What is unbelievably refreshing is how resilient the weakfish have proved to be. Considering in 2009 Dr. Jamie Geiger of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, suggested that the weakfish stock may have fallen to such lows that managers might wish to consider invoking the provisions of the Endangered Species Act as one of the management tools. The listing seemed like a sure bet. As any fish stock experiencing decades of unlimited commercial and recreational harvest would surely end up that way. A timely weakfish recovery was not expected by the ASMFC under any circumstances.
The good news is they were wrong. With only three years of historic weakfish regulations (limited harvest) they are showing up in numbers not seen in decades along the entire east coast.
The return of the weakfish in this month’s (May )issue of On The Water magazine covers it well.
http://www.onthewater.com/issues/
Update: 2014 weakfish season was the best for me in a decade.
Beautiful spring weakfish I caught from the sand.
CJ Polhamus with his 30″ spring 2014 tide runner weakfish
Wayne McDermott and a summer 2014 weakfish
Bill with a nice size spring 2014 weakfish
Ken's Dock 