Fish Report 1/7/12
Fishing Steady So Far
Visioning

Hi All,
I want to add Tuesday to my trip roster. Forecast is west at 10..
Sure has been nice.
Also have openings for Wednesday.
Tog Trips - 1/10 & 1/11 - 7am to 3pm - Green Crabs Provided - $100.00 - Twelve Sells-Out. Reservations Required at 410 520 2076.
Fished Friday. Came in a bit early with a boat limit and a pool winner over 27 inches. Fished Saturday with Hooked on OC, a local TV show aboard. We came in on-time with a boat limit. Saturday's pool winner, a 25 1/2 inch female, was tagged & released -- We do tog pools by length..

Have had some great tag returns just lately, some old ones. I'll do a report on them as soon as I get the info back.
I'm very glad ASMFC is tightening-up on tog ..very, very glad.
Now that everyone's going to have a 16 inch size limit and much lower possession limits, I think there will be a super abundance of nice fish in 6 or 7 years.
Here, off Ocean City, tautog are a species whose abundance is solely determined by recreational regulations & our efforts at reef building.
Because no ecosystem is without parasites, It's a good thing size limits are going up uniformly and large creel limits getting cut.

Below you'll see some comments I wrote for a set of 10 questions asked by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.
Take the "Visioning" survey. http://www.mafmc.org/vision/ I truly believe this will help guide management's decisions as more species become "Rebuilt."

So very much needs done. Yet, as I point out below, I think management looks positively foolish when they allow MRFSS catch estimates to dictate their actions. When in Mar/April 2010 MuRFSS claims OC, MD's private boaters --numbering certainly under 20 boats who fish at all in early spring and who will only make a few trips at that-- when MRFSS claims these anglers on their spring shakedown runs caught & kept 18,572 tautog -- we ought to be able to call "Bad Science!" or "Bad Statistics!" The estimate is 100% BS. That's 14,143 more than the party & charter boat estimate for the whole Mid-Atlantic during the same period.
Another way to see it: I had 60 fish aboard today --a pretty good trip with excellent anglers; all had a limit.. It would take 309 trips just like this Saturday's to equal MD's private boat estimate for March & April 2010..
I almost never see any private boats that time of year & much more rarely on a wreck; Yet it would take 1,160 perfect 4 person tog trips to hit that estimate.
Is what it is: Can't Change An Estimate..
Because of MRFSS, fishery management is fully blind to tautog's reality. The 60 fish we took today had a very real effect on the tog stock. Those kind of numbers are real & add up.
Time to bring "Fishery Restoration By Lucky Guess" to a close.
Six days until the new catch estimates go public..
C'mon MRIP.

See Comments Below.

Regards,
Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/

You Can Sound Off Right Here http://www.mafmc.org/vision/

1. What are your top challenges and concerns in the fisheries today? Having honor restored to management's actions via good catch estimates & Discovering reef fish used to live on broad swaths of live coral bottoms as opposed to the 'golf course pond' reef ecologies of today: That dumping oyster shell is no means of oyster restoration without raised substrates.

2. How can the Council better manage recreational fishing to improve your experience? Focus on Making More Fish; Physiology, Biology, Ecology: Restoration's not just about catch restriction.

3. What could the Council do better or differently to increase your participation in the Council process? When the full brunt of regulation is no longer decided in the slot-machine of MRFSS estimates; When regulations are not based on official catch estimate "Pravda" and instead have become sound, Participation will increase. (When management quits lying via MRFSS, we'll start taking management seriously)

4. What can the Council do to increase your confidence in the council process? What honor is there in a system that eviscerates recreational fishing while ignoring any & all information on reef ecologies or catch estimates: Discover & Use The Truth In Management.

5. Do you have recommendations about how the Council can improve its science and recreational data collection processes? Lots & Lots & Lots...

6. If the Council moves toward ecosystems based management, where should it focus its efforts? Water quality and essential fish habitat are directly tied to Loss of Hardbottoms .. Both estuarine & marine reefs are intricately tied to fish production and so would be a fine place to start.

7. The Council is looking for more "on the water knowledge." Have you seen other changes out there that are impacting the fish populations? What, like cbass's age at maturity shifting from age 1 to age 3 between 1998 & 2004? Like weakfish populations rising steadily until unrestricted trawl fishing for croakers picked up? Like how a reef allowed to rest for a decade will flourish with life yet have no life whatever after trawling has removed growth? Like begging for size & creel limits on spadefish and now its too late? Like asking for a 16 inch size limit on tog since 1992 and maybe getting one in 2012? More of that?

8. If the Council were truly listening to fishermen, what would the Mid-Atlantic fisheries look like in the future? Incredibly better than we can now imagine! One tiny step beyond "restored fisheries" are "engineered fisheries." That's where we want to go ..but management wants to insist 10 MD private boats caught 19,000 tog in April 2010. You can't guess how stupid that sounds to fishermen.

9. How will we know if we are successful 10 years from now? Fishermen will rank "Fishery Manager" far above "Used Car Salesman" and fishing will be a lot better.

10. Any other thoughts that you want to share with the Council? Who is in charge of the Essential Fish Habitat part of Magnuson? I'd really like an answer.

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"