Just when you think

Its over and everyones switching over to other fish were still catching the big ones. Anthony P. and crew got on the chew.

Some big uns

Nice day with a great family.Thanks Guys see you all next year!
Got some dates open next week.The bass should be around a few more weeks!

NSS is here

Check out this Simrad NSS 12 touch screen in action

Birddog 1

Birddog 1 with a 41 pounder

Cable guys part 2

Cable guys are back for some more. KC gets his first lunker!

Happy Fathers day

Kyle King and his dad great day on the water not the best bite but still a great day. ON Sat. Mike W. came down but we just could not find a bite Thanks Mike for a great effort

Bunker wars

Nick C. from Tusnami Co. got out for a few hours last night. The good folks at the Tusnami co. are building some really great rods for very reasonable prices. Check out the new Trophy Series Jig rods at your local bait and tackle shops. Or better yet come on out fishing with us and check them out in action!

How we like it

Mike D. catch and release master had the winning ticket all day!

Good fishing

Cable guys had a great day

Let a few go! Please

Ok I have to get this off my chest, I can't begin to tell you how much it kills me to watch other charter captains in boat after boat just load the coolers with these awesome fish. There is no reason to kill 3 or even 2 bass per person when the fish are all over 25 pounds. People must know that the entire biomass of stripers is down to just a few miles of fish and they just happen to be feeding in our waters, want proof look at the reports from around the tri state all the fish are being caught right here right now! Please try to respect these fish! The future of striped bass is up to you.

Big Day

Lots of fish Sam, John and Cory had the best day of the year so far!

Good fishing

The good fishing continues with steady action. Steve T. and crew had fun with tons of bunker all around us most of the day, we followed one school for a few hours.

Little guy scores big

Andrew D. got his 1st bass (and a few more) fishing with his dad Bruce, aunt Bonnie and uncle Mark.

A Foggy Day

Weathermen got to love them! Its needless to say it was foggy today we still squeaked out a bite it was not easy but we got them. Bob S. and Tom P. teamed up to split a trip. A call from Capt. Richie K. saved the day

The 2 Week Roundup

Some fun fishing going on for the last two weeks even with all the crazy weather we have been having. The river fishing was fair last week but with lots of 5 pound blues for just about every trip. Evan Sullivan was back with his Dad and Uncle and they had a blast with nonstop action . Mike Roth got about the same but all on the fly. Then George G. and son and crew came down and whaled on them also. Anthony P. and his dad fished the ultra lights for good bite too. Meanwhile back at the ranch Mike D. scored big with a full on bait spraying mad dog ! Stay tuned.

late report

Sorry Greg Prestosh for your late report . It was great fishing with you and your son. Some nice fish are coming into our area waters right now! Stay tuned

More plug fish

Some bigger bass and more blues today

Keep on plugin

Ethan Dennis and his brother got in on some backwater bassin before the winds. We also had are first bluefish for the spring.

A little recon

Helped a buddy move his 25 Contender and got to do a little recon up north it didnt take us long to find a good jig bite going on in 22ft of water fish were right on the bottom the reads on the fishfinder were impressive at times and it looks like a nice body of fish is moving into the area waters. Our biggest went 15 lbs, now if can just get a break with the winds and cold. I will to continue to fish the back waters in our skiff for the next few weeks I still have some dates in May but we are filling pretty fast.

Kids Week and crazy weather.

Brain and Evan Sullivan braved both fog and cold, They worked very hard today and did a great job casting but with just one fish to show for it. Evan did get his 1st striped bass, a nice 7 1/2 pounder that he released after the photo.

1st time

1st time striped bass fishermen Billy Horn and Alex Jones get in on some plugin action!

Back in action

Anthony P. starts things off right for a quick shot on the backwater tides! It has been a long winter but we are off to a very good start. The Mako is up and running thru May for backwater fishing trips for 1 to 3 anglers. Call us if you want to get out and catch some fish!

Remember the Weakfish!

Great News from ASMFC

They are starting to get it!

ASMFC Atlantic Striped Bass Board Initiates Addendum to Reduce Fishing Mortality

Alexandria, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board has initiated development of Draft Addendum III with the goals of reducing striped bass fishing mortality (F) up to 40% and further protecting spawning stock when it is concentrated and vulnerable. The addendum was initiated in order to allow managers to promptly respond to the results of the stock assessment update in the fall if necessary. Provisions of the addendum, if passed, could be implemented prior to the start of the 2012 fishing year.

The Board’s action responds to recent trends in the fishery and resource, including a 66% decline in estimated recreational catch from 2006 to 2009; a 25% decline in estimated striped bass abundance from 2004 to 2008; and lowered recruitment in recent years. Additionally, states in the northern extent of the fishery have expressed concern over decreased availability of striped bass as a result of the diminished water quality in the Chesapeake Bay during the summer months that may also contribute to increased prevalence of mycobacteriosis in striped bass.

Draft Addendum III will propose a range of fishing management measures including, but not limited to, adjustments to commercial and recreational minimum size (for jurisdictions outside Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound/Roanoke River), reductions in annual coastal commercial allocation, reductions in recreational bag limits, revisions to the target F rate (for Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound/Roanoke River), and reductions on fishing for striped bass in known spawning areas during the spawning season by at least 50% (for jurisdictions bordering the Hudson River, Delaware River, Chesapeake Bay and Albemarle Sound/Roanoke River).

The commercial and recreational fishery is currently managed through Amendment 6 to the Striped Bass Fishery Management Plan. The Amendment, passed in 2003, allocates the coastal commercial quota and set a two fish bag limit and a 28 inch size minimum for the recreational fishery, with the exception of the Chesapeake Bay fisheries, Albemarle Sound/Roanoke River fisheries, and states with approved alternative regulations.

The Draft Addendum will be developed for preliminary review by the Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board in August. For more information, please contact Kate Taylor, Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at ktaylor@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.

Its almost that time!

Ok here we go on our 11th season, Hopefully they left us a few bass down south this year. It looks like some good things may come from all the media about the throwbacks. Gas prices are becoming a problem I will have to add a surcharge at the time of the trips depending on pump price. Now for the good news the back bays are to open fish for striped bass and the saltwater fishing will remain free from shore. Some fish have been reported down the bay already! The Mako is ready to go with a new Lowrance sonar. I have moved over the LCX 113 from the Contender. I am looking forward to fishing this spring and will be out every day starting in the next few weeks. I am going to be up at Suffrin sports show this weekend Friday and Sat. at the Lowrance booth stop by say hello or give us a call to book your trips for this spring.

Update MDNR closes Gill nets down

February 4, 2011- Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) just announced that the current commercial gill net season has been closed until the Department determines the extent of illegal nets and their impact on the remaining quota. The announcement follows the discovery of submerged nets near Bloody Point over the past several days that held more than 10 tons of striped bass. The announcement was made by DNR Deputy Secretary Joseph Gill at an Annapolis news conference this afternoon. “Today’s announcement demonstrates that illegal fishing that steals the resource from all Marylanders will not be tolerated,” said CCA Maryland Executive Director Tony Friedrich. “The Department, Secretary Griffin and Fisheries Director Tom O’Connell are to be congratulated for their swift, decisive action. Also, the Natural Resources Police should be commended for their hard work. We look forward to working with the Department and other stakeholders to ensure the penalties for these types of crimes are strengthened and those responsible are held fully accountable.
While the gill net season would normally close at the end of this month or earlier if the allocation were reached, today’s announcement means all nets must be pulled now. The season could be re-opened later in the month if DNR determines that illegal nets nets are no longer a threat to the resource and that the commercial quota has not been caught, according to Friedrich.
Gill also announced a $5,000 reward for help in the arrest and conviction of those who have placed the illegal nets already discovered. CCA Maryland has added $1,000 to that reward.
“We encourage members to contribute to a fund that will support the reward,” Friedrich said. “Checks should be made out to ‘CCA MD’ with ‘gill net fund’ indicated on the check. They should be mailed to the state office, 701 Melvin Ave., Suite B, Annapolis, MD 21401.

And if NC is not killing them!

---

(from Baltimore Sun)

Quote:

For the second consecutive day, Natural Resources Police officers pulled illegal nets from the Chesapeake Bay Wednesday filled to the brim with striped bass. In total, they have seized 10 tons of illegally caught fish, the largest haul of its type since the end of the rockfish moratorium more than two decades ago. After detecting poachers' nets Monday night, patrol boats with grappling hooks snagged nets near Bloody Point at the southern tip of Kent Island Tuesday morning, Tuesday night and again Wednesday afternoon. They pulled up 2.8 tons, 3.5 tons and 3.5 tons. In addition, an officer found a 2,100-yard submerged net Sunday in the Choptank River. It had just three fish in it, indicating it had been freshly set. The commercial gill net season opened Tuesday. Marked nets that float and are monitored by fisherman are legal; hidden, anchored nets are not. "We're going back out at first light," said NRP Sgt. Art Windemuth. "We've got officers who have been reassigned, working 18 hours a day. Any place that has water, we're looking." While the investigation continues, Windemuth acknowledges they don't know who set these nets and may never know. The discovery has unleashed a firestorm of criticism from fisheries regulators and the conservation and recreational communities. Ed Liccione, chairman of the 1,400-member Coastal Conservation Association Maryland, called the total "jaw-dropping" and vowed to ask the General Assembly for a ban on nets if the commercial industry doesn't "get its own house in order." Yesterday, the Maryland Watermen's Association added its voice to the call for action and begged watermen to turn in the renegades. "It's just a handful of bad apples. They're out of control," said Larry Simns, president of the Maryland Watermen's Association. "They don't think the laws apply to them. It's not fair to the guys who do this honestly." Poachers flood the market early in the season, causing a drop in prices. In addition, the fish seized by NRP are weighed and counting against the monthly quota. The February quota is 415,359 pounds. Simns said fed-up watermen have been tipping NRP to the locations of nets. "It's hard to catch them red-handed, but I think they will," he said. "It's only a matter of time." Striped bass is the state fish and the Chesapeake Bay is the spawning ground and nursery for about 75 percent of the stock on the Eastern Seaboard. Decades of overfishing led to a five-year fishing moratorium that ended in 1990 to give the population a chance to rebound. As a result, what happens in Maryland is of interest up and down the coast. Fishing websites are filled with the news of NRP's bust and Fisheries Service Director Tom O'Connell said he got a call from the head of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Service, the regional regulatory authority which sets Maryland's striped bass quota, asking for an update. Despite toughening regulations and penalties last year and creating with a district court a pilot program to hear natural resources cases exclusively in Annapolis, O'Connell said the poaching issue will have to be revisited. "It's become clear that the penalty isn't strong enough to deter this kind of action," O'Connell said. "We are in discussions now about legislation." Recreational fishing groups stand ready to lobby for those changes. Dave Smith, executive director of the 7,000-member Maryland Saltwater Sportfishermen's Association, said, "This has got to stop." "Recreational anglers have to get together and go to the General Assembly and say 'Let's get serious,'" he said. Drifting gill nets are legal in Maryland waters from Jan. 1 to Feb. 28. Watermen must mark their nets and be within two miles of them. The Department of Natural Resources can close the season early if its appears watermen are going to exceed their monthly quota. This year, the season closed on Jan. 17 and reopened on Feb. 1. Anchored gill nets — more efficient and deadly and harder to detect — have been illegal since 1985. If convicted, poachers can be fined $1,000 for a first offense plus $1,500 per each striped bass. The state's points and penalties system for watermen, which took effect last February, could result in license suspensions or revocations.

N.C.

Just got this off the Outer Banks Voice.

Rob Morris | February 2, 2011

Trawlers at Oregon Inlet Thursday. (Voice photo)
State officials spotted 251 dead fish off Oregon Inlet and on the beach at Pea Island National Wildlife Refuge Thursday as the commercial season for striped bass reopened for two days under new rules meant to reduce losses.

More fish might be found in the surf and along beaches Friday morning, a spokeswoman for the state Division of Marine Fisheries said.

“It’s choppy out there, so we don’t know what’s washing ashore,” said the DMF’s Patricia Smith.

Attention has been focused on commercial fishing off the Outer Banks since a large kill was documented by recreational anglers and circulated on the Internet last month.

The ensuing uproar led to changing daily catch limits from 50 fish to 2,000 pounds. The new rule also allowed offloading excess catches to other properly licensed boats.

It was aimed at eliminating waste and discouraging high grading, the practice of discarding legal fish for larger ones to maximize poundage within limits that had been based on numbers. It was the first time the rule had been changed in 15 years.

Smith said the fisheries agency sent a plane to investigate after receiving a call about the dead fish. Officials counted 200 offshore. Another 41 were found along a four-mile stretch of the Pea Island National Wildlife refuge and 10 were in the surf, Smith said.

It was not known if any one trawler was the source, but Smith said it appeared the dead fish were the byproduct of culling. Of the 41 fish on the beach, 24 were under the legal size of 28 inches, she said.

“Culling is a part of any fishing operation,” she said.

Also not known was whether the number of dead fish would be considered within reason for culling when numerous trawlers are just offshore. At mid-afternoon, at least four trawlers could be seen around Oregon Inlet.

An overloaded fishing net was the apparent source of hundreds of striped bass seen dead in the ocean off the Dare County coast last month.

The captain of the trawler Jamie Lynn estimated that 3,000 to 4,000 fish were released from the net because it was too heavy to bring onto the boat, the North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries said in a statement.

Marine fisheries issues proclamations for a limited number of days for fishing. Additional proclamations can be issued until the state reaches an annual quota

Where are all the bass?

I have talking about this for years, The good ol boys are turning on their own now! All I can say is go read about what man did to the Buffalo.

Commercial fishermen trawling off of the Outer Banks of North Carolina are slaughtering thousands of striped bass in “culling” operations and tossing them overboard trying to keep larger stripers and remain under their 50 fish limit.

Both recreational anglers and smaller operation commercial fishermen have been aghast at the actions of the trawlers who are wiping out massive schools of stripers and discarding smaller fish to stay under the state 50 fish creel but maximize their profits.

A video of the striper carnage has been posted on You Tube showing some of the thousands of floating dead fish left in the wake of the trawlers. Outer Banks fishermen who are witnessing the fish kill have been taking to message boards and calling authorities to protest this striped bass massacre.

“It’s an atrocity,” said Captain Aaron Kelly, a top striper guide with over 15 years of experience on the Outer Banks. “It’s gone on before but I think this was the first time it was in front of such a large crowd.”

Captain Kelly said that the day before the video was shot he and the members of his charter followed one trawler for five miles leaving a long wake of dead stripers.

“It’s like they have an endless quota,” he said. “Under the actual numbers are so many dead fish. It’s a frightful waste.”

The striper trawling season is not set to close until this Saturday, January 20. The fishery can be closed earlier if a certain quota is reached, but the quota does not count the thousands of dead discards.

Captain JH Miller was on the water the day the video was made and called the scene “disturbing.”

“I’m not anti-commercial fishing in the least bit, but there is no justification for leaving miles and miles of dead fish out there,” said Captain Miller. “These were legal-sized fish just thrown away to die.”

Striped bass have to be 28 inches in size to be kept legally, and all of the charter captains confirmed that among the thousands of dead stripers were many that were over 28 inches and in the 15 pound range and higher.

Captain Ray grew up in the area and has fished the Outer Banks for decades.

“It’s happened before but this year is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Captain Ray. “I saw three huge masses of dead stripers from Nags Head to Kitty Hawk. It would be so much simpler if they were allowed a certain amount of pounds and would come in when they caught that many. I have no clue about why they allow this kind of sickening discard.”

Because the trawlers are inside the federal 3 mile limit and not keeping over 50 stripers they may not be technically breaking the law by killing scores of dead fish and throwing them overboard in order to keep netting.

Both Captain Kelly and Captain Ray said the Coast Guard was flying planes and helicopters very low over the area and must have seen the carnage. The Coast Guard has been closely monitoring recreational and smaller commercial fishing boats during the striper season.

Captain Miller said he called the Division of Marine Fisheries hotline for violations today and was told no one was working.

“Even if they are not breaking the law you’d think the Coast Guard could get on for just the pollution like they do the menhaden boats,” said Captain Ray.

The charter captains said that some recreational boats simply gaffed some of the legal stripers and took them aboard to count towards their limits so the fish would not be wasted.

“Commercial fishermen talk about protecting their livelihood all the time,” said Captain Kelly. “But these big stripers they’re throwing out dead, that’s their livelihood right there.”

Continue reading on Examiner.com: Commercial trawlers slaughtering thousands of striped bass off the Outer Banks - Charlotte Fish and Wildlife Policy | Examiner.com http://www.examiner.com/fish-and-wildlife-policy-in-charlotte/commercial-trawlers-slaughtering-thousands-of-striped-bass-off-the-outer-banks#ixzz1BTfCDO8t

Happy New Year

I want to wish everyone a Happy NewYear!

Happy New Year