Hello, fellow fisherpeople! Fluke season went out with a whimper as the steady NE winds prevented most boats from even fishing. The season as a whole gave us lots of action but keeper-sized fluke were hard to pluck among the many shorts. The regulatory agencies are already talking about cutting back even more so who knows what restrictions we’ll have next year? Sea bass opens up on Oct. 22 with a 12.5 inch, 15 fish per man limit, and I think it will be good fishing. Bottom bouncers can expect decent action with porgies, ling, and cod once the ocean settles down again. We are hoping that the bluefish will finally take up residence at the normal fall haunts when the wind dies out and provide us with some tackle busting action.
The Hi-Mar Striper Club Tournament (now the Bob Kamienski Tournament) will be held beginning at 8 p.m. Friday, 10/23 and ending at noon Sunday, Oct. 25 out of Bahrs Landing. This is a two-fish total weight contest and you can fish as much or as little as you want for the 40 hour duration and has gained the reputation as the premier striper tournament around. For more info check out www.himar.com.
And now, for something different, I’d like to tell you a tale that may make you think. Stay with me until the end.
She was resting behind the shelter of a huge boulder that offered a bit of sanctuary from the strong force of the ebbing tide. An occasional flick of her broad tail was all that was necessary to maintain her position in the black depths of these waters that she had arrived at shortly before sundown. This area was familiar to her as she had made this a regular stop on the annual fall migration for many years, both for the abundance of food and to group up with others of her kind before continuing the journey to the wintering grounds. The big fish had dined on a herring earlier in the day but now her massive body required more food to refuel for the next leg of her trip, and her senses were finely tuned to an array of movement and smell brought to her by the current.
A large shape passed 25 feet above her on the surface, drifting with the tide, momentarily distracted her but she quickly rejected this as no threat so she was fully prepared when the snake-like creature came swimming by a few feet from her lair. She felt the pulsing motion of the eel through her sensitive lateral line before she ever saw it and instantly identified it as one of her favorite foods, and a few broad sweeps of her tail put her on an intercept course with the slimy critter. Jaws agape, she flared her gills and sucked down the tasty morsel, then spun around to return to the comfort of her rock.
Suddenly she felt a sharp sting in her mouth! Something was exerting pressure on her, preventing her from reaching the rock, and she panicked! Rapid tail beats propelled her 50 yards in a short time but the annoying pull was still there, so she tried shaking her head to rid herself of this strange eel that had bitten back. Turning sideways she attempted to use the mass of her body and the drag of the tide to break free, but she was beginning to tire and found herself pulled unwillingly to the surface where the large shadow that had earlier passed over her waited. Coming up next to the shadow she was entangled in some sort of web-like mesh and lifted entirely out of her liquid environment, with bright lights and unfamiliar sound vibrations assaulting her senses. She felt a small, eel-like thing lock onto her lower jaw and a jab of pain as the stinging object was removed from her, and though she tried flapping her gills she could not draw oxygen from this weird world.
Nearing the point of full exhaustion and suffocation, totally sensory overloaded, it took the great fish a few moments to realize she was once again in the sea, but the small eel maintained a tight grasp on her jaw. The oxygen rich water flowed across her gills, reviving her, and with a powerful flex of her muscles she broke free from the strange mini-eel. In the haven of the depths she found a calm area behind a mussel bed and rested, reorienting to the surroundings while regaining strength. In the future she would be much more wary about eating anything that might bite back!”
With this story, I wanted to point out that we don’t have to kill all the fish we catch even if they are well above legal size. The big ones are the breeding stock and you’ll feel very satisfied releasing a trophy fish to ensure the passing on of superior genes to the next generation. (By the way, did you figure out that the small eel was the thumb of the fisherman?)
Hopefully the wind and seas will ease up and we’ll have some up to date reports for you next week. Till then, Hook em up!
