I read the below article in the Jersey Coast Anglers Association October Newsletter and thought it was interesting. Are yellow fin now going to disappear? Will pictures like the one here be a thing of the past?  Does our Atlantic Tuna Management need a total overhaul? You decide.

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Highly Migratory Species Report   by John T. Koegler
Missing Yellowfin Tuna

After a good early season, which lasted until Early August, the Yellowfin tuna totally vanished. There were many explanations offered but that did not make up for this key offshore species. The slack was taken up by the strong showing of bluefin tuna along the 30 fathom line.

This fishery lasted over 4 weeks with a few weekends the area resembled a Wal-Mart parking lot. Then for no good reason dirty green water moved into the prime fishing area and the bluefin moved inshore to the 20 fathom line.

The white marlin fishing has been very good. The Mid-Atlantic $500,000 tournament recorded 388 white marlin caught with almost all being released alive. The big surprise was the tiny number of tuna registered in the tournament. Only 13 were weighed in for the lowest total in the last 20 years for this tournament.

In September NMFS changed their rules for bluefin tuna and now permitted General Category boats to land up to 3 giant bluefin tuna per day. The reason is for the fourth year in a row the huge New England giant bluefin tuna fishery has vanished. A few giants were landed early in the season but the main body of fish failed to show.

Many New England fishermen had believed lack of key forage species like herring had encouraged the giants to keep going and end up in Canadian waters where they had another good giant season. But commercial herring landings were reduced! So far it does not appear to have worked despite a major change in herring catch rules.

Small bluefin tuna showed up in good quantity in their old fishing grounds like the Mudhole and Chicken Canyons along the 20 fathom line. A few skippers were delighted but the absurd NMFS limit of 1 school tuna and 1 large school per boat trip reduced the number of boats willing to spend the huge fuel dollars to fish to a tiny number. At the same time on the other side of the Atlantic, the ICCAT bluefin tuna management farce continues. The EU closed the giant Fishery 2 weeks early because they estimated the full giant bluefin quota had been caught and sold. Nations like France and Spain ignored the rules and part of their fleet continued to fish for bluefin.

There is no internal force within any European country to enforce ICCAT rules. So again after 32 years, the US and Canada are the only countries with regulations. In the US the toughest regulations apply to the huge recreational fleet while the commercial fleet is given most of the US quota. Meanwhile, our ICCAT representatives reduced our 2008 quota by hundreds of tons of bluefin once again with the absurd expectation that the European countries would impose the tougher ICCAT regulations and lower their quotas as proposed by their scientific arm.

No one should be surprised that the Europeans refused to impose the 2008 lower quota. Naturally, the US imposes their reduction for about the 10th time while the Europeans refused to accept their lower ICCAT quota for the 10th time. Why the US delegation to ICCAT expects quota acceptance by the Europeans after 32 years of a total refusal are an unreasonable expectation!

An unusual bluefin spawning success in 1995 and 1997 increased the number of US bluefin tuna population greatly. Now these 2 year classes are sexually mature. Now the number of school fish is exploding! Will US recreational fishermen ever be permitted to catch a few bluefin their conservation permitted to expand? This will happen the same as the Feds lower our taxes.

One good item in the offshore area is the ban on longline fishing in the Florida strait which has permitted the Mahi-mahi population to sharply increase in numbers. Offshore anglers are enjoying their best Mahi fishing in the last 20 years. It will likely be short lived since NMFS in an absurd ruling has created a new version of longline fishing named buoy fishing. In buoy fishing the longline is attached to a buoy with a specified number of hooks and then tied to the boat fishing. This is not supposed to be longline fishing but the reduction in the number of small swordfish and other pelagic fish is evident. So much for expecting NMFS regulations to ever benefit anglers for long.

It is expected that the hurricane glances that have brushed the east coast will churn up the ocean enough that yellowfin tuna will return to end the season on a positive note. As everyone has noticed yellowfin fishing reduces slightly each year. It is a mere shadow of what anglers caught 20 year ago. Naturally, the problem is the huge number of purse seine boats fishing off the coast of Africa on the spawning yellowfin and bigeye tuna each year. Eight years ago their countries agreed in writing that they would reduce their landings. Naturally, after 8 years their landings keep increasing and the US ICCAT group does nothing, not even complain when it is evident that they are not reducing their landings and saving the US east coast fishery. Can anglers ever expect NMFS to get ICCAT to work? Clearly, ICCAT is a worthless organization.

After thirty-two years of expecting the European countries to follow their agreed to ICCAT rules seems absurd. Why do the US ICCAT reps expect the 33rd year to be different?

Go offshore fishing now! There are fish to be caught before the stripers arrive and the weather turns cold despite global warming.

This article is located here in JCAA’s Oct 2008 Newsletter.

I received the below report from fellow fishing friend Julie Ball from some fishing she did last week before the winds blew into the Chesapeake, sounds like some good fishing. Congrats to her on achieving 150 Virginia Citations, that is a heck of an accomplishment!

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My parents came into town from Florida for my birthday this week. This was bad timing for fishing, with not much of a break in the weather. We moved my birthday gathering from Tuesday to Monday evening, since Tuesday looked like the most fishable day of the week. Capt Skip Feller, captain of the Rudee Angler and supervisor of the Rudee Inlet Head boat fleet, kept hinting that he wanted to go fishing. Skip hadn’t fished on a “small” boat in years, and was itching to go. So, when the forecast was still W 10-15, we planned to point the bow east off Virginia Beach in our 31-footer and go as far as we could. Tuesday morning, the wind was from the SW at 15 to 18, but was supposed to drop to W at 10 after 7am. That didn’t happen. But, my parents were going fishing!

We left from the Virginia Beach Fishing Center around 8am, and made our way to the Chesapkeake Light Tower in 3 to 4 foot seas. The Backlash was there trolling for kings, and told us on the radio that he was going in early due to the weather. We looked around at the 3 to 4 footers, and decided to stay at the Light Tower and try to drop on a few wrecks. We put Skip to work, and he expertly maneuvered the boat over the wreck while we fished. After about an hour, the seas dropped to about 2 to 3 feet, and Robin gave Skip a break so he could fish. We hauled up several dozen nice keeper seabass to about 3 pounds.

At about noon, we noticed the seas had dropped to 1 to 2 feet, so we decided to see if we could make it to the Triangle wrecks, and we did. Again, the seas were 3 to 4 feet. My parents did great! Robin held the boat while we all fished again. We caught seabass to almost 5 pounds. After awhile, I noticed marks above the wreck that looked like bluefish. A few minutes later, Skip pulled up a CRUSHED seabass head. Ah-ha, they’re here! Let’s see how big they are. I broke out my Braid Slammer jigs on 50lb Power Pro line. A few minutes later, Skip was pulling up a seabass on the jig, and he shouted, “There he is!” A bluefish had taken his seabass and was hooked up. When it surfaced, I knew he was big enough! It was a stud! The next one hit the same way; he grabbed my seabass on the way up. It was another citation fish, although not as big as Skip’s. The seas had calmed to 1 to 2 feet again, and we headed back in at about 4pm with a cooler full of seabass and bluefish. I have a tough crew! And Skip caught fish for a change instead of taking others to catch them!

Back at the dock, Skip’s bluefish tipped the scale at a whopping 19lbs, 15oz which should be the new State Leading bluefish! Way to go Skip! I was also a happy camper, since I was able to obtain my goal for the year. My citation bluefish gave me my 150th Citation for the State of Virginia, giving me the 1st ever 6th Level Master Angler honors! I’m done!
Not bad for a crappy weather day of fishing!! Julie

Beginning in 2003 Stripers Forever has done an annual survey of their members’ fishing success for the season as well as soliciting their opinions on desired regulatory changes for striped bass. This survey is an important part of their work since it shows fishery managers how the public perceives the trends in the quality of this important fishery along the east coast.
It’s easy to fill out the survey:
1. Go to their website www.stripersforever.org and click on Fishing and Opinion Survey under Recent News on the right side of the home page.
2. From there just double click the attached fishing survey Word document, save it to your computer desktop and fill it out.
3. Then attach your completed survey to an e-mail back to them at stripers@whatifnet.com.

Although blustery weather is not allowing much opportunity for fishing on the open water, not many anglers are complaining since sheltered water is providing impressive speckled trout action. Plenty of fish averaging to three pounds are keeping casters busy. The most consistent speck action is happening in Rudee Inlet, Little Creek, Lynnhaven River, Back River, the Eastern Shore shallows, the Poquoson flats, and the Elizabeth River. Todd at Bayside Bait and Tackle reports that anglers are lining the beach in front of the old Duck Inn near the Lesner Bridge and leaving with buckets full of keeper specks, just like the “old days.” The best lures are chartreuse or red and white Mirrolures. Smoke-colored grubs and Gulp grubs are also producing.

Spot reports are scarce, with the great bite of the last few weeks dwindling to almost nil within the lower Bay inlets. Croaker catches are also slowing, but a few big heardheads are still providing some action in Lynnhaven Inlet, Rudee Inlet, and near the lower Bay Bridge Tunnels. Puppy drum are still generating a stir in the backwater areas, where hopeful die-hard spot anglers are scoring with nice pups in the 5 to 12-pound range in both Lynnhaven and Rudee Inlets. Surf anglers are also experiencing good puppy drum encounters on cut bait from Fort Story to Sandbridge.

Although this season’s king mackerel run was a good one, the recent string of blows has dropped water temperatures into the upper 60’s, which may have cut the run short. The same goes for cobia. Dave Trax, skipper of the Oblivion and a local king expert, maintains that 67 degrees is the cut-off for Virginia king mackerel action. The king bite out of Carolina is fantastic lately though, with several boats reporting limits of kings each day. Big red drum are still a possibility along the ocean front, along the Eastern Shore shoals, and near the 3rd island of the CBBT. The bull red action off the Little Island Fishing Pier and the surf line slowed up this week.

Striped bass are becoming more active, but not much bigger…yet. But, since the water temperatures are finally beginning to drop, bigger fish should begin moving in soon. Chunking and live baiting is still your best bet for a larger class of fish. Casters are scoring with schoolie-sized rockfish between 20 to 22-inches along the Monitor Merrimack, the James River Bridge, the HRBT, and the CBBT, especially during night time hours. Wire liners are also boating fish ranging from 24 to 26-inches from the tubes of the CBBT this week. Lots of bluefish to around 5-pounds and small gray tout are rounding out most catches.

Flounder are scarce with the muddy water right now. Drifting strip baits along the Baltimore Channel, near buoy 36A, along Cape Henry, and the small boat channel are good places to try when the wind breaks. Working bait and jigs around the CBBT structure can also prove effective for big flatties. These fish are fat in preparation for their migration offshore.

The inshore and bay tautog bite is beginning to draw more interest as reports of keeper fish up to 8-pounds are trickling in. Several keepers were boated from around the artificial islands of the CBBT this week on blue crab. Wreck action is also taking off nicely with ample numbers of respectable seabass in the 3 to 5-pound range becoming active on both inshore and offshore wrecks, with trigger fish still available in the same areas. Chopper bluefish are circling offshore structures. Captain Skip Feller of Virginia Beach landed the new State Leading bluefish when the chopper took his seabass while wreck fishing with Dr. Julie Ball and crew. His fish tipped the scale at 19-pounds, 15-ounces. Also look for a possible bluefin tuna sighting to surface soon in these same areas.

Offshore, it has been difficult to get out due to weather. When boats could make it to the deep, wahoo were providing some action, along with a few bill fish and bailer dolphin. This line-up can change considerably since the good water has moved out. Once overnight trips resume, more swordfish are a good possibility.
Dr. Julie Ball
IGFA Representative

Virginia’s Eastern Shore Fishing Report
Chincoteague - According to Donna at Captain Bob’s, fishing has been slow out of Chincoteague. Windy conditions kept fishing at a minimum over the past few weeks. On the good nights, a few large striped bass were caught under the Queen’s Sound Bridge.

Wachapreague -At Captain Zed’s, anglers were looking for flounder, but found very few keepers. From the dock at Wachapreague, bluefish, spot, and croaker were landed. Offshore, there was little action. One citation black sea bass (5 pounds, 2 ounces) was reported from the wrecks.

Virginia’s Middle Bay Fishing Report
by Jerry Thrash From Patriot Charters and Queens Creek Outfitters
Jerry writes: “This was a speckled trout week.  We weighed three citation-sized fish and recorded one release citation through Saturday, one of the weight citations was not validated because the fisherman was using a NC license.   Water temps were about 70 degrees until the winds came.  2-3 days of the NE blow should finish the spot. There are still a lot of Blue fish in the creeks and rivers and along the bars in the bay. Keeper grey trout continue to be caught in the Piankatank with best numbers coming at the edge of dark. There are also a lot of small red drum in the shallows, especially in grassy areas and in areas with hard bottom. Flounder catches have improved in the Buoy 36A and 38 areas.  One of our employees had 2 keeper flounder near the Coleman Bridge Friday night along with a limit of grey trout, six speckled trout and two puppy drum. Mobjack Bay is producing good numbers of speckled trout and the Piankatank is becoming more productive as well. Striper anglers fishing for school-sized fish are better off fishing at first light and just before dark and sticking to the shallows and/or structure with small jigs and soft plastics or live bait.    Schooling activity won’t start until the water temps fall below 60 degrees.

CITATIONS:
SPECKLED TROUT
26″, 6 lbs, 8 oz caught  10/14 by Jim Ruliffson of Hudgins in the Piankatank on a jig and an artificial minnow.
24.5″, 5 lbs, 4 oz caught  10/18 by Craig Balderson of Aylett in the Mobjack on a Mirrolure.
Release, 26.25″, caught and released on 10/18 in the Ware River by Keith Nuttall of Gloucester on a Mirrolure.
CROAKER, 20.75″, 3 lbs, 8 oz, caught 10/15 at Cape Charles on squid by E.W. Inge of Moon.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS) announced in the October 17, 2008, Federal Register that the requirements set by Executive Order 13449 which established striped bass and red drum as gamefish have been fulfilled. NMFS determined that the current rules banning the sale of striped bass and red drum caught in federal waters in the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico achieve the intent of Executive Order 13449, signed by President George W. Bush on October 20, 2007.

“This ruling ensures that striped bass and red drum will survive and grow for generations of anglers to enjoy,” ASA President and CEO Mike Nussman said. “We are very pleased that NMFS has completed this ruling ensuring that federal waters will be closed to commercial fishing for these important gamefish.”

Executive Order 13449 established gamefish status for striped bass and red drum in federal waters. Gamefish status means that the two species are provided regulations and management measures to promote their well-being as a fish sought for recreational fishing and not for sale if caught in federal waters.

This announcement insures the recreational, economic and environmental benefits of two of the most popular gamefish in the United States. The order protects the fisheries in federal waters from commercial harvest, which include three miles to 200 miles offshore. The Order does not cover state waters, which go from the coastline to three miles offshore. Many states have conferred gamefish status for these species and the executive order encourages those that have not conferred gamefish status to do so. The announcement on October 17, 2008 signifies that the regulatory requirements of the executive order were fulfilled.

Matt Smart was fishing on a party boat out of Raritan Bay, Atlantic Highlands NJ with Capt. Ron Santee.  They drifted over the clam beds in about 15 to 25 feet of water behind the commercial clamming boats. The recent temperature drops and NE wind seemed to have brought in some of the bass from Long Island.  They found several large schools of bass consisting mostly of 28-32 inch bass with a few 38+ inch mixed in with each pod.  The fish in the picture was about 38 inches and 20 lbs.  The largest fish of the day was a 25 lb. bass.

Way to go Matt! Thanks for sending in the picture, we look forward to seeing more of you in Lateral Line gear with big stripers this season!

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section approved initiation of an addendum to explore additional options to control harvest in Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine).  Five specific measures will be considered for inclusion in the final draft: (1) monthly or bimonthly quotas with payback and carry over; (2) determination of landing and fishing days; (3) no fishing prior to June 1; (4) timely reporting of state-registered landings; and (5) restricted harvest of juvenile fish.

Currently, effort in Area 1A is controlled through a days at sea restriction. However, a 25 percent decrease in the Area 1A total allowable catch and a federal mid-water trawl ban from June 1 to September 30 have significantly changed the fishery since Amendment 2 implementation, limiting the overall effectiveness of the days at sea restriction to control harvest and effort.  The new addendum will seek to identify additional management tools to better control effort in the fishery.

The Section will seek input from its Technical Committee, Advisory Panel, and the Commission’s Law Enforcement Committee on the five measures and provide guidance to the Plan Development Team at the next Section meeting, scheduled for February 2009. For more information, please contact Christopher Vonderweidt, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at cvonderweidt@asmfc.org  or (202) 289-6400.

I received a call from fishing buddy Wild Bill yesterday saying he was reading an article in Smithsonian Magazine that was talking about how the size and numbers of fish have decreased over the years. The Senior Editor, Laura, of the Smithsonian printed pictures of typical catches from a Key West boat named Gulf Stream in 1957 and again in 1958 , 1983 and 2007. The boat has been updated to the Gulf Stream III and runs from the same slip. The contrast in the catches is striking. A link is not year on their site. If you have access to the Smithsonian, look at pages 56 to 58 in the September issue for a pictorial of how the fishing has changed. The catch in 1957 compared to 2007 is beyond startling. Laura fished a day on the Gulf Stream III and ends the editorial with: ” It was poignant to see so much excitement over catching [little] fish. The people on the boat don’t have any sense that it has changed so much.”

Wild Bill’s call sparked some interest so I went to the Smithsonian website to look around. I came across an article titled “Our Imperiled Oceans: Victory at Sea“which talks about a large reserve that was created in the Phoenix Islands in the Pacific, “Phoenix Islands, a remote, largely unpopulated archipelago 1,000 miles east of Tarawa. The 158,000-square-mile Phoenix Islands Protected Area, covering about 12 percent of Kiribati’s watery domain, holds some of the world’s most pristine coral reefs as well as a great abundance and diversity of tropical marine life. And it’s the first reserve to place such a large area of open ocean off-limits to commercial fishing. The reserve is one of the planet’s ecological bright spots, the boldest, most dramatic effort to save the oceans’ coral reefs, the richest habitat in the seas.”

While the reserve part of the article is interesting, what is even more interesting is a discussion relating a syndrome called “the shifting baseline syndrome”

It was only in the 1990s that marine scientists became aware of what Daniel Pauly, a fisheries biologist at the University of British Columbia, calls the shifting baseline syndrome—the problem of establishing historic populations of marine life in a given species or community. Just what is a healthy number of, say, red snapper in the Gulf of Mexico? “Each generation [of scientists] accepts as a base line the stock size and species composition that occurred at the beginning of [that generation’s] career,”says Pauly. The result is that, over time, the expectation of the natural number of fish in the sea gets smaller and smaller—until the population is so small that even a modest environmental perturbation, or a tad more fishing, causes it to unexpectedly collapse as the cod population collapsed off Newfoundland and Labrador in the early 1990s. Sound familiar?

• Think that happened with blue crabs in the Chesapeake?….sure did.
• Think that happened with sea trout in the Chesapeake and along the east coast?…..sure did
• Think that happened with sturgeon in the Chesapeake?……sure did, wiped them out
• Think that happened with [u]oysters in the Chesaepake?….sure did, in fact our fisheries managers are so wacko that while they say we are at 1% of historic levels, they still allow for a commerical fishery that is clearly NOT sustainable…total joke (still waiting for CBF to come to their senses and make a statement like they did 10 years ago)
• Think that is what happened with Atlantic [U]blue fin tuna[/U].?..sure did, they will be gone soon, the NC fishery is about all gone already
• Think that is what happened with[U] tile fish [/U]in Florida, and almost happened in Virgina?…sure did
• Think that is what happened with [U]cod[/U] in the Northeast? ….sure did
• Think that is what is happening/happened with [U]menhaden [/U]along the east coast and now in the Chesapeake Bay?….bet it is…well in fact we know it happened, used to be 100 factories along the coast doing menhaden catching and processing, now we have one(1). Why is that? It’s because there are no more freaking menhaden to support the factories.
• Think that is what is happening again with [U]striped bass[/U]? (you would have thought we learned our lesson the first time)……I bet it is!

And I could go on, but I think everyone gets the point. If we do not get our head out of our rears sooner then later fishing for our next generation is going to put mildly, stink if not non-existent for many species. Will among the list of species not around in 50 years be striped bass? Is striped bass management a victim of shifting baseline syndrome? What do you think? Leave your comments, I’d be interested in hearing them

Brandon