Exploding Heads - The Fisherman

Exploding Heads

“If there’s anyone here who caught a keeper black sea bass from shore this season (beach, bulkhead, bridge or jetty), reply with YES. Those casters who have not just reply with NO.”

It’s a question I posted to my Jersey fishing friends on Facebook in December, which immediately generated 62 NO responses, and 17 YES. For those who said they did catch a keeper sea bass from shore, I followed up by asking how many keepers were caught in September, and how many in October (I also asked if anyone got their bag limit from shore in October). Keep in mind black sea bass wasn’t open at all in New Jersey during September; in fact, no one in New Jersey was allowed to target or retain a black sea bass until October 22 which amounts to just 10 days of allowable sea bass fishing on a 12-1/2-inch size limit during an entire two-month stretch of the year. As such, the answers weren’t too surprising.

Upon further review, those sea bass that were caught from shore according to my Facebook fishing buddies came while targeting fluke, tog and other species along the sod, rocks and rubble along the coast. A few “keeper size” sea bass came during the closed part of the season, but most were undersized and all were caught “incidentally” as bycatch out of season and had to be released. Modifying the results based on my follow-up questioning, it turns out that 73 shoreside anglers did not catch any keeper sea bass during the 10 days of allowable fishing in October, and of the other 6 who did, none reported a daily 15-fish limit. Again, not surprising for surfcasters.

Black sea bass are all over the place, and as Capt. Harvey Yenkinson pointed out, “South Jersey back bays and Delaware Bay a nursery ground for the young black sea bass.”

Angler Joe Haase said the same thing with a caveat, “For the first time I have ever remembered, we were catching hundreds of juveniles around 7 to 9 inches a mile up the Maurice River in the Delaware Bay.”

“My boat had one October 23 and one on October 27,” said Capt. Dave Showell of Absecon Bay Sportsman Center, adding those fish were caught “over a mile from the inlet, inside in a narrow cut thru the marshes.”

Jim Christmas said he caught a keeper from his dock, but not in September or October and certainly no bag limits. “One keeper size out of dozens of smalls. Goes with the territory of a dock,” he said.

Of course, there’s the obvious difference between fishing the bayside bridges and bulkheads and the oceanfront jetty and sloughs. While a couple of hardcore surfcasters mentioned hooking up with sea bass while surf fluking from late August into the first week of September after sea bass had closed, most beach guys were pretty quick to guffaw.

“In 45 plus years of jetty fishing I never caught one over 12-1/2 inches, nor did I ever see one caught,” said Paul Haertel.

I can’t say that I have either Paul. On the other hand, NOAA Fisheries reported that during the September and October period of recreational data collection (that’s the Wave Five period of MRIP) New Jersey anglers landed 7,000 keeper black sea bass from the surf, sod, jetties and bulkheads. If by “keepers” they meant during the 10-day stretch of available season from October 22 to October 31 (700 keepers a day in New Jersey for 10 consecutive days) that’s ludicrous.

If, on the other hand, NOAA Fisheries bases their 7,000 black sea bass harvest on mortality estimates from catch and release while surfcasters fished for other species during a two-month period, then it seems we’re not having a sea bass overharvest problem by keeping seasons open, but instead the management problem that occurs mostly because the seasons are closed.

That sound you hear is from several hundred thousand New Jersey anglers’ heads exploding simultaneously!

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