New York Metro &
New Jersey

October 31st, 2003

More on the EEZ

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I hate to beat a dead horse but this horse if far from dead... If you’re a regular reader of this column you’ve heard me rant and rave about what a stupid move it would be to re-open the EEZ to commercial and recreational fishing after a 13-year closure. For those of you who don’t already know, the EEZ is that area from 3-nautical miles (what is considered state waters) out to 200-nautical miles (federal waters). The purpose of closing the EEZ to striped bass was and is to protect strong year classes entering the population and to promote rebuilding of an overfished population. The EEZ provides a badly needed buffer zone for stripers. Federal waters are, in fact, the only place stripers are free of somewhat overwhelming recreational and commercial pressure.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), in response to a recommendation from those morons over at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), is considering removing the moratorium on the harvest of striped bass in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) after a 13-year closure. Opening the EEZ will inevitably increase the total catch by making enforcement complicated and in a sense impossible by erasing state lines and extending law enforcement resources beyond what had already reached it’s capacity decades ago. The long and short of it is that it’s a bad idea and will only increase pressure on a stock that is already being fished at record levels. Most believe it is nothing more than a loophole for commercial fishermen to further exploit the resource for profit.

Why the ASMFC is recommending we put more pressure on a stock that is recovering from a decade of abuse is beyond most reasonable thinkers, but fisheries management has always been somewhat of an oxymoron (with a heavy emphasis on the moron). NMFS will be conducting the first round of public hearings very soon. In New York the hearing will be held at Stony Brook University at the Student Activities Center on Monday, December 1, 2003 from 7:30-9:30 p.m. In New Jersey the hearing will be on Tuesday, November 18, 2003 at the Quality Inn in Toms River from 6-9 p.m. The address is 815 Route 37, Toms River, NJ 08755.

Please put those dates on your calendar and try to make it if you can. The more anglers at the hearing expressing an interest in keeping the EEZ closed the more of a chance we’ll have of maintaining status quo. You can bet there will be commercial fisherman there wanting to get a crack at those fish outside of the three mile limit. We need a good showing…

If you just can’t make it, write a letter expressing your desire to see the EEZ remain closed. In the news section this week is a sample letter (Provided by Stripers Forever) that will help you get going.

Send it to this address:

Anne Lange, Chief
State-Federal Fisheries Division
Office of Sustainable Fisheries
National Marine Fisheries Service
1315 East West Highway, Room 13317
Silver Spring, MD 20910

You may fax this letter to the following number: 301-713-0596

Now, let’s get on to the reports:

More wind and more rain this week… Go figure right? But when you could get out just about the whole coastline of New Jersey was on fire. The New York Bight really lit up after the weekend also… Lots of 30-plus-inch bass on the various rip lines and plenty of bruiser bluefish under the birds. Jamaica Bay has and abundance of schoolies to play with while Raritan Bay is showing bigger fish. Still some albie action on the central north shore and a few bonito around as well. The East End seems to have really lost its steam but it is sure to get another run of big stripers before season’s end.

For a change, the weather looks good this weekend! Get out there and fish!

And don’t forget to email me your own reports. Tight lines all.

Tight Lines!

John McMurray

New Jersey

Shore Catch Guide, Captain Gene Quigley reports plenty of action from Barnegat North…  Check it out:

It has been all out here! Keeps getting better and better -- kinda like the energizer bunny!

Big bass and slammer blues have been blitzing up and down the Monmouth County beaches daily. Sunday I went out of foot with my guides Shell E. and Darin as they each had two clients for the day and we caught a bass and bluefish blitz that lasted from 6:00 AM thru the following day. 20 # bass at your feet all day long and huge blues just outside of them inside the sand bars. Bucktail Deceivers and Baby Angels were the hot flies, but I imagine anything else would have worked and the fish were just gorging the bait. It got silly with fish on every single cast for hours. Out in the boat it is the same thing. Birds and blitzing fish all day long.

Captain Jim had out John Marsden with his buddy Mike and also the Frank Wagman party and they experienced the same great blitzes of solid bluefish from 4-12 pounds. The blues were hitting both topwater poppers and jiggies fished on sinking lines. Frank commented that the day we had would be used to judge all other days on the water. Thousands of blues around the boat would be a conservative estimate.

From the Southern portion of the state, Bryan DiLeo from Iowa Fortune Guide Service reports plenty of fish in the back bays:

Capt. Bryan DiLeo/Iowa Fortune
Ocean City / Atlantic city Report

This week was all about the fall and Mother Nature dished up cold air
temperatures cool water temperatures and most importantly Bass. Water temperatures
fell into the low to mid 50's this week and had the Bass on the move in the
shallows in good quantity. Most of the Bass this week ranged in size from 21"-33"
and willing to take both topwater as well as sub surface artificials and flies
alike. The cooler water temps kept us in the action through out the mid day
hours which is a true sign that the fall is in full swing and should just
continue to improve as the weeks pass. Most of the bass this week, as the weeks
past, have been tightly packed and very particular in which flats to cruz a bit
different that fall of the past. Several trips this week you could see well in
advance the consistent schools of Bass pushing water as they came up from the
deeper waters allowing us to get in position for good shots at the in coming
Bass. The Largest Bass of the week came on Tuesday when we plucked a nice 33"
12.25 LB bass from 18" of water which turned out to be only 1 of the 5 Bass
taken on the flat and as always was photographed and released unharmed. Look for
the action to increase as the fall progresses especially around the moons and
key day time tides. With the water temps in the 50's this will trigger the
grass to release off the flats and in turn will give us the clear water and peak
sight fishing conditions. Gotta love the fall.

Plenty of surface action and schoolies in Jamaica Bay but keepers are hard to come by.  Peanut bunker are thick back there but for some reason, who knows why, no big fish are on them yet.  November has traditionally been the best month to fish Jamaica Bay, so I expect to start seeing bigger fish along the marsh any day now.  It will be nice when I only have to go 5-minutes outside of my marina.   

On the other side in Raritan Bay, Captain Dino Torrino reports large bass in the AM hours and plenty of bluefish in the 10-pound range once the sun gets high.   Dino’s partner, Captain Frank Crescitelli reports that out front more of the same can be found from Sandy Hook to Breezy Point… 

Captain Joe Mattioli also reports good action in these areas also with some big fall run fish in the mix.  Check it out:

Hi John
 
The fall run is heating up with Bass up to 20 lbs and Blues
up to 12lbs Blitzing Peanut Bunker and Rainfish. Half/half Clousers and poppers have been the pattern.
This is the time to be out there, don't miss out I have dates available
 
Capt. Joe Mattioli
On The Bite Charters

 

 

Captain David Azar from One More Cast Charters checks in with this report:

The weather has been schizophrenic and the fishing has been similarly affected!    Some days are great, then we can't get out for a couple of days, then we find the fish but they won't eat!  But by the next day after the front settles they turn on big time.  But each day they're somewhere else.  Some days it's lots of small ones busting the surface, like I found with Eddie Azar Sunday afternoon in near-gale conditions by the airport.  Then a day or two later it's lots of big ones like we found Tuesday morning out in the Bight.  Mostly it's been striped bass, but some tackle-busting blues have also been reported under birds.  P-nut bunker are ubiquitous throughout J-Bay, and a few schools of adult bunker have been sighted from time to time.  All in all the fall stiper run seems to be gaining steam and if the weather would settle for a few days, like it's supposed to this weekend, we should get into some spectacular fishing.

Western Long Island

The North Shore seems to be the only place still holding albies and there are even still some pods of bonito!  Check out Angelo Peluso’s report this week:

Hi John,
I tempted the wind and wave gods a few days late last week and earlier this week and was greeted with a few surprises...Much to my delight there were a few small, sporadic pods of bonito and albies still around to keep the game somewhat interesting.  The ability to hook-up was enhanced by the fact that no one else was out there on the small numbers of fish. The bait was still moving through and that seemed to be the priority for the "bones," not compelled just yet to seek warmer water temperatures. Unfortunately, line management and fish fighting are a bit hampered when your boat drift feel like it is about fifteen knots!  One day I went 6 bones for 12 hookups due to the wind...disappointing but the Yankees should have had a post-season average like that! But that game changed quickly by mid- week.  Water temps in this part of the Sound are now between 58.5 and 59.1 degrees as of this writing and that is about the lower tolerance range for Bonito and Albies.  In my humble opinion, the pelagics are heading east!  I've seen neither hide nor hair of them or the big masses of peanut bunker for a few days now. 
Bass and blues have been working balls of bait...mostly spearing ... along the beaches especially during those hefty NW winds, and they have been quite responsive to any flies moving through their field of vision.   I worked a stretch of beach one morning when it was way too rough to venture out and found a half dozen bass and two bonito willing to play.  Catching pelagics from the beach is a real treat! Those were the last "bones" that I have seen.  It is a sad day in Mudville when those boys depart the premises. 
If by chance, Eric, Gerry, and Bob read this report, it was fun chasing the bonito around with you guys! We had some fun and some really good days! There's always Florida! Well, here's hoping the bigger striped fellas show up soon...stay well and tight lines...Angelo

Great report Angelo…

Also reporting from the North Shore is Captain Brian Moran…  Check it out:

Hello John, its been on again off again style of fishing. The David island area has been red hot one day and cold the next with bass and blue fish showing up in the darndest places ,,, hunter island was hot Tuesday morning for my sport Richard Klingingsmith. We raised a few nice boils on a rip up close to a sand beach  with big deceivers and no hits, runs, only errors  finally Richard had enough ,picked up the spin rod and put a atom in the rip for a 22 lbs bass.  Lots of peanuts around but moving around from Mamaroneck to Glen Cove, find the bait and find the bass.  Early morning still the best time for a shot at the larger bass. Monday was birds all over with school bass for most of the day... The fall runs are starting to shape up nicely.... good luck, Capt. Brian Moran.

Unofficial reports from the South Shore indicate a lot of big bluefish under birds and bass in the early morning hours. 

Eastern Long Island

Not much to report out east.  Still some bluefish around, but no more albies and the bass are sparse.  Montauk is sure to get another run of bass.  When???  Who knows…  Farther West, Captain Don Kaye from Shinnecock Guiding checks in with this report:

The stiff winds and cool weather continue at Shinnecock, making shallow water, light tackle angling quite challenging. With the 'flats' all but impossible to fish, we concentrated on the channels and drop-offs. Fast sinking flylines and weighted jigs produced plenty of hook-ups with Striped Bass to 31 inches, a few Bluefish (one 'Alligator' over 10 lbs.), and some Hickory Shad which, when hooked, left the water like small Tarpon. With hopes for some decent weather before the snow flies..Capt. Don Kaye, Shinnecock Guiding, 631-7288175

That’s all for this week…  See you on the water….