Flew solo on Saturday up to Asbury to check out the bunker bite.  Got there at 5:45 and missed it!  Couldn’t believe two buddies with four man limits were headed home already after getting their limit and releasing dozens of fish.  I knew with the new moon it would be an early bite but that was ridiculous.  After getting bunch of bunker in the boat and only having two run offs and no real action I pushed North to get on the troll.  I trolled stretch 30 plugs after a buddy called me over to a bite they had on shad rigs.  Started trolling 100′ to the East of them and the plug wasn’t in the water 5 minutes and had a 42″ bass in the boat.  Put the plug back in and was putting water and ice in the fish box and rod goes off again, a 35″ fish.  Same thing for the next few passes on a South to North troll, each pass another fish.  Ended up releasing a 44″ and 33″ fish.

Sunday we decided to go back to the scene of the crime from the day before.  Debated on running South but turned left out of the inlet.  Again arriving up at Asbury about 5:30 there was no bunker to be found from there up to the Cedars.  Got up on the troll and then got a call from BillyT to come back South a little and use white #4 Maja’s.  Put a 16 pounder in the boat right away but then it was quiet.  Trolled all over Monmouth Beach, Long Branch, Asbury, the Rocks, the Cedars and ended up getting an 8lb blue.  Heard from Bri-Time that the bite was off Ortley when we were in the canal but at that point decided to just keep heading for the barn.

Despite the ASA and Bahrs tournaments on Saturday the Northern waters were not that crowded.  Sure wish i was in the ASA tourney since the 42″ and 44″ fish would have been good for second place.  Also on Saturday I was quite shocked at a very large and prestigious charter boat that came right through the fleet of boats live lining picking up five lines from three boats, three lines had fish on.  They came so close to the boats fishing zig zagging through the fleet I could have underhanded a bunker to someone in the cockpit.  I guess when you get that big you only care about yourself and $$$.

All in all it was a great two days on the water.  It is funny how I usually do so much better solo than when I have four guys on the boat. 

Meeting Today Results in longer Black Sea Bass Season

Recreational Fishing Alliance

Contact: Jim Hutchinson, Jr. / 888-564-6732
For Immediate Release

May 4, 2010

BLACK SEA BASS SEASON TO DOUBLE IN LENGTH ASMFC Votes to Increase Fishing Days – The Recreational Fishing Alliance Legal Defense Continues

In a vote supported by all member states of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Summer Flounder, Scup and Black Sea Bass Management Board today, states will now have the option to liberalize the 2010 black sea bass season in state waters by an additional 90 days. The proposed new season will run from May 22 through October 11, with an additional open period of November 1 through December 31. The proposal would keep the size and bag limit the same of 12-1/2 inches and 25 fish per angler.

“The Recreational Fishing Alliance representatives have worked tirelessly on the 2010 black sea bass season since last summer, when drastic cuts to fishing days were first proposed,” said Capt. Adam Nowalsky, chairman of the Recreational Fishing Alliance’s New Jersey chapter (The Recreational Fishing Alliance-NJ). Nowalsky attended the ASMFC meetings this week in North Carolina longside fellow The Recreational Fishing Alliance-NJ board member and United Boatmen representative Capt. Tony Bogan, and said perseverance has been the key to seeing the sea bass opportunities open up again for recreational anglers along the Mid-Atlantic coast. “In December, we were faced with a 60-day season for 2010, and now we are closing in on a near 200-day season,” Nowalsky added.

The increase in fishing days became possible after the recent release of 2009 black sea bass landings. Projected 2009 landings had been mandating a 44% reduction in landings for 2010, but the updated data showed that only a 21% reduction was needed, allowing for the liberalization. For the new regulation to go into effect, individual states will have to implement the new proposal, but given the unanimous support of the states for the motion, implementation is expected.

The Recreational Fishing Alliance representatives have attended and advocated at every ASMFC and Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council meeting impacting the recreational black sea bass fishery since last August to ensure that the recreational sector is treated fairly by regulators and has the best opportunity possible to enjoy this healthy fishery. “When our state Marine Fisheries Council meets again back home at the Atlantic County Library in Galloway on May 13th at 4 p.m., this sea bass season increase should be on the agenda,” said Nowalsky. “This is good news for all our coastal states from Massachusetts down through North Carolina, everyone who enjoys this healthy and robust sea bass fishery,” he said.

NOAA Fisheries released a proposed rule last week that specified an opening date of May 22 for the fishery in federal waters with no firm end date for 2010; NOAA Fisheries did not oppose the ASMFC proposal today. When NOAA Fisheries abruptly closed the recreational sea bass fishery last October without any opportunity for public comment, the The Recreational Fishing Alliance immediately began working on a legal challenge to fight the closure. The The Recreational Fishing Alliance, United Boatmen and a coalition of industry allies (the “Plaintiffs”) filed suit on November 4, 2009 in New Jersey Federal Court arguing that the sea bass closure should be declared unlawful and set aside for being arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, and otherwise not in accordance with law pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act.

The Plaintiffs also allege that NOAA Fisheries violated numerous provisions of the Magnuson-Stevens Act for closing a recreational fishery in reliance upon the fatally flawed Marine Recreational Fisheries Statistics Survey (MRFSS) and for failing to adequately assess the impacts of the Emergency Rule on small business entities such as party and charter boats and bait and tackle shops.

“The emergency closure of the recreational sea bass fishery was unprecedented for a fishery that is not ‘overfished’ and where ‘overfishing is not occurring’,” said Jim Donofrio, The Recreational Fishing Alliance Executive Director. “This case is about more than just sea bass; it’s about taking a stand against a federal agency abusing its power and hurting individuals and small business owners. If NMFS gets away with using MRFSS data to shut down the sea bass fishery this time it will be tough to stop them from doing it in other fisheries.” Donofrio said that a legal win with this case would help set a precedent for anglers to ensure that NOAA couldn’t make similar closures in other regions in the future.

On January 22, NMFS filed the Administrative Record for the case, submitting all the documents the Court will consider in making its decision. “We carefully reviewed the Administrative Record to determine whether further documents existed that should have been, but were not, submitted by the government,” said Herb Moore, Jr., The Recreational Fishing Alliance co-counsel on the case. “Surprisingly, we discovered that NMFS failed to submit the minutes of the December 2008 meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, which is the meeting where the 2009 sea bass measures were debated and voted on only to be preempted roughly ten months later by the emergency closure,” Moore said.

According to the The Recreational Fishing Alliance‘s legal team, the government would not consent to adding these materials to the Administrative Record so they filed a motion to supplement the record on April 23 which they expect will be decided sometime after May 17. “Thirty days after we have a decision on this motion to supplement, we will go ahead and file a motion for summary judgment and expect NMFS to file a cross motion for summary judgment after that,” Moore said, adding “We expect this case will ultimately be decided on these cross motions for summary judgment.”

As of May 4, 2010, $26,470.27 has been deposited into the The Recreational Fishing Alliance Legal Defense Fund for ongoing efforts to challenge NOAA Fisheries’ decision to close the black sea bass fishery. “Tackle shops, party and charter boat captains, fishing clubs and captains organizations and hundreds of individual anglers have contributed to our campaign to ensure that NOAA Fisheries never does this again,” said The Recreational Fishing Alliance Managing Director, Jim Hutchinson, Jr. “This battle to reopen our sea bass fishery and the ongoing legal challenge to protect anglers against future arbitrary closures has been all grassroots so far, but I’m hoping that some of our friends from the national tackle industry who rely on a healthy sea bass fishery will contribute to the angler efforts to keep our folks fishing,” Hutchinson added.

Learn more about the The Recreational Fishing Alliance and the The Recreational Fishing Alliance Legal Defense Fund at www.joinrfa.org

Headed to the rocks both Sat and Sun. Saturday got up there early but it did not matter what I did I could not keep anything on the hook. Didn’t matter if it was a spoon, plug, jig, heck even a Rapala plug with three treble hooks and I was dropping fish. Also had a knot failure near the boat, was the closest I came to boating a fish, about a 15 lb bass…if anyone catches a bass with a chartreuse Rapala in it, can I have the plug back?

Sunday I was going to stay close to home due to the forecast. Broke the inlet a little later than planned as my crew never showed. Worked some blues near the inlet for a little while and felt better that I was able to keep something hooked. Then worked spoons South off Bay Head and again was hooking up and dropping fish. Even changed out the hooks the spoons, guess I have new rod syndrome.

Got some calls on the radio and phone to head up North again. Conditions were no where near predicted with just a 2′ swell with a little chop on it. So I picked up and ran up to the rocks but got there at the end of the bite and only picked up more blues.

Both days it great seeing fish boiling on the surface taking baits. It is a shame so many have to drive right through them and break them up. Seems like the lack of courtesy and boat handling is getting worse the more that obtain their captain’s license…oh I mean boating safety certificate.

The amount of spearing around this spring is amazing. Hopefully that is going to lead to a great fluking season as it did back in 2007.

I was amazed at the difference in the ride of the boat after having more work done on the wheels again this winter. Despite the conditions on Sunday I was able to cruise with a following sea at a comfortable 26 knots with no pounding on the way in with the swell and chop on the front quarter at 22 knots passing every other boat but the Fish Monger and the 36′ Bertram across the creek from us on the way home.