Tag: Avalon fishing

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Kensdock Report: Flounder fishing update

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We headed out flounder fishing in the back bay about 2:00 yesterday we fished until  4:30. The flounder fishing was very slow. I managed only one keeper flounder. The flounder are simple not here in any numbers {yet}?. There is still a remote chance that more keepers will move in. I have 16 keeper flounder for the 2010 flounder season to date, the lowest number of keepers to date in 10 years.  Wally B., Dr. Gary, Terry H., are a few Cape May County flounder fishermen that average over a hundred keeper flounder  a year. They are all off to a slow start this year,as far as keeper flounder are concerned. This  upcoming  week has  been traditionaly {for me} the best week for flounder fishing in the back bay waters. The water temperature yesterday was 71 degrees at high tide. Water clarity was poor.
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Kensdock Report: The bite is on!

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  This guy can catch fish!

 
 
 
Blues,stripers and specs!/? that is what is on tap today in Cape May County. I received reports of big blues in the surf along with short and keeper bass to 24 pounds.The blue fishing is the best that it has been in a few years. Much better than last fall. It was sure nice to see a spring time spec caught. A 29″ spotted sea trout  was caught today by the fisherman pictured above with the bluefish.If you enjoy catching blues and stripers tomorrow would be good day to be fishing. Stripers are being caught on bottom rigs with clam as bait. Live herring is best, you will need time to catch your own. I do not know of any tackle shops that sell live herring. Bucktails have been taking bass also but not as many keepers as the clam. Tog are being caught around the cold spring jetty. A 20″tog was taken from the grassy sound marina fishing pier yesterday. A 10.5 pound tog was caught behind Avalon Monday.The flounder are in the back bays and should continue to stack up until opening day May 29. Some guys like to hit their flounder holes before the season and catch and release the fish. This pressure will push the flounder out of the hole they are fishing.It is best to leave the flounder be until opening day.
 
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Kensdock Report: Striper bite red hot

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The striper bite is red hot in the Delaware Bay. Boats from Cape May NJ are catching in the area of  Number 1 buoy, just outside of the Maurice river. All the sharps are limiting out easily. Clam is the bait most are using followed by blood worms. What I use for bait for stripers this time of year is live herring. Hands down the best striper bait. A few keeper bass have been caught from reeds beach and higbees beach. I do not know of any keepers being caught from Stone Harbor or Avalon beach front. I saw a few commercial crabbers today in the back bay putting out their gear for blue claws. They will load up the back bay areas with pots from now until memorial day. Most crabbers move all their gear to the Delaware Bay once the water warms up and the crowds show up. Some tog have been caught the last couple of days around the Ocean drive bridges with one tog hitting six pounds on the scale. I have not put my boat in the water yet due to the fact I have an unusual amount of work to do around my property due to the winter storms. There should be a few tide runner weakfish around the back bay areas of Cape May co.. With this record warm sunny weather the first weakfish should be caught soon. The weakfish population is severely depleted, however  if you apply  effort with local knowledge  you still have a chance at a tide runner weakie. The best news I heard on weakfish was from the upper Delaware Bay late last summer, I had very reliable reports of a few fishermen limiting out every trip. I also had solid information from the Barnegat bay with reports of limit catches last summer.. The Barnegat Bay had a  large school of weakfish rooming around last August. I found this information as great news! Due to the fact that  some traditional weakfish spots are completely void of any weakies. Hopefully the new weakfish regulations will help. Recreational fishermen have a one weakfish bag limit per day with a 13″ keeper size. Commercial is 100 pounds per trip 13″.We always have a good run of spike weakfish in the ocean in  the fall yet they never return in the spring. Hopefully the 100 pound per trip commercial limit will save a  few of the fall spike weakfish. I am betting if given a chance the spike weakfish will return in the spring.
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Kensdock Report: 2010 NJ flounder season option vote

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May29-Sept.6 6 fish at 18″ 41 19.81%
May23-sept.6 4 fish at 18″ 49 23.67%
May13-Sept.13 6 fish at 18.5″ 59 28.50%
May29-Sept.26 6 fish at 18.5 53 25.60%
May21-Sept.12 6 fish at 18.5 5 2.42%
May29-Sept.17 6 fish at 18.5 2 0.97%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 207. AS of 2-22-10 6:45 PM

 

Take a second and vote on the options@
 
 

I will hand deliver the results to the NJ marine fisheries council. I can assure you the council members will take the results into consideration. Last year the option that was approved by the council was the same option that won approval on the poll.

If at all possible attend the NJ marine fisheries meeting. The March 4, 2010 meeting will be held in the L. Manuel Hirshblond Room, Toms River Township Office, 33 Washington Street, Toms River, NJ 08753.

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Kensdock report 2-8-10 {Feb.2 ASMFC weakfish board meeting}

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———–More indecision by the Asmfc weakfish board——–
The weakfish are in the most depleted condition in history with the real possibility of extinction!  98% of the letters received were pleading for a moratorium for weakfish. The data clearly indicated a moratorium would offer the best chance for recovery. Yet, the weakfish board made one more bad decision,in allowing 100 pound by catch per trip” for ever commercial net on the east coast and to allow recreational fishermen to kill the last of the breeders. obviously, this decision was made in complete disregard to the majority and the science. It is time for some new council members!
Tom Fote quote—–
How do you keep an industry going?
You know, we also talk about we’re supposed to
build a sustainable fishery for a sustainable industry.
If you start closing down both those industries, it
takes a long time for that industry to recover. end——-
                                                            
MR. RICHEN BRAME —–quote
 
 

 

I think this stock is in such a state that you need to
tell the public that it’s in real trouble. It’s near
collapse.
Even with a moratorium, it won’t recover in 20 years.

Your goal should be to maintain as much SSB as

possible in order to allow a quicker recovery

whenever the conditions allow it to recover. The

good news is this is not a red snapper or a goliath

grouper. It doesn’t have a 40-year recovery time. It

can recover in two or three or four years, so we’re not

looking at a long moratorium. I think that this is a

time when this commission needs to stand up and say

this fishery is real trouble and we need to stop fishing

for them. It’s pretty much that simple. Thank you.  

Quote——-                   MR. MARK GIBSON     ——————quote:

 Even if that’s all I got, it’s better to

have twice as much than zero and put the stock

precariously close to extinction as far as I can see

from this. I think the peer review panel said much

the same thing, that F is still a limiting – is

exacerbating the problem and it’s unsustainable.

That’s what you have to manage. A lot of managers

don’t like to accept the fact that what you have to

manage is F and that sometimes sustainable Fs

declines with externalities that happen to fish stocks.

It’s a lot like the serenity prayer if you’re familiar

with it. You know, you have the wisdom to know the

difference between the things you can change and

those that you can’t and have the courage to change

the ones you do. I think that’s what we’re faced with

here.


 

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Kensdock report: Kensdock Flounder rig

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This time of the year is great for tying your spring flounder rigs. I caught over one hundred keeper flounder last year  and thousands of keepers over the years. I caught all of them on a rig I tie myself. Paying attention to detail is imperative. The bucktails and other lures you buy at tackle shops are mostly tied by a person that not only has never been flounder fishing but most likely has never seen one. The length of the bucktail hair and the flair are vey important. I have a few other details that I have found to by very effective in increasing the amount of hits. If you fish tournaments or would like to just increase the amount of flounder you catch I am putting together a package. The package will include five of my rigs, tied by me, with detailed instructions on tying the rigs and fishing them. I have not figured a price yet,  if you are interested e-mail me at kmcder465@comcast.net.  Remember I can only tie so many!
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Kensdock report 1-3-10 Virginia fluke?

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 I spoke with a friend that just returned from a fluke trip. I asked him how he made out. His reply: We were fishing the Virginia commercial fluke season. The fishing was tough, the fluke we caught were way offshore. Nothing on the forty line! We were dragging for four hours for a few boxes of fluke, long trip for little pay. As you know that is 100ft. net being towed for 4 hours in-between haul backs. Note, these guys usually have their quota in less than half the time spent on this resent trip. Fluke traditional school up around the 40 line this time of year.
 
Why are the fluke not schooled up in the traditional areas?
 
Do you think the fluke stock is on the decline?
 
Do you think it is the weather?
 
The unusual amount of rain this year?
 
Bad luck?
 
Have you heard the same reports?
 
What fish would NJ saltwater fishermen target in the summer if the flounder went the way of the tuna,weakfish and blue fish?
 
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12-17-09 Kensdock report The cost of not having a salt water licence to the people of NJ and the saltwater fishermen of NJ

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References’:

Source: Brett Boston of the Wildlife Foundation of Florida
Excerpt:
A proposal to secure almost $150 million in funding for this effort has been submitted to Congress, as well as to Gov. Charlie Crist’s office.

The money requested would come from Obama’s stimulus package through the state Legislature.

 Excerpts from Cape May County Herald article:

“New Jerseyians are not only losing a revenue source, we are losing fish.”

“When our representatives go to meetings to set regulations for species catch allocations, we are up against states that have larger and more secure funding sources and therefore better research data to plead their case. Once we have lost allocated pounds of a particular species, it will be extremely difficult to get it back up again.”

Quote: Dave Chanda NJ F&W

Competition amongst Atlantic Coast states for shares of coast-wide fisheries resources is increasing at the same time. The winners are often the states with the best scientific data and competing states are spending two to seven times more per angler than New Jersey to collect fisheries data. The consequence of not being able to keep pace was evident in recent tautog harvest restrictions placed on New Jersey anglers because our data was not sufficient to argue against the restrictions. The same could soon be true for winter flounder. Competition for marine resources will continue to increase in the future as will research and monitoring requirements to responsibly manage the state’s marine resources and keep recreational fisheries open to New Jersey anglers. -end quote

 
. http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st5/publication/econ/MA_NJTables

TITLE 50–WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES
CHAPTER I–UNITED STATES FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR (CONTINUED)
PART 80_ADMINISTRATIVE REQUIREMENTS, FEDERAL AID IN FISH AND FEDERAL AID IN WILDLIFE RESTORATION ACTS
(Snip)

 
THE COST OF NOT HAVING A
SALT WATER FISHING LICENSE
TO THE PEOPLE OF NEW JERSEY AND THE SALT WATER FISHERMEN OF NEW JERSEY

150 Million in federal stimulus money

7 Salt water hatcheries

3,129 immediate construction jobs benefiting local economies near hatchery sites.

169 permanent green jobs in the form of biologists and other hatchery personnel.

Millions of dollars of New Jersey’s fair share of the Federal excise tax return.

40 million dollars annually in license fees to enhance New Jersey salt water fishing

Millions in lost tourist dollars

Millions of lost recreational fishing hours.

The ability to protect against poaching of our salt water fish.

The continued bankruptcy of bait shops,charter fishing operations,party boats and other related businesses

The ability of New Jersey to responsibly manage the States marine resources.

New Jersey fishermen will lose thier fair share of flounder, sea bass, tug and other fish due to the inability to submit the proper data to the federal government.

Negative impact to our New Jersey shore culture

Reduced value of New Jersey waterfront property

The ability of New Jersey to proactively rebuild the States depleted Weakfish population.

Reduced opportunities for future generations of New Jersey salt water anglers!