The final busy weekend of the summer has arrived and the weather forecast couldn’t be much nicer for it.  Monday looks to possibly be a little meh, but Saturday and Sunday look downright picture perfect.  There are going to be plenty of folks out on the water trying for their personal best.

Speaking of personal bests, Kevin McNelis had his dad out over some ocean structure today where he was able to catch his personal best flounder at over 23″.  Kevin added some keepers too for a great day out there.

Captain Wayne Blanks was at the route 50 bridge again this afternoon and was once again putting bluefish in the cooler for his folks.

Captain Monty Hawkins of the Morning Star had another nice day out there with plenty of big sea bass and some bonus flounder.

A gentle luff rolled through the giant Shantytown flag this morning; that light breeze forecasted to come a bit breezier still as the day went along. Looked to be OK though, about 15knts. Still, todays forecast had been less than ten knots all week..  

Paddling on out, enjoying a friendly wheelhouse chat with friend Willie and mate Vic – they simultaneously spot a humpback whale pec-slapping, tail-slap thrashing, & breaching. That’s the entire show in a humpback whale’s repertoire and would be a fantastic way to begin a day. I came hard starboard.. 

How amazing.. This fellow gave us breach after breach—launching airborne time and again: one heck of a show. I gave it exactly 10 minutes and left the (apparently juvenile) humpback to his ocean fun (..or maybe he was hollering “Momma!” IDK..) 

Cetologists think breaching, slapping pec fins & tail thrashing is communication, a “Here I am” signal. It can also be use to herd bait tighter for easier feeding. From what I’ve seen of it, I believe they sometimes do it because they can – an enjoyment.. 

Kim and Colleen from PA launched our reef blocks overboard to do their multi-century work (multi-millennia? If future generations fare well with massive storms, the kind that take a scallop-shaped bite out of the coast.. Yes, look at an east coast map just below Hatteras. We may not have witnessed one, but truly phenomenal storms have occurred.. So long as that sort of sand-shifting isn’t going on, some of our cement reefs will make it a thousand years and more. One need only look at work from such as the Romans in the first millennia – concrete lasts!) 

Bottom line? Where we take reef blocks out and deploy them there’s a good chance they’ll grow coral in our lifetimes.

Concrete splashing done for the day, we slid off the beach further still and began our day in a building NE chop.. 

I bet tuna bit great offshore – hope so! We sure had to work this day though. Dagone sea bass were fussy. Reef builder Kim took the pool. Willie was high hook at just under double digits; John wasn’t but one behind. 

Bernie, in his usual fashion, waylaid the fluke. I suspect we’ll use his overs to ‘pay the rent’ where we store our reef blocks.. 

I saw one nice sized mahi – really nice. Unfortunately I spooked him with the boat by almost running him over. There were zero other sightings and no hook ups either. The water temp dropped and a big slug of (not so) lovely unfiltered green Delaware Bay water showed up. 

My sincerest thanks to everyone who’s working on oyster restoration. I don’t think it will be too long before we see blue water further and further inshore. I absolutely believe there will come a time when water quality will not be an issue for our nearshore fisheries. Not sure I’ll see it – but it’s coming!

I am certain we have a huge problem building again in MRIP’s recreational data. Will soon publish a letter I intend to send across the top of management. 

We lost 3 weeks of December sea bass because VA Private Boats ‘landed’ 500,000lbs in Nov/Dec during the covid period. 

They’d never come anywhere near that number before; were often estimated at under 2000 lbs. 

So – a completely made up overfishing event by Private Boats will be ‘paid back’ in December when dang few private boats fish and will cost Partyboats like mine 10 to 15 days of sold out fishing depending on the weather. Tautog, already under too much pressure in my opinion, will take an anatomy beating during the sea bass closure. 

That’s how management works when fed a steady diet of garbage data. 

We could have such amazing fisheries.. Instead a treadmill of ever-worsening recreational catch data drags us backward. 

Dern near everyone in fisheries management & science sees it. Ones that don’t are paid a LOT of money to ensure whatever numbers pop up in MRIP’s tables are treated as if calculations for creating nuclear energy – “..perfect data for use in management! Why, it’s peer reviewed!” (Just that fishermen have no say.. because it’s too complex? Sure will be a great day when the data is somewhere within reason..) 

Some nonbelievers in management are even beginning to act on it. 

Will we finally get MRIP’s Recreational Catch Data repaired? 

You’d never believe what an absolute mess it’s made of commercial/recreational quotas and management’s regulations. . . . 

Check out the NEW Daily Catch at Sunset Marina! The final busy weekend of the summer has arrived and the weather forecast couldn’t be much nicer for it.  Monday looks to possibly be a little meh,… READ MORE

Flounder Stuffed with Crab Imperial Ingredients: 4-6 Flounder Fillets 1 Lb Crabmeat 3/4 tsp Worcestershire Sauce 4 TBSP mayo 1/4 tsp salt 1 egg dash hot sauce pinch thyme, oregano, dry ground mustard, Old Bay, Parsley… READ MORE

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