NO MORE LOBBING HAND-GRENADES
I’ve been writing conservation articles and blogs for various print and electronic publications for close to a decade now.  During such time I’ve done a lot of research, and so I’ve come to have what I think is a good understanding of the issues facing fish and fishery management.   But is writing about such issues enough?  Does making the case for precaution and conservation in print and online really serve to change things for the better?  Perhaps, but at best, it’s intangible and indirect.  Inevitably, it is those folks on-the-ground, doing the day-to-day advocacy, management and legislative work that push the ball in the right direction.

I get mail all the time from folks that disagree with my point of view, some quite passionately.  Almost always it’s from those folks that want to kill more fish now despite clear indications that a stock is suffering and that curbing fishing is required for rebuilding.  Whether folks take this point of view for economic reasons or just pure greed, I guess it really doesn’t matter, but I must admit I enjoy the correspondence, and I try and take the time to respond with justifiable facts.  There was one such letter in response to a piece on Summer Flounder that appeared on Sport Fishing Magazine’s website for some time before it was taken down. The writer, which happens to be the Executive Editor of a popular local fishing magazine accused me of “sitting on the sidelines and lobbing grenades from a far.”

I had to think about that accusation.  While in a way it was just the sort of baseless criticism I’ve come to expect from this guy, in another way he’s absolutely right.  It’s much easier to compile facts, write about important fisheries conservation issues and criticize a system that has historically failed to take a long-term precautionary approach, than it is to throw yourself head-first into the nasty world of fisheries management.   Such work is time-consuming, difficult and thankless.  

So, I thought I really should be doing more.  This and the corresponding mid-life boredom caused me to say F-it and throw my hat into the ring.  Thus, after a lot of arse-kissing, support building, meeting with folks in DC, I heard last Friday that I did indeed secure an appointment on the Mid Atlantic Fisheries Management Council.  

Personally, this is either very good or very bad thing for me depending on how I look at it.  I’m sure it will cut into the precious time I spend on the water, but I think I’m okay with that.  One thing is for sure, now the real work begins and I’m pretty excited about it.  And, I can assure you I will give it 100%.  I don’t think the guy who wrote the letter criticizing my summer flounder piece expected I’d take his comments to heart.  In fact, I bet he’s sorry that I have.  I’m looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and working to protect fish as well as fishing communities in the long run.  God, knows, after decades of mismanagement, it’s time someone stand up for the resource itself.  

They’re gonna love me…  

Fishing Reports
In Southern New Jersey things are a bit inconsistent, but there still seems to be schoolies in the back bays.  The bass bite on bunker is still happening in Central and Southern New Jersey, but it’s mostly on live bait.  But, if you hit it right, usually in the afternoons, it miraculously turns on and you can catch these big stripers on plus, soft plastics and flies.  In Lower New York Harbor it’s been solid schoolies under birds each morning.  The number of larger fish lurking underneath has definitely has filtered out.  They are still down there as the liveliners are catching them.  But they aren’t hitting artificials like they were last week.  No sign of black drum this week, but really the conditions weren’t good.  I imagine they are there but we just can’t see them.  On the backside of Breezy Point we’re beginning to see some fish in the flats and the sandeels are thick.  That fishery should be pretty good over the next few weeks.  Over in Raritan Bay it’s been almost all bluefish under the bunker schools.  If you want bass, you need to go on the outside.  In Jamaica Bay, one can catch plenty of schoolies throwing poppers up against the sod banks early in the morning.  Out on the Island, it’s been slow.  Mostly cocktail blues under the birds.  But if you can find those roving schools of bunker off the beach, be ready to tangle with some big bass.  There have been sporadic sightings of bluefin, a few miles from the beach, but not in any numbers worth targeting.  Out east, the flats fishing has been so-so, with some guides complaining about the lack of sizable fish this year.  The south side does seem to be producing though.  The Western Sound is producing the usual schoolie action.  Some big bluefish can be found under the bunker schools though.  The Eastern Sound has got lots of bass in their usual haunts.  Word is the flats up there are working much better than their counterparts in the south.  Pretty much the same deal on the Connecticut side.  As with any summer scenario, it’s best to fish under low light conditions.  Some ridiculously big fish are coming out of Rhode Island.  Narragansett hasn’t been fishing well, but the outside beaches have.  In Mass, the bluefin action continues, although definitely not as consistent.  In Maine, it pretty much sucks.  The bass fishing is terrible this year.  What that means for the stock is up in the air.  More on that later.  There are some bluefin up there as well, but they’ve been difficult to impossible to catch. 

New Jersey Fishing Reports
From Atlantic City and Ocean City, Capt. Bryan DiLeo from Iowa Fortune Guide Service reports: This week has been a roller coaster of water temperatures and action. Big temperature swings has been having the Bass pattern in the shallows challenging at times. When the water is cool (55-62) the Bass have been super aggressive in the shallows delivering some terrific topwater action with Bass in the 26-30" size class. When the winds swing to the SW (the kiss of death direction) and the waters temps jump to 68 - 73 the Bass become very weary which has been translating into allot of follows back to the boat as well as 1 chance strikes. So summer is officially hear and it is now reached the sleep depriving stage of the season where 1st light , last light as well as nighttime runs are the only way to go until we reach the fall run in the beginning of October. My daytime hours will soon be filled with the offshore run and gun action on the 32' for Dolphin, Tuna, and Albies as we approach September. Running offshore is an exclusive service that is offered to existing Iowa Fortune clientele only, sorry no newbie greenhorns. That's all for this week. I wish everyone a safe and happy 4th of July and until next week..keep it reel.

New York Fishing Reports
From the Lower New York Harbor area, Capt. David Azar from One More Cast Charters reports: What can I say...Life is good.  I started a long needed vacation last Thursday. 
    On Friday's charter Peter Strong and friends caught a lot of bluefish, including one that was about 7 pounds, that was fun, but the highlight of the day was coming upon the hordes of black drum that were schooling on the surface off of Breezy Point, that's right I said "black drum"!  We spotted schools that contained dozens of 50 to 70 pound specimens.  Peter hooked up immediately upon casting a large yellow bucktail into the school.  He fought the fish valiantly for about ten minutes when the hooked pulled...but he was immediately bit again, that one dropped it also but he was immediately hooked up again, this time after a few more runs the 20 pound braid parted.  We switched to heavier tackle and went searching for the school.  Peter put another cast into the school and hooked up again, but this fight only lasted a couple of minutes before the hook pulled.  Despite not landing one, just seeing this exotic species and experiencing those powerful runs was worth the price of admission!  You can be sure I will be out looking for them again.  
    The large bass bite that has been going on almost daily in Monmouth County, New Jersey continues.  This afternoon I joined Steve Rahmey on his boat and we cruised the Jersey coast looking for the action. While it was not an all out blitz, as it has been on many days, big bass and blues were being taken under bunker.  The bunker schools stretched for miles but there were not a lot of predators visibly working.  A few chopper blues took  poppers, but striped bass were only taking live bunker.  On our final drift I did a "snag & drop" to take my personal best striper of 32 pounds! 

From the North Shore Capt. Robin Calitri from longislandflyfishing.com reports: We  had productive couple  of  days on C Sic Again.  On Tuesday Mitch and Scott Bernstein joined Robin and covered an area including CSH, Glen Cove, Stamford and Eatons Neck.  It was a tough bite but Scott did well with schoolie blues.  The trick for the Bass was to find the bait balls on the fishfinder and then use a small green and white or olive and white clouser on intermediate or sinking line. On Wednesday captain Robin and Long Island Bassmaster Steve Socko covered the Eastern North shore from LIPA to Mount Misery Shoal.  2-4 lb blues were all over the slugo while a few ate the fly.  Best catch was a five pound fluke on a chartreuse and white half and half on sinking line. Judge Artie Greenspan, Dana Thompson join Joel Weiss on an evening  trip with Robin.  They slaughtered the  smallish blues on sluggos until there arms were tired east of Eatons.

Also checking in from the North Shore is Long Island outdoor artist Bob Giordano, he reported: We had a small flotilla out last Wednesday evening for a fly fishing outing in Huntington Bay. This was a gam put together by a bunch of us from the North Shore Flyrodders club.  Most boats saw a handful or so schoolies and cocktail blues. I had onboard the famous Sullivan's and Dottie showed her prowess hooking up with four schoolies and a few blues. Had one pre '90's keeper follow a smaller bass she had on the line. Nice to see but never hooked up on her. Our largest went maybe 27".  This past Saturday morning, I found my go to spots in the bay very quiet. Fished from 5:15 to 8:30 or so. After trying inside Lloyds and the Inlet first two hours or so, made way to Sand City. First three casts hooked up on medium schoolies which lasted until the cocktails took over. After ripping through three clousers took off to find some micros off the old Centerport Channel. Real small stuff whereupon I decided to maybe call it a morning. Hot and muggy out there. Decided to try one more spot inside Huntington Harbor and bang, nine bass in less than twenty minutes under full sun. These fish were larger and more aggressive with one just under 28". Chart/ Pink-White clousers on the first signs of the outgoing once again in tight to the shore. Nice to know the bites still on real close to home.

From out in East Hampton, Capt. David Blinken from North Flats Guide Service reports: The motto for the season 2008 is WE NEED TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO IMPRESS APON THE FISH COUNTERS  THAT THERE NEEDS TO BE A CLOSER LOOK AT THE STRIPER ISSUE AND HOW TO BETTER MANAGE THE RESOURCE.  I have been talking to guides from Maine to the Carolinas and the story is the same; fewer fish and in some cases none at all.  There have been a few exceptions such as Cape Cod and parts of New Jersey, but for the most part it's been dismal. For there to be a healthy fishery we need fish in many year classes at a particular density. This does not seem to be the case this year. Why do we allow commercial fishermen to gill net large aggregations of bass during the fall blitz (migration) at Montauk when they are most vulnerable and over fish the North Carolina coast during the winter? Grouper populations during there spawn or when they aggregate are protected by the United States and other countries why cant we do the same for our beloved bass. It cant be economics, because as we all know the commercial fishing industry is subsidized federally and the sport industry which brings in money is not. Is fisheries management to become the ultimate oxymoron? I guess we will have to wait for the next population crash, stay tuned. Ok now for what's going on, there are bass in the usual places and it seems the low incoming tide is working very well. Blues on the rips and along drop-offs.
The bait is sand eels and worms which are swimming around everywhere during the day. Shrimp are fading a bit but there are quite a few over grassy rocky bottoms. If your interested you can catch fluke on a fly right now over sandy bottoms with a sinking line and a clouser. Remember release the bass you want to keep so you can enjoy it again. 

Connecticut Fishing Reports
From Eastern Connecticut Capt. Mike Warecke from Southeastern Connecticut  Fishing Charters reports: The Eastern Connecticut Shore line has been up and down over the past week. Middle of last week the bass fishing was good, but as the weekend came and went the fishing slowed down. Its been a hit or miss on the local reefs and rock piles. Night trips are producing some big fish, but the action has been slow. The fish are hitting plugs and plastics, on some trips, wood is out fishing eels. Bluefish are thick at the mouth of the Ct. river with fish this weekend to 13lbs. on poppers. Fly fishing charters are producing some good fish if you don't mind going deep to get them. Tonights new moon hopefully will spark a great night bite for the next week with tides moving some water.

Capt. Sandy Noyes from Rumrunner Guide Service reported: The week started off pretty well. We had good numbers of bass that were more than happy to eat a squid fly. As the week progressed they started to spread out a bit. The heavy fog that we have had the last few days hasn't helped much. There has been an increase in the number of medium sized bluefish around. Today we were fluke fishing off Misquamicut and there were a lot of Herring gulls picking four inch sand eels off the surface. There were a fair amount of six to eight pound blues keeping the eels on top. All of this happened about a half mile off the beach.

Capt. Mike Duclos from Tiderunner Guide Service reports: Except for the late afternoon thunderstorms, fishing continues to improve by the week. Strijpers are actively feeding on both squid and 2" to 3" bunker depending on the spot you find them and the tide. Watch Hill and the eastern end of Fishers has most of the squid action while the Race and West has the butterfish and other small bait. We are having good luck fly fishing with the standards of squid flies and a mix of deceivers in small sizes as well as jiggies and clousers. Small jigs with bass assasins or 4" sluggos have been the ticket when the bass are surface slamming the bunker schools, I had one client this week that hooked 12 stripers in 15 casts, wish everyday had that kind of action..Bluefish are pesent in most of the areas that we are fishing but spend more time closer to the rip lines that the stripers so we are managing to stay away from them. . Looking forward to the long 4th of July weekend , Happy Birthday America. Have a great week.

Rhode Island Fishing Reports
Cast a Fly Charters skipper, Capt. Ray Stachelek reports from Narragansett: If you can’t stand the heat!   Water temps north of the mid-bay islands are nearing 70 degrees. Daytime temps have been above seasonal average too. Add that to the record temps we had three weeks ago and the cumulating effect has resulted with unbelievable high water temps. The bay is warmer than ever when you consider the time of year. Normally the bay would be somewhere around 66 degrees.  This means that some warm water species will appear sooner than normal.  This will also preclude some good striper fishing north of Conimicut Point to Providence. These stripers will slowly release to cooler, more tolerable waters. Expect to see the exodus of silversides from the warmer estuaries. Their reproduction is triggered by rising water temperatures and intense daylight. This cycle too has been completed much earlier than expected. Fly fishermen should look for crab hatches from the mid bay islands to the toll bridges. Look for school stripers feeding on bottom creatures with the lack of smaller baitfish forage. Many of these smaller stripers will remain with us throughout the summer months. They tend to spread out over wide areas and find enough food to sustain themselves thru the hot months. Think bottom! Blues should dominate with the abundance of adult bunker in open water.

The Saltwater Edge reported: Summertime has officially begun in Newport. I don't go so much by the calendar but more by when the first 40 plus fish comes out of the Newport surf in June.  That big bass fell for a deep diving swimmer from Tattoo's Tackle shortly after dusk on a dropping tide with a good breeze about a week ago.  It can be tough to tell whether these fish are exiting the Bay, new fish coming from further South, or maybe both but there's been a lot of quality fish 25 pounds and up around town for the past week or so. Many have sea lice on them These fish have of course been receptive to live bunker brought from inside the Bay and plugs and eels have also taken fish over 30 pounds recently. We even had a pair of charter clients score bass over 40 pounds on the fly rod. That said, almost anyone you talk to is experiencing inconistent fishing along the coast, with every cast action changing to nobody home in just a day or two. "Fish have fins", or so the saying goes. Word has it a big shot of quality fish has left Montauk so we could be reloaded with fish shortly. It’s interesting that much of the Narragansett shoreline has been VERY slow for most of the year, yet just across the way Newport at times has had just great fishing. But in between the good fishing here has been a very slow pick no matter how you choose to try and catch stripers.  Narragansett Bay still continues to be productive. All our guides and staff have been fishing out in Rhode Island Sound and further to the East, so most of the reports we have are second hand from this area, but all indications are that the Bay is still fishing very well despite the warming water temperatures. It too has had a touch of inconsistency lately. Be sure to spend some time in the Lower Bay as well if the Upper Bay is quiet, it tends to fish well at this time of year. Pogies are definitely still around, but some common areas for these bait fish to hang haven't had any, so sometimes a bit more of a search is required if you are looking to live line.  We've been spending most of our time in the cooler open ocean waters along the Rhode Island and Massachusetts coasts for the past few weeks (when we're not in Masschusetts chasing tuna) and we've found quality fish from both boat and along the shore, but it has required some searching at times. Big top water plugs (bigger the better) in low light conditions have produced a lot of big fish for anglers who know where to throw them. We really like to see some surf out there when we fish from shore as that seems to produce the best fishing. Often this time of year you get tiny swell and calm water which at least for stripers usually can't compete with a bit of wind and chop. It's been a bit tough to throw plastics and eels as it's a bluefish rich environment almost everywhere, but those baits and lures will be deadly as they always are if you do happen to be in a place where you can fish them without going broke. Don't be surprised to have to deal with a lot of schoolies and small bluefish in between quality fish. Going truly nocturnal is the only way to slow the micros down, as even the biggest of plugs at sundown weren't deterring the little guys. This stretch is often considered a transition time, but with all the bunker in the Bay a lot of the fish that are normally on the way out of the Bay simply aren't in any rush to leave. Some never will, or will move down but not actually out. At the same time, fish will continue to come from further South along the coast. There's no reason to think good fishing won't continue for the next few weeks along most of Rhode Island. Relaxed summertime fishing is already setting in with very warm water temperatures off Newport, and rumors of near shore hard tails have already begun (yes, one of our guides got into them, and yes they are unfortunately already gone).
Enjoy the summer! It's amazing that it's already here and that the 4th of July weekend is imminent. July can be a great month for big bass along Rhode Island, I'd never consider it to be the doldrums of summer, at least not the first half of the month.

Maine Fishing Reports
Capt. Eric Wallace from Coastal Fly Angler reported: A slow improvement over the past week is reported state wide, Many anglers and guides are running around all morning looking for birds and surface feeds like a normal June or early July and are not having much luck doing so, and in the process reporting there no fish around, I have been fishing spots that I normally fish in late July and August and have had some luck with bigger fish as well sight fishing on the outer island beaches has produce a few nice fish, in the last 5 days we have boated 16 fish over 25 inches and the largest 37 but the problem lies in the fact that we probably only landed 25 fish in those days so what happen to the schoolies in our neck of the woods is a great concern. We still have tons of bait, Pogies, Mackerel and brit herring are everywhere also nice size crabs are available for the lazy stripe who not into chasing fin bait, My feeling is there will be reports of some nice fish taken over the next weeks as people start to spend sometime on the water now that we have had some stable weather.

Massachusets Fishing Reports
Capt. John Mendelson from Boston Fishstix Guides reports: The fishing in Boston is holding up well despite the summer heat. We are still finding fish well inshore. The bass are oriented around the large schools of adult menhaden which are prevalent in our waters this year. We have had great success using topwater flies and lures to entice these fish to eat.

Recently, I had Mark Lawrence, his 12 year old daughter, client and his client's 10 year old son. Isabel is a seasoned angler and got the hand of striper fishing right away. The fish were finicky at first but as the tide dropped and the sun began to move lower in the sky the fish became active. We caught schoolie after schoolie and a few keeper sized fish as well. Everyone had a blast and dads and kids went home having caught their fill.  Richard will be fishing in Boston for the balance of the week. I will be down on Martha's Vineyard targeting bass with the flyrod from shore. Should be great with good night tides and lots of sandeels along the beach.

As far as the Cape goes?  It’s the Cape…  There are tuna and big bass all over the freak’n place.  No official reports for this area.

I’ve been in front of a computer for too long.  Time to go fishing.  See you on the water. 

Capt. John McMurray
Tidal Fish Northeast Fishing Correspondent