Cameron Sears of Seekonk (13 years old) with a striped bass he caught at
the North Rip casting soft plastics when fishing with his father and Jack
Leyden.
Commission overruled by Secretary of Commerce
Wilbur
Ross, Secretary of Commerce, notified the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
Commission (ASMFC) that he has found the State of New Jersey to be in
compliance with the new Summer Flounder Fishery Management Plan. The decision circumvents the work of the
Commission that provides coastwide management of summer flounder (fluke) in our
area.
Secretary
Ross said in a letter to the Commission “New Jersey makes a compelling argument
that the measures it implemented this year, despite increasing catch above the
harvest target, will likely reduce total summer flounder mortality in New
Jersey waters to a level consistent with the overall conservation objective for
the recreational fishery.”
In
a press release last week, the ASMFC said, “Based on the latest stock
assessment information, summer flounder is currently experiencing overfishing.
Spawning stock biomass has been declining since 2010 and is just 16% above the
threshold. If the stock falls below the biomass threshold, the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requires the Council
to initiate a rebuilding program, which could require more restrictive
management measures.
The
Magnuson-Stevens Act puts fish first in this nation to ensure that fish stocks
are rebuilt. Having more than 40 fish stocks successfully rebuilt proves
the fish first policy works. When decisions – such as the Secretary of
Commerce’s decision allowing New Jersey to make their own summer flounder
regulations – are allowed, they put the interests of individual states
first.
This is a recipe for disaster. States are subject to
local political pressure to put local interests first, and the fish will take a
back seat. The big concern with last week’s decision is that other states
will decide to fish the way they want to regardless of what’s best for the
fish, and we could end up with total chaos.
We need to be advocates for public access
On
Thursday, July 13th the City of Cranston Ordinance Committee passed
an ordinance to eliminate fishing at the Ocean Avenue, Cranston public access
point. The ‘No Fishing” ordnance will
now go before the City Council for final approval on July 24. The ordinance in part read, “There shall be
no fishing at the public access point where Ocean Avenue meets the shoreline at
any time”.
The
primary advocate for the ordinance was the Rhode Island Yacht Club, whose
parking lot is adjacent to the public access fishing area. The Yacht Club commodore (chief volunteer
officer), past commodores and some property owners in the area said “Why should
we be subject to people fishing there adding congestion to the end of the
street”, “The trash in the area is terrible.”, “I do not like walking down to
the water with all those lines in the water.”, “We work hard and deserve to go
to our boats without this hassle”, said a Yacht Club member.
Some
neighbors as well as Councilpersons Steven Stycos and John Lanni did not
support the ‘No Fishing’ ordinance saying if approved the ordinance would
deprive the people of Cranston and the State of RI of public access to the Bay
to fish which is a constitutional right.
Councilman
Kenneth Hopkins, vice-chair of the Ordinance Committee read portions of the
Rhode Island Constitution online out loud to the committee saying “We can do
this, it’s not illegal, it says we have a right to regulate the resource.”
The
Edgewood Waterfront Preservation Association testified that they did not
support the ‘No Fishing’ ordinance, nor did they support the trash or conduct
of some of the people at the end of Ocean Road.
They felt that banning fishing is not the solution. “One more ordinance is not going to help.”
said Barbara Rubine, EWPA president. “We need a long term solution. Maybe a fishing pier should be built
somewhere else in the City.”
I
visited the Ocean Avenue site Tuesday afternoon, July 11 at 2:30 p.m. There were four people fishing there, no
trash was on the ground and a trash bag was tied to the fence which looked like
it had been placed there by the fishermen.
Councilman
Stycos said that the City has done nothing to address the challenge but the
first step might be placing trash containers and emptying them regularly at the
site as they presently do at Stillhouse Cove a short walk away. Stycos said, “The intent of the ordinance is
to prohibit fishermen from being at the access point, I do not know how you can
single out a group like this.”
Councilman
Stycos said “Seven years ago the Rhode Island Yacht Club asked me to address
the challenge, I suggested we eliminate parking on portions of Ocean Road to
help address the congestion issue, however, the Yacht Club did not like that
solution because members (and those attending events at the Yacht club) park on
the street.” Councilman Stycos said,
“Initially the Yacht Club asked that the City of Cranston deed the public
access point over to the Yacht Club, but I told them that this was not likely
going to happen.”
As
fishermen and access advocates, we need to be diligent about protecting public
access points on lakes, ponds, coves, rivers, bays and the Atlantic Ocean. City Council advisors at the meeting said
there were only three other fishing access point locations in the City of
Cranston.
The
‘No Fishing’ ordinance is scheduled to go before the City Council at their July
24th meeting. The ‘No
Fishing’ ordinance has a lot of political horsepower behind it has the sponsor
of the ordinance is City Council president, Michael Farina and it has the
support of the Ordinance Committee. The
City Council meeting is open to the public.
Where’s the bite?
“Freshwater
fishing
bass fishing is good. Anglers are using
shiners and soft plastics with success.
The surprising thing is that the trout bite is still pretty good at Wood
River. Customers are even catching some
trout in local ponds that were stocked by DEM.
This is unusual for this time of year.” said Dave Henault of Ocean State
Tackle, Providence.
Striped
bass. Angler Jack Leyden of North Kingstown fished the Block
Island North Rip last week and said the striped bass were on the surface and
they landed multiple bass casting black Slug-Go lures, even picked up a few
trolling the Slug-Go. “The bass were
thick with a lot of bait, birds feeding too.”
Ken Landry of Ray’s Bait & Tackle said, “Last week we caught bass to
52 pounds fishing the southwest side of Block Island at night using eels.” Angler Mike Swain said, “We caught multiple striped
bass Sunday at the North Rip casting soft plastics as the bass were high in the
water column feeding.” Dave Henault of
Ocean State Tackle, said, “The bass bite on the southwest side of Block Island
is good. Customers are catching some
very large fish there.”
Summer
flounder (fluke) fishing along the southern coastal shore
and Block Island is hot. Angler Jack Leyden said he, Steve Sears and children
fished the Block Island North Rip for fluke and limited out last Thursday. “The
rip was loaded with sand eels and the fluke were there.” said Leyden. Fishing the Bay, including the lower Bay
around the Newport and Jamestown Bridges is slow. Anglers are catching some very nice fish but
the summer flounder bite is a very slow pick. Congratulations to Dave Rea of
Wickford for landing his first keeper
fluke, a nice 22” fish, caught Saturday in the trench just south of Dutch
Island when fishing on No Fluke Charters.
Capt. Frank Blount of the Francis Fleet said, “Fluke fishing was great
this week. We had four excellent
days of fishing. Monday saw a near full boat limit close to the coastal shore
while Thursday through Saturday fishing waters around Block Island paid big
dividends. On Thursday's trip we had three extraordinary fluke taken between 11
and 13 pounds. Customer Tom Lombardi from Charlestown had an easy limit catch
of fluke that totaled just over 30 pounds in combined weight on Saturday. Buck tail
jigs of various kinds and hi lo Spro jigs set along with gulp seemed to do
really well with the big fish this past week.”
Offshore fishing is starting to explode with bluefin and yellowfin
tuna starting to be caught. Off shore fishermen Dick Pastore said on the RISAA
blog Saturday, “Sharked at the horns in flat seas – 71 degree water. No drift. Two
lazy blue sharks milled around but didn’t t take the mackerel baits which was a
blessing. We then moved to the South West Ledge which was alive with bait and
74 degree water. Boils of large blue fish and strippers below. Diamond jigs and
deadly dicks worked well. Tons of BSB and large scup on deadly dicks. Birds
(shear waters) were working the boils.”
