Article: Sea bass will be tough catch for anglers

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Sea bass will be tough catch for anglers

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 09/16/07

The next couple of weeks could be tough for boaters targeting the artificial reefs and rough bottom for sea bass and porgies.

Capt. Willie Egerter Jr., owner of the Dauntless out of Broadway Basin, Point Pleasant Beach, said the fluke boats now targeting the bass and porgies are putting additional strain on the bottom fishing grounds.

"There just aren't going to be enough fish to go around," he said. "There's been no new movement of sea bass or porgies yet."

Egerter has seen it all before, of course. He recalls the 1950s and '60s when there were big fluctuations in numbers of fish — all before regulations created hardships for the fleet.

"We're catching the same old inshore Jersey sea bass — 8 to 10 inches long — and some porgies," he pointed out. "It's not going to be easy for us for maybe a couple of weeks."

Last year the middle of September was easier. The fluke season stayed open longer, the water temperature dropped out of the 70s earlier, and the bass and porgies began to move sooner.

"We do catch some triggerfish," he said. "They put up a good fight, and the people like them, but we're not seeing any croakers yet. There aren't many north of Barnegat Inlet."

The Dauntless has been ranging anywhere from the Sandy Hook Artificial Reef to the Graveyard, the Sea Girt and Axel Carlson reefs, the Klondike Banks, smaller wrecks and rough spots inshore to the Mud Hole where there are some ling.

"Ling fishing isn't as good as it was earlier in the summer," he said. "There are still some nice ling around, but not in the numbers we saw earlier."

The porgies that are being caught are mostly nice-sized fish, over 10 to 12 inches in length, but the big numbers are not there yet.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council decided on the limits for porgies and sea bass for 2008, and it was in response to decreased biomass for bass and perceived overfishing for porgies.

The quota for sea bass was cut from 6.5 million pounds this year to 4.22 million pounds in 2008, and the quota for porgies was cut from 13.5 million pounds this year to 7.34 million pounds in 2008.

"I've seen years when we didn't have the fish," he said. "Back in 1968 there were no bass and porgies, and it was tough. We'd go up to Elberon and Sea Bright, and catch nothing but bergalls."

He recalled the bottom fishing drought was so bad for awhile that he turned to fishing for blues, running daily to Barnegat Ridge with the boats out of Belmar, Brielle and Point Pleasant Beach.

"I had a good bluefish business for several years, and then the blues started averaging smaller, and there weren't as many people going, and I switched back to bottom fishing, and I've been doing it ever since," he added.

One annoying thing about the regulations that could have helped bottom fishermen now is the prohibition on the landing of winter flounders. There are some really nice flounders out there — fish in the 2-to-4-pound class — but they can only be taken by trawlers. Hook and line flounder fishing is prohibited.

Egerter said he cannot understand the reasoning. A dragger can take 500 pounds of winter flounders, and anglers on the Dauntless cannot land 10 or 15.

"It doesn't make any sense," he said. "We couldn't hurt the resource in a lifetime at the rate we catch winter flounders."

Shorter days trigger fish movements, but shorter days coupled with cool waters really move the fish. "It's started," Egerter said. "But they're not moving fast because of that water temperature. As soon as the water gets into the low 60s, we'll see the fish."

A fish that showed signs of a comeback this summer was the whiting. The commercial boats were able to put together some nice catches of whiting in the Mud Hole.

"Fishing was good there for awhile," Egerter said. "But then they seemed to disappear."

There has been no recreational whiting fishery to speak of in the Shore area since 1994, and a comeback of this species would be welcomed in late fall and early winter.