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Random Quote: If you can taste the salt in the air.....it's time for a bigger boat!
4/14/09
Here I am boys and girls, crawling out of the wintertime cave. The daffodils are coming out along with the forsythia, and it’s time to start talking about the Montauk fishing scene. It’s been a lousy winter for me, but those of you who love fishing with frozen snot on your noses are probably still giggling with joy over the codfishing that took place from late January into early March. Of course that doesn’t do much for you now, since the fishing has been pretty slow for a while now.
The fluke regs are now cast in stone. The season will be open from May 15 to June 15 and again from July 3 to August 17, with a two fish per person bag limit at twenty-one inches long. And, if you think that is bad, wait until next year. It will be worse.
Here is my assessment of how we arrived at this point in the fluke fiasco; Once upon a time, the commercial draggers found out where the fluke spent their winter vacations and proceeded to pound away at them until there were so few left that regulations had to be put in place to protect them The powers that be came up with a number of fish that they determined somehow to be how many fish should exist, and then had to come up with some regs to accomplish that goal.
The first step was to divide the fluke pie between commercial and recreational interests. Before the pounding took place, fluke were primarily a recreational fish, but it was decided that 60% of the pie should go to the commercial interests and 40% to the recreational side. This was because it was determined by the "best available science" that the commercials were landing 60% of the fluke. Of course the commercials were catching more fluke because they had almost wiped out the fluke before they got inshore where the recreationals could catch any. And, there were hard numbers attesting to the commercial landings while the best that they could come up with for the recreational side was a wild-ass guess. That was the first stage of the screwing we got. And, there is no way that division is ever going to change,
Next they had to decide how to divide up the recreational pie by state. Here is where New York got screwed. Thanks to our states fuel taxes, we pay considerably more for fuel than Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey. As a result, New your draggers that fished 60-70 miles offshore for the fluke found it economical to pack out in the neighboring states where they could buy much cheaper fuel. Here were some hard numbers that could be used to determine each state’s share of the fluke. Of course commercial landings had no bearing whatsoever on recreational landings, but the good old "best science available" came into play. There were no recreational numbers other than wild-ass guesses, and that isn’t science. In order for this to change, all the other states have to vote to reduce their quota in order to increase New York’s quota. If that ever happens, those guys from all the other states better move to New York, because it isn’t going to be safe for them to go home. There is currently a lawsuit being pressed to force the powers that be to come up with one set of regs that will cover all the states, but in reality if that were to happen, it would be as unfair to all the other states as the current regs are to New York. The larger fluke are mostly in their eastern range, and we here in Montauk, can put up with a larger size limit than they can in Virginia or even at the western end of the island.
Here is where the new fishing license that we are all going to wind up with can make a difference. When all the states have a salt water fishing license, there will finally be some "best available science" to determine how many recreational anglers exist in each state, and thereby determine how the fluke pie should be divided. Will that happen? Your guess is as good as mine, but it seems like a reasonable solution to me.
Now here is something else that may frost the old huevos. Right off the top of the fluke, pie three percent (approximately 500,000 pounds) has been removed for scientific research under something called the Research Set-aside Program. This covers fluke, seabass and porgies, but right now I’m only talking about fluke. Someone applies for this program in the same way that a scientist would apply to the government for a research grant and is awarded the grant allowing it to take a certain amount of pounds of fish outside of the existing regulations. Apparently, or maybe allegedly is a better term,
the National Fisheries Institute, which is the lobbying arm of the commercial fishing industry in Washington, has been given control over a certain amount of the research piece of the pie and, they have been auctioning it off. In other words, a boat owner bids on x amount of pounds of fluke, pays his money and is allowed to catch those fish whenever he wants regardless of the seasons. The draggers have been the main beneficiaries of this program ever since it’s inception, but now things have changed, and a number of party and charter boats have latched onto it. They had to pay $1000 to enlist in the program and have bid as high as $3.00/pound for every fluke that they want to catch outside the regs. Before this year the going rate was less than $1.00/pound.
So, now when the fluke season shuts down on June 15, these boats are going to be able to legally put a big sign by their boats that state "FLUKE NOW", while their neighbors sit and wonder where all their fares went, Actually they probably won’t have to wonder very long, because they’ll be able to wave to them as they board those winning bidder’s boats.
A skeptic might wonder who is keeping track of the amount of set-aside fish that each boat is taking. It is an honor (or maybe dishonor) system, much like income tax. You tell the government how much income you have and then pay your taxes based on that. These boats have to report when they leave the dock, when they return and how many pounds of fluke they caught. And, we all know that nobody ever cheats on their taxes, right.
I’ll start posting reports regularly in early May when things start to get more exciting.
If you would like to get these reports sent to you directly, drop me a line at captaingene@montauksportfishing.com and I’ll put you on the list.
Capt Gene Kelly - Montauk Sportfishing
Thanks for the read Capt. Kelly. Management has been a mystical science for years now, and it doesn't look like the quagmire is going to be resolved anytime soon. One factor that has continually irked me is the notion of building up the biomass to "X" tons of fish. Current science does not take into account outside forces (non fishing factors) that may influence the biomass. A presentation was given last year by a gentleman who purports that the rise in dogfish has direct correlation to the biomass stock, and even wen as far to state that it was his belief that even with a moratorium on fluke, the biomass would not be met due to these predatory elements that have grown larger in the habitat. What is your take on this one??
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Lets have a Sexy Party! 38 Henriques FB 2000 ~ 17 Montauk 1978
I'm fishing for WHATEVER, and WHENEVER I want this year. They can take there "Guesstimates" and lick me!!
And I'd advise ALL of you to do the same. And when they try arresting 100,000 recreational fisherman, good luck. They better come armed!! And I mean REALLY armed. Those blowup boats the State uses can be deflated easily from a very good distance!!
You can't use ficticious #'s to make laws. They will NOT, and have NOT, held up in court.
2009 Fluke season is wide open, take whatever you wish, and good luck!!
A presentation was given last year by a gentleman who purports that the rise in dogfish has direct correlation to the biomass stock, and even wen as far to state that it was his belief that even with a moratorium on fluke, the biomass would not be met due to these predatory elements that have grown larger in the habitat. What is your take on this one??
That's pretty much what I think. They came up with a number for the biomass that they had no idea ever existed. Now we're stuck with it.
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Montauk Sportfishing Report 4/14/09 
