November 19, 2010

Yes, FRESH BUNKER, SURF CLAMS, LIVE GREEN CRABS and LIVE EELS along with BUNKER or CLAM CHUM are all in stock.

Dennis Benzenhafer of Waterford Works, NJ weighed-in a 17-lb 8-oz 37-1/4" Striped Bass that he caught in the Holgate Surf this morning using bunker.

Rick Wieland of Ship Bottom, NJ weighed-in a 19-lb 14-oz 40" Striped Bass that he caught in the Ship Bottom surf this morning using bunker.

Received: Nov 19, 2010 3:48 PM Subject: Report Friday 11/19 Brick Beach

Got in the water just before 0600. Light WNW wind, tide maybe a half hour into the outgoing. After sun-up, bright skies. No current to speak of, water pretty flat. Again, most guys throwing AVA jigs with a teaser. Two guys with bait sticks (clam). A lot of fluke were being hooked, did not see any bass. When I got on the beach, there was a pod of bunker just out of casting range. It move North quickly. Consensus amongst the men was - bunker in the water, the bass don't want the sand eel (or our AVA jigs). Tried Storm lures, top water plugs - no good. Looking North toward Point Pleasant, you could see enough boats just outside the inlet to constitute an armada. They were most likely sitting on top of the bunker. Most guys were gone by 0800. I hung out till 0915 with a few more fluke but no bass. Water feels a little colder than it has been.

~ Anthony - Brick, NJ

November 18, 2010

8:45 PM

SURF:

The bunker was in tight to the beach today. We have received reports from all around the Island from the BL Inlet all the way down to Holgate. There was bunker out the WAZOO today! And we had a bunch of weigh ins most were caught chunking or live lining bunker.

- Fred Laroche of Barnegat weighed in a 41” 24-lb 8oz striper. He caught the bass mid-island just after dark on bunker.

- John Sanford of Barnegat weighed in two 18-lb fish (an 18-lb 13-oz and 18-lb 11-oz). He was live lining mullet off of the surf mid-island.

- Anothny Cucinotta of Beach Haven weighed in a 11-lb 12oz bluefish that he caught off of the Brant Beach surf.

- Patti & Brain Dalton of Tabernacle had a late start but still got into the action. Patti weighed in a 20-lb 3-oz bass and a 12-lb 3-oz bluefish. They had three bass and four blues mid-island.

- Tom Law Sr of Beach Haven weighed in a 19-lb 9-oz bass he got on bunker.

- Craig Lindsay of Lansdale, PA stopped into the shop a couple times today. He was fishing the beach with frozen bunker and was banging fish all day.

BOAT:

The boat fishing picked up just where it left of before the “mini” blow. The fishing in the boat was epic today! BIRDS, BUNKER, BASS & BLUES!!!

Tom Lewis broke the BL Inlet in the dark this morning and headed north. He found bird working and got into the fish. He said, "There wasn’t a boat around. I was catching fish. I turned my back and the army invaded. I was bombarded by boats!” He had bass and blues jigging bucktails and metal as well as casting plugs. The bluefish were tearing gear up.

Capt. Adam of Shore Catch Guide Service was on the water again today. He went out late morning with a couple friends and got into ‘em good. He went north out of the BL Inlet and instantly ran into fish. They jigged up a number of bass; however, their biggest (~28-lbs) was caught on a live bunker.

Greg, Ed and Joni (all FHQ Staff) got into the action early this morning and kept with it until midday when they had to quit in order to get back to the shop for the afternoon shift. They reported an epic day with bass on lures. Joni said the bass wanted 5” Red-Fins! They had fish on other plugs too and it was a catch on every cast. Greg mentioned that he had two handfuls of bass on the new Shimano Butterfly Jigs (Slidend & Whirligig in Squid White) as well as a boat load of bass on Vintage Cordell Red-Fin lures as well as Stillwater BeachRunner and Rapala X-Rap. “You had to slow crawl the plug to get the bass. They couldn’t resist!” Ed worked the tubed AVA 47 and 67 metals to put up good numbers of bass as well as a handful of blues. Ed also worked the lipped swimmer when the fish were on top (which was most of the day).

INLET:

One customer stopped in the shop and reported that he was covered up in stripers this morning and again this evening at the BL Rocks. He said that his dawn patrol was so good that he had to get more. He said that for the most part the bass were small but he had a couple keepers.

BAY:

A customer stopped in this evening to load up on live eels. He was raving about his recent success. He said the sod banks are producing a number of fish for him. Some in the twenty plus range!

Received: Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 4:52 PM Subject: Surf Report 11/18 - Mantaloking

1010 hrs - I was in water before first light near Downer (Mantaloking). Once the sun popped, it was bright - no cloud cover. Half a mile to my left and right were surfcasters, almost shoulder to shoulder. Wind was very light out of the west, surf pretty flat. Out-going tide ( low around 1120am) made it easier to wade out further on the bar. Bass were breaking water out about 3/4 of the cast length. Only saw two guys throwing bait (they said clam ). Current wasn't pulling hard either way like the last few days, so 5 oz was holding. Most guys were throwing Ava jigs (first black, then bright colors) with a white feather teaser. The water was loaded with sand eel - fluke and sundial were hitting but the bass were stand-off-ish. Almost everyone left by 0800. I stayed till 0930 with more fluke but no bass. By 1300 should have the water coming in and still be able to walk safely out on the bar. More later.

1625 hrs - Hit the beach around 1245. A little overcast, the west wind picked up a little. was able to get out on the bar and cast. First 45 minutes had a schoolie bass (18") and two fluke on AVA w/red tail. Then it all shut off. The handful of men in the surf left. Only one was throwing bait (clam). At about 1530, guys started to show up, throw AVA again but didn't see anything hooked. The water was coming in good, so most were casting from the shore line. There was a lot of bluefish explosions all afternoon, but much too far out to cast. A few men who just came from Point Pleasant said the bunker were in close enough to snag, but didn't see any blues hooked. Try tonight or tomorrow.

~ Anthony Lombardo

Received: Nov 18, 2010 6:50 PM Subject: 2011 Sea Bass proposal

Can you post the following information from the Atlantic States Fisheries Management Council. This is more bad news for the fishermen and for the fishing boats. If this goes through, this could signal the end for some of our favorite party boats. First, here is a link to write to US Senator Robert Menendez from New Jersey. Believe it or not, he does eventually write back.

http://menendez.senate.gov/contact/

Thanks, Jim T., Bridgewater, NJ

Here is the information from the ASFMC:
MID-ATLANTIC FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL
Richard B. Robins, Jr. 800 North State Street, Suite 201 Christopher M. Moore, Ph.D.
Chairman Dover, Delaware 19901-3910 Executive Director
Tel: 302-674-2331
Lee G. Anderson Toll Free: 877-446-2362
Vice-Chairman FAX: 302-674-5399
www.mafmc.org

M E M O R A N D U M
DATE: November 12, 2010
TO: Black Sea Bass Monitoring Committee
FROM: Jessica Coakley
SUBJECT: Black Sea Bass Recreational Management Measures for 2011

The Black Sea Bass Monitoring Committee and the Science and Statistical Committee (SSC) met in July 2010 to review the most recent stock assessment information on black sea bass and make recommendations to the Council and Commission on the overall TAL and the recreational harvest limit for 2011. The Council recommended and the Commission adopted a TAL of 3.60 million lb for 2011.

The proposed rule has not yet filed. I do not expect the NMFS proposed rule will be different than the recommendations of the Council and Commission, given that 3.60 million lb is consistent with the recommendations of the SSC. Based on the allocation formula and subtracting the amount dedicated to the Research Set-Aside Program, the recreational harvest limit recommended by the Council and Commission in 2011 would be 1.78 million lb. The Committee must decide on the possession, size, and seasonal limits that will most likely achieve the recreational harvest limit in 2011. The following is a review of recreational catch and landings data for the black sea bass fishery. Also, detailed analyses of MRFSS intercept and catch data are included to help in the Committee's deliberations.

Recreational Catch and Landings
Recreational catch and landings of black sea bass have fluctuated since 1981. Recreational catches peaked in 1986 at 28.95 million fish and then fluctuated between 5.05 and 14.06 million fish from 1987 to 1999 (Table 1). Catches increased significantly in 2000 to 16.93 million fish and then dropped to 6.94 million fish in 2005, and were 9.09 million fish in 2009. Recreational landings peaked at 12.39 million lb in 1986 and then fluctuated between 1.15 and 6.21 million lb from 1987 to 2008. Landings were estimated at 2.32 million lb in 2009.

2
The 2010 MRFSS data are incomplete and preliminary. To date, only the first four waves of catch and landings data are available (Table 2). The Monitoring Committee does an early review of the MRFSS data because the Council and Commission agreed that recommendations would have to be made late in the current year (i.e., 2010) to give the states enough time to enact changes in their regulations for the upcoming year (i.e., 2011). Based on preliminary data for waves 1-4 (January through August), catch estimates in 2010 were 5.56 million fish and the number of landed fish was 1.23 million fish in 2010. Landings by weight for the first four waves of 2010 were 1.86 million lb and the mean weight of landed fish in 2010 was 1.51 lb. The highest black sea bass landings in 2010 waves 1-4 occurred in Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey (Table 3). Preliminary wave data for 2010 can be used to project catch and landings for the entire year. Projections are typically conducted using the prior year proportions by wave and the current year waves 1-4; however, given the recreational closure in late 2009/early 2010, the average proportion from 2006-2008 was used. Regulations for 2006-2008 were identical, with a season open all year. Assuming the same proportion of catch and landings by wave in 2006-2008, projected catch estimates for 2010 would be 7.36 million fish and projected landings would be 3.12 million lb (Table 1).

Past Harvest Limits and Management Measures
The Council and the Commission have recommended various recreational harvest limits and other management measures since the FMP was first implemented. Harvest limits in Federal waters were 3.15 million lb from 1998-2001, increased to a high of 4.13 million lb in 2005, and the limit was 1.83 million lbs in 2010 (Table 4). All states, with the exception of Massachusetts, adopted the Federal regulations of 25 fish, 12.5 inches TL minimum fish size, and an open season from May 22 to October 11 and November 1 to December 31 in 2010 (Table 5). Massachusetts opted for a more restrictive 20 fish possession limit, and adopted all other Federal regulations in 2010. Projected recreational landings for 2010 are approximately 70 percent above 2010 harvest limit.

Intercept Data and Regulatory Compliance
Landing frequencies for the first four waves of 2010 indicate that about 90 percent of the trips landed 6 or fewer fish per trip, with 50 percent of the successful trips landing between 1 and 2 black sea bass (Table 6). Compliance with the minimum fish size has been less than 100 percent. The coastwide percentage of fish less than the size limit was 14.4 in 2010 (Table 7). 2011 Federal Management Measures Projected estimates for 2010 indicate that landings will be above the 2011 recreational harvest limit. Changes in the possession and size limits or season could be modified to achieve the desired harvest level in 2011 (Tables 8 and 9). Based on the projected landing estimate for 2010 of 3.12 million lb, landings would have to be reduced by 43 percent to achieve the Council preferred and NMFS proposed harvest limit of 1.78 million lb for 2011.

3
There is uncertainty with the analyses used to evaluate the potential effects of specific sets of coastwide measures (i.e., minimum size, possession limits, and seasons) and the associated predicted landings. In addition, by using the 2010 data to evaluate 2011 measures, it is assumed that effort and availability will be the same in 2011 as in 2010. Table 10 suggests the proportion of directed black sea bass trips relative to total trips has varied between 0.4 and 1.2 percent, from 1991-2009. Predicting the number of trips that might be taken in 2011 is more complicated. Recreational fishing demand models are used to forecast the demand for fishing trips as well as to determine the value that anglers place on the various factors that affect their behavior. The models attempt to predict how changes in fishing site characteristics (travel costs, catch rates, available species, water quality, etc.), fishery management policies (possession limits, size restrictions, closed seasons), and angler characteristics (age, gender, race, income, etc.) affect the demand for angler fishing trips. Unfortunately, due to data constraints, the characteristics contained in the models are usually rather narrowly defined which limits the predictive capability of the models. This makes evaluation of changes in angler behavior difficult and complex. Changes in angler behavior may result in a breakdown in the assumptions associated with specific sets of regulations and their anticipated results. Shift in effort in response to closed seasons is difficult to predict (i.e., effort recoupment). As such, managers should rely on the tools which are considered to be most effective. Last year, this Committee described seasons as one of the more effective tools to constrain landings to the recreational harvest limits; particularly during high effort/landing time periods. In the past, this Committee has discussed the complex life history strategies utilized by black sea bass which may make it sensitive to fishery disturbance during spawning. This Committee has also discussed setting a ceiling on minimum size recommendations such that adjustments must be made through possession limits and seasons. I compiled the following options for Federal regulations which meet the 43 percent reduction:

1) maintain the current minimum fish size and adjust the possession limit and season; regulations would include a 12.5 inch TL minimum fish size, 2 fish possession limit (-23 fish), and an open season from June 1 through July 31 and November 1 through December 31; [0.2622+0.2410-0.0632] = total reduction* = 44.0 percent

2) maintain the current minimum fish size adjust the possession limit and season; regulations would include a 12.5 inch TL minimum fish size, 5 fish possession limit (-20 fish), and an open season from July 1 through September 18 and November 1 through December 31; [0.3864+0.0787-0.304] = total reduction* = 43.5 percent

3) adjust the minimum fish size and possession limit, maintain season; regulations would include a 13.0 inch TL minimum fish size (+ 0.5 inch TL), 1 fish possession limit (-24 fish), and an open season from May 22 through October 11 and November 1 through December 31; [0.7294-0.2457] = reduction* = 48.4 percent

* Note the reductions associated with the minimum fish size and possession limit combinations (X) are not directly summed with the reductions associated with seasonal adjustments (Y). There is an interactive effect evaluated as X+Y-XY.

4) Staff Recommendation for Federal Waters in 2011
The Monitoring Committee must recommend recreational management measures for 2011. I recommend seasonal adjustments and possession limit reductions be used to achieve the required reduction as opposed to increasing the minimum fish size.

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