Advocating for fisheries in Washington, DC
Last month, I had the
chance to advocate for full funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) in Washington, DC.
I was with Gretchen
Spiers, Vice President of the Cape Cod Salties; Scott Travers, Executive Director
of the RI Saltwater Anglers Association; George Baldwin, Past President of the
Connecticut Surfcasters Association; and seven other charter captains and anglers.
NOAA is under attack
to reduce its staff and budget by about a third. We were in Washington to share
with congressional offices how these drastic cuts would impact recreational
fishing and the economies of our states.
“We spoke with House
and Senate staff about supporting NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation and
Restoration, the National Estuary Research Reserves, and the
inter-jurisdictional fisheries grants. Since Massachusetts has the largest
commercial and recreational fishing economy in New England, and is the third
largest producer of seafood in the country (behind Alaska and Washington
State), these cuts will disproportionately impact Massachusetts,” said Grechen
Spiers of the Cape Cod Salties.
Rhode Island has
benefited greatly by these programs including our National Sea Grant Programs
at URI Graduate School of Oceanography and Roger Willimas University, Narragansett
Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, and many of the programs run by the
Narraganset Bay Estuary Program. Most of
these programs would simply go away.
In Massachusetts NOAA
funding supports the Waquoit Bay Estuary Research Reserve in Falmouth and
Mashpee, grants assessing the impact of wastewater discharge from the Pilgrim
Nuclear Plant into Cape Cod Bay, grants for offsetting losses due to the
decline in Atlantic herring stocks, and many other local initiatives,” said
Gretchen Spiers. “NOAA dollars also fund
ongoing science-based research projects at the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, such as those for the National Sea Grant Program and the Ocean
Acidification Program,”
With budget cuts data-based stock assessments and fisheries
cannot effectively be managed. The loss of funding for the Marine Recreational
Information Program (MRIP) – direct mail and interview intercept surveys - will
significantly harm the ability of NOAA to manage fisheries.
Spiers said, “A reduction in new and more accurate data
collection efforts may lead to moratoriums and seasonal closures based on even
more uncertain data, or possibly worse, increased deregulation.”
Our congressional delegation relies on anglers to keep them
informed about what they are experiencing on the water, what the issues are and
how these NOAA cuts will impact our industry. So please take the time to email
them your concerns about NOAA cuts.
Top three tips to catch bigger fluke
The summer flounder (fluke) bite is on. Anglers are hooking up with keeper fluke off
Newport, in lower Narragansett Bay, Mt. Hope Baye, along our coastal shore and
around Block Island.
My three top tips
First you need to plan, plan, and plan your fluke trips.
The idea is to select six to eight places you will fish based on wind
and tide being in line. This is
important as you want to drag your bait over the front of the fluke as they set
up looking into the current. I then go
to the first place I hope to catch fish based on catching experience and recent
fishing intelligence and then go the second, third, fourth places, etc. until
we catch fish.
Second, larger fish usually come on edges of structure.
This includes inclines and declines around channel banks and ledges, the
foot of jetties where it meets sand, between ledges, drifting over humps and
bumps, fishing bridge abutment areas where bait gets tossed, etc.
Third, be ready to fish multiple rigs and baits.
This means being ready to use multiple-colored rigs, jig types and
stingers. And, be ready to tip them with
a variety of baits including squid, gulp or the ground fish you have starting
to catch and strip up i.e. sea robins, scup, bluefish, etc. The idea is to try a number of rig and bait
arrangements until you discover what the fish want on any given day.
Fluke regulations in
Massachusetts include a minimum size of 17.5” from a vessel and 16.5” from
shore with a five fish/person/day limit. In Rhode Island the fluke regulation
is a 19” minimum size, six fish/person/day with special shore areas where
anglers are allowed two 17” fish.
Where’s the bite?
Striped
bass/bluefish. East End Eddie Doherty, Cape Cod Canal
fishing expert and author, said, “Action on the Canal has slowed down. Notwithstanding
the gloom experienced by most, Mike Dick, a talented Bourne lure maker, enticed
a couple of slots to hit his Happy as a Clam white Mini Canal Cruiser for some
top water action on an early east tide at first light, and a couple of days before,
caught a 39-inch bluefish.” “The spring run of striped bass has
been very good with high numbers of fish being caught in the Providence and Taunton
Rivers as well as in Narragansett and Mt. Hope Bays,” said Jeff Sullivan of
Lucky Bait & Tackle, Warren. “The
herring are still coming out of the Rivers and there are Atlantic menhaden too
so depending on where you are anglers are using 9” Doc’s to smaller 4” lures. We also saw some bonito at the Newport Bridge
this week.” Tom Giddings of the Tackle Box, Warwick, said, “This weekend we had
large bass in Warwick and East Greenwich Coves with worm hatches occurring. The bass were everywhere with an occasional
bluefish mixed in.” Angler
Greg Spier, said, “My niece Kattie Lightbody of Foxborough caught a 34"
striped bass using an umbrella rig in the Brenton Reef area off Newport.”
Black sea bass, summer flounder
(fluke), squeteague and scup. “We caught keeper fluke at Prudence
Island this week, you had to work for them but they were there,” said Jeff
Sullivan of Lucky Bait. Anglers are
working to catch keeper black sea bass. “Scup
are not abundant in the upper Bay but the bite is consistent off Newport and at
the Sakonnet with a good fluke bite there as well as at Block Island,” said
Dave Henault of Ocean State Tackle. “Large
scup are being caught in the Bay with anglers landing squeteague and fluke at
Warwick Light,” said Tom Giddings of the Tackle Box. Angler Matt Haczynski
reports on the RI Saltwater Anglers blog, “Sunday the bite was insane off
Newport. The fluke tossed up squid all
over the boat when they came on board. We
had our limit before noon each day.”
Freshwater. “The largemouth bite continues to be excellent with frogs working well as the ponds I am fishing have a lot of vegetation and pads already,” said Jeff Sullivan of Lucky Bait. Tom Giddings of the Tackle Box, said, “Freshwater fishing is on fire with customers catching a 4.9 and a 5.1 pound largemouth using shiners. Both Little and Gorton Ponds in Warwick are hot.”
No comments:
Post a Comment