10.14.2007 Flounder Amaze~Sea Bass Perplex

[Skylar]

Fish Report 10/14/07
Flounder Amaze ~ Sea Bass Perplex

Hi All,
Sea bass... It should be sea bass. Limits of 'em.
It ain't.
Did have a few decent shots of 'em this week though. After last week's doom and despair report, written Sunday evening, we had two of the best days this fall. Yup, Monday and Tuesday some folks pushed into the upper teens. Others focused on the flatties and bagged 'em up. It's fishing...
Couple weather days -read cleaning & maintenance- then back into it.
I had hoped that the early weekdays were going to set a trend ~ not so. Back to a tough pick on sea bass with just a few folks getting into double digits ~ but high hook on flounder getting into double digits too!
This week last year we were limited out and in early 3 times. Were we to HAVE to limit out before we came home this fall ~ well, I 'spect we'd need plenty of groceries aboard.
Having fun though. Nice to mix up a few bass and fluke.
Seeing some quality tackle. It's great to see someone so skilled that they can catch fish with a "Scobey Do" rod ~ for the rest of us though, having the right stuff counts!
A certain diminutive blonde retailer of fine fishing tackle -Sue Foster- discovered that the Shimano Torium series now comes in a "14".
Ah, wonderful news. The gold Trinidad 14 sells for approximately $375.00. Same reel without the gold sells for about $170.00.
It's light, very high speed, holds gobs of 30lb. micro-braid, has a smooth drag and, were this a "Consumer Reports" article, I strongly suspect it would be given high marks for reliability.
No, I don't receive any compensation from Shimano. I just think it's a great reel. Wish they'd do the 12 too.
The weight of your outfit matters when fishing long hours. Put this reel on a matching, fairly stiff graphite rod and you're in business.
I still like the Torium 16 for toggin' and heavy sea bassin' ~ The '14' is just right for our flounder/cbass fishing though.
I have high hopes for big news on the Artificial Reef front next week. Time'll tell.
We're in a period of low abundance for sea bass right now. A strong argument could be made that artificial reef has helped ease that pain. Sure would like to see our 'footprint' of reef double. Might do just that!
At some point in time we'll see fisheries management begin to look for ways to positively influence juvenile survival outside an estuary. Right now marine management effort is devoted to issues such as allocation, (who gets what percent) and satisfying court ordered reductions.
The last sea bass population expansion was well underway before the first size limit was put in place. Understanding why that happened would put us on our way to restoring the species. Probably a lot of 'em...
The whole of our marine system's complexity is as unfathomable as astronomy's where/what our 'expanding universe' is expanding into. Headache just contemplating it.
Life stages of fish and what effects their survival is a whole lot less complex!
We'll sort it out.
Ought to ~ would have been a lovely day for seatrout fishing.
Regards,
Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservations 410 520 2076
www.morningstarfishing.com