Here is a section of Jmann's weekly report, I thought it hit the nail right on the head concerning the coastwide fishery:
---"On the dark side, disturbingly-documented photo-stories of cow bass -- in unheard of numbers ? being taken off North Carolina continues to irk a ton of fishing folks from our area. And the catching of bass from 40 to 55 pounds goes on unabated down there.
I do want to say that there are no laws being broken. I caught hell from a charternboat angler who works Oregon Inlet area. ?We take as many bass as the law allows. Why shouldn?t we?? he said to me in no undue terms, adding, ?If I don?t take these guys out someone else will.? He also noted there is ?some? catch-and-release but didn?t protest when I let out a derisive huff in response.
I?ll side-step the catch-and-release (or lack of same) issue this go?round. That?s because I?m still stuck on just what the hell is going on, biomass-wise.
In recent years, I kinda agreed with fishery management that big bass were disappearing at an alarming rate. Since the mid-1990s, the cow-bass catches from Maine to Delaware clearly indicated a precipitous decline in bass over, say 30 pounds. Then, bam!, jumbo stripers show up to our south in unheralded numbers, a veritable cloud of full-blown trophy fish.
As I?ve noted in here before ? and have had doubly confirmed by other coastal areas of our state -- there were more big bass being caught in a single North Carolina fishing day than were caught during all 2005 bass fishing contests in NJ. Worth a repeat: A single three-hour charter out of Oregon Inlet caught more large bass than were taken during our entire 6-week LBI surf fishing tourney.
WHAT?S UP FOR 2006: I?ll now make a prediction about local bassing for 2006. You?re not going to like how it ends.
On the up side, look for the arrival of large spring bass ? again. Over the past few years, our biggest bass of the year have come during the spring run. These springtime biggies may (or may not) be NC fish fanning northward.
(By the by, we?ll again be running the 2006 ?Simply Bassing?? event from Mother?s Day weekend to Father?s Day. You oughta join since you?ll likely get your biggest bass of the year during that striper stint.)
Back to my predictions.
Summer will be typically hit-or-miss on local summer-izing bass, with the Barnegat Inlet and the Causeway areas shining.
Then, sadly, there is no reason to think fall 2006 will be any different this year than last. There?s something amiss out there and the fact that NC bassing is once again exploding may be very telling. It?s possibly coincidental but our fall bass fishing has been dismal when NC cow-bassing explodes like now. I fully realize that I?m probably not including enough variables in my predictions ? and, I swear, I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong.
And I refuse to ignore the croakers. I just know they?re somehow malignantly affecting our fall, bassing.
On one final pissed off note: More than ever there is just no logic in keeping us from smaller bass ? even with our [email protected] law. Smaller bass are simply running rampant in the system. I would be more than willing to go the extra permit mile to take our allotted trophy tag fish poundage in bass between 20 and 24 inches."
---"On the dark side, disturbingly-documented photo-stories of cow bass -- in unheard of numbers ? being taken off North Carolina continues to irk a ton of fishing folks from our area. And the catching of bass from 40 to 55 pounds goes on unabated down there.
I do want to say that there are no laws being broken. I caught hell from a charternboat angler who works Oregon Inlet area. ?We take as many bass as the law allows. Why shouldn?t we?? he said to me in no undue terms, adding, ?If I don?t take these guys out someone else will.? He also noted there is ?some? catch-and-release but didn?t protest when I let out a derisive huff in response.
I?ll side-step the catch-and-release (or lack of same) issue this go?round. That?s because I?m still stuck on just what the hell is going on, biomass-wise.
In recent years, I kinda agreed with fishery management that big bass were disappearing at an alarming rate. Since the mid-1990s, the cow-bass catches from Maine to Delaware clearly indicated a precipitous decline in bass over, say 30 pounds. Then, bam!, jumbo stripers show up to our south in unheralded numbers, a veritable cloud of full-blown trophy fish.
As I?ve noted in here before ? and have had doubly confirmed by other coastal areas of our state -- there were more big bass being caught in a single North Carolina fishing day than were caught during all 2005 bass fishing contests in NJ. Worth a repeat: A single three-hour charter out of Oregon Inlet caught more large bass than were taken during our entire 6-week LBI surf fishing tourney.
WHAT?S UP FOR 2006: I?ll now make a prediction about local bassing for 2006. You?re not going to like how it ends.
On the up side, look for the arrival of large spring bass ? again. Over the past few years, our biggest bass of the year have come during the spring run. These springtime biggies may (or may not) be NC fish fanning northward.
(By the by, we?ll again be running the 2006 ?Simply Bassing?? event from Mother?s Day weekend to Father?s Day. You oughta join since you?ll likely get your biggest bass of the year during that striper stint.)
Back to my predictions.
Summer will be typically hit-or-miss on local summer-izing bass, with the Barnegat Inlet and the Causeway areas shining.
Then, sadly, there is no reason to think fall 2006 will be any different this year than last. There?s something amiss out there and the fact that NC bassing is once again exploding may be very telling. It?s possibly coincidental but our fall bass fishing has been dismal when NC cow-bassing explodes like now. I fully realize that I?m probably not including enough variables in my predictions ? and, I swear, I would love nothing more than to be proven wrong.
And I refuse to ignore the croakers. I just know they?re somehow malignantly affecting our fall, bassing.
On one final pissed off note: More than ever there is just no logic in keeping us from smaller bass ? even with our [email protected] law. Smaller bass are simply running rampant in the system. I would be more than willing to go the extra permit mile to take our allotted trophy tag fish poundage in bass between 20 and 24 inches."
