow the council to take immediate action if for three years in a row there is recruitment failure. ‘Under this option, recruitment failure would be defined as a value that is below 75% of all values in a fixed time series appropriate to each juvenile abundance index.’
For NJ the council decided to drop the data for 1980-1985. The reason being they were really just learning where the fish were after spawning and what they thought was extremely poor recruitment was really their inability to find the juvenile fish and figuring out methods and means to do the young of the year survey in the Delaware.
With dropping these few years of the data set it is basically lowering the juvenile abundance index (JAI). In doing so what was once thought to be fair or good recruitment years for 2002 and 2006 now fall below the index value of 0.89 and qualify as recruitment failures. Which at the end of the day means that we have a lower threshold and the council will be quicker to act on protecting the stock if recruitment failure does occur.
Public written comment is being accpeted until October 1, 2010.
This is the link to Draft Addendum II to Amemendment VI
Info on submitting public comment is below, you can either e-mail, call, fax or mail public comment.
Email: nmeserve@asmfc.org
Phone: 202-289-6400
Fax: 202-289-6051
Mail: Nichola Meserve
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
1444 ‘Eye’ Street, NW, 6th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005
River fluking is hot!
July 11th, 2010Left the dock early to fish the river before the boat traffic picked up. When my buddy showed up with two friends we decided to give outside a shot. Swell wasn’t too bad, confused sea on top of it made for an interesting drift that just proved way to fast in 45′ of water so we headed back in.
It was like fishing in an aquarium just before feeding time. You had a fish on within seconds of the bait hitting the bottom. The lettuce was at a minimum but the only problem was most were shorts.
Coolest part was the water was so clean that in even 12′ of water you could see the bottom, your bait swimming along then either it would disappear of you would see it take off in a different direction if the fluke grabbed the tail of the bait. Tried shooting some video of it but it didn’t come out well. It was really wild to watch 3 or 4 fluke come up off the bottom to all chase the same bait.
Ended the day when the boat traffic picked up with a couple keepers to 21″ and was back at the dock and cleaned up by 10 am.
Independence Day Flukin’
July 4th, 2010My buddy Mark and I decided to stay inside since all the reports we heard during the week were much better from Manasquan and Shark Rivers than from reefs. I checked the current tables and the current looked OK despite it being the ebb and me personally preferring the flood to fish the Squan.
We shoved off at ten to five to get setup at sunrise and beat the boat traffic. Got through the canal and despite no moon and very little wind the current was racing and not as anticipated. We gave it a shot near Clark’s, in the Old Channel between Clark’s and Garden State, Hoffman’s, the doggy beach and the inlet itself. No matter where we went it was a challenge to slow the boat down to be able to get a proper presentation. Not to mention the salad was the worst I have ever seen. OK…insert vegetarian jokes here!
On the plus side so far there were only three boats that had past us so far. With the poor conditions inside we decided to at least try outside and worst case go wreck fishing. Got out front to birds working, not sure what was chasing the bait up but we immediately got into a garbage fish blitz! It was skate after sea robin after miniature dogfish…with short fluke mixed in when you could get your bait to the bottom. We did manage sea robins to just under 2 lbs but didn’t weigh any in for the tournament. Did manage to pull one keeper off the Manasquan Wreck before the current went slack and the drift died.
Moved off to the Sea Girt Reef hoping for better drift conditions and there was a little more breeze and a drift. Again had non-stop action with birds, skates and short fluke. We also had some short and keeper sea bass mixed in and picked up another keeper off the reef before the drift died there.
Headed in a bout noon. By then there were finally people on the beaches and some boats out. We were both surprised at the amount of boat traffic. It didn’t really pickup till between 10 and 11 and even when we headed in the canal was busy but it sure didn’t seem like a holiday weekend. Not that I am complaining but it sure didn’t seem like that many were out, certainly not like AAA said there would be a huge increase in vacationers driving to closer destinations to home.
Anyway all in all a great day on the water till we hit the railroad bridge on the way in and we realized how hot it really was out. Ended the day with a nice 3lb sea bass, two fluke 19 and 20 inches, about 50 shorts (many 17-17.75″), one with almost a completely brown belly (will post a pic of it shortly) and probably a hundred sea robins, skates and dogfish combined. Although there were only a handful of doggies. And it was really nice to fish all day with the light outfits and 3/4 to 1.5 ounce bucktails even out on the reef.
Mako Mania 2010
June 26th, 2010Got down Friday morning to get the boat ready, pickup bait, ice and rig the rods. Had to change wheels on Tommy’s boat for better performance with a full load of fuel and had to scramble to find bushings for the new ones but got it done. Headed over to the Captain’s Meeting…good seeing you again Joe (Freedom). Always good talking to Pete Grimblas and Anthony Mauro. Didn’t win any door prizes or the 50/50 so we figured we were saving our luck for fishing.
Left the dock at 4:30 and headed over to check out. Caught the darn train bridge…thought we would miss the first train but caught it. The checkout was much more organized and civil than years past when boats were circling to check out and racing out from the monument.
Broke the inlet set our course for our spot some 50 plus nautical and had a very uneventful ride out. Didn’t see much life on the ride out and the water was pretty warm the whole ride out and didn’t start dropping in temp till we were almost 45 off. Ride out took a little over 2 hours 30 minutes but was a nice ride out compared to the last two years.
Got the slick setup and rods out and before we got the last rod out had our first bite. First fish, mako, and released about a 100 pounder. Got reset and about 20-30 minutes later we get our second run off. It played with the bait for a while. Then hit another rod, fought the fish for a few minutes, get it near the boat and another small mako released. Get reset again, change all the baits out to what had the first two fish, bonita fillet and squid and reset all the rods.
Had a couple of run offs and a stripped bait. Then we get a double header, drop one and hook one for our third fish. I’m on the rod and get the fish to the boat and it is another small mako about 50-60 pounds. Released that fish, reset the rods and then it was quiet for a little while. We put a time limit on moving back up our slick and we get another run off that never came tight.
We moved back up the slick, about 45 minutes later we get another run off that quickly went slack. Then as we are getting ready to call it a day we get a real good run off. Get the other lines cleared, fight the fish for a little bit and nice dusky comes up. Released that one and got cleaned up and headed in.
We never found the fish we were looking for but had good action with several run offs, three makos to the boat, one pulled hook near the boat and a dusky.
We never found the cooler water but there was tons of life out there. Turtles, bait, birds. The guys a little further off in the Toms and Hudson were picking YFT and eyeballs but were covered up in bluefish and it was tough getting through them to the tuna. On the ride in the water ranged from 74 to 77! It looks to be shaping up for a good inshore tuna season.
On the ride in we heard from a friend of ours from down our dock that was racing in with a nice fish to weigh. They ended up hanging a nice fat 232 to put them in 3rd in Mako Fever and 4th in Mako Mania at the end of Saturday. We wish Brian and the crew of the Bella Mia the best of luck in maintaining their position through today.
First keeper fluke of 2010!
June 5th, 2010
Broke the inlet shortly after 5 and starting working bunker, wouldn’t call it pods…they stretched pretty much from the inlet all the way south to Ortley/Lavalette. Some of them were thicker than others but unfortunately they were all happy bunker and swimming for their lives. Talked to Tuna Kahuna, Bri-Time, Loanfish and a couple others and everyone seemed to be doing the same…stocking up on crab bait.
Once I got a 10 gallon bucket of bunker I headed off to the Axel Carlson for sea bass and fluke. My first drift I put a nice 24″, 4 lb 12 oz fish in the box. As I was motoring back to the beginning of the drift a buddy a few slips down from me is anchoring up right on my MOB mark from where that fish was caught. I circled him a couple times, busted his stones and moved off to another piece. Only had short sea bass, cod and fluke after that.
Decided to look at a couple other wrecks but there wasn’t much life on the sonar so I didn’t bother stopping. Despite the wind against the tide in the river I decided to give it a shot. The kelp was pretty bad but if you kept your rig clean there were tons of fish there. Weeded through the shorts and put a 19 incher in the box before a boat anchored up right in the path of all who were drifting. Called it a day and headed in.
Had 52 degree water when I broke the inlet along the beach that warmed to 54/55 when I left bassing for bottom fishing. On the reef the surface was a bit warmer and was up to 60.3 at one point. After my buddy got back from wreck fishing they had a cooler full of sea bass and cod, 8 keeper cod I think he said with at least that many more shorts. They also had released a dozen or so keeper blackfish and countless short sea bass but no fluke for them while on the hook.