03.23.2008 Toggin'

[Skylar]

Fish Report: Easter '08
Toggin'
Fishing's Interest of the Interest


Hi All,
Only fished 2 out of the 5 days. Friday's 20 to 30 knots of WNW wind had some put off, but we snuck a day out of it. A really good day. One stop shopping again. I'm pretty sure I can count the tog trips on one hand that I didn't have to move - nice when it happens. 67 tags and a rail limit..
Saturday's trip started out -weatherman's bad- as a slick calm morning with a fair current from the SSW. Pair of anchors in: tog coming up. A fine start.
Then the wind rolled around NE -slam into the tide- and squashed that. Within an hour and a half; a wholly different ocean.
Sent 'em home close to or limited out though - 27 tags. Fellows kept asking me to "Go back to the calm spot!"
We'll fish some more ~ Thursday through Monday, the 27th to the end of March. Fare is unchanged for toggin' despite $3.85 a gallon diesel. (checking my email, I see I've won several lotteries and can start a special banking relationship with a nice lady from Africa so the fuel price/fare price is OK ~ for now) Trips leave 7am, return 3(ish). Green crabs are provided. 15 people sells out the rail. This is not a fishery for everyone. Derned if I don't enjoy it though...
Lots of news about interest lately. Fed ratcheting down rates; a huge financial corporation imploding because of foreclosures on unscrupulously written variable-rate mortgages.
Even someone as allergic to higher math as myself can understand that if you're earning interest; the higher the better - so long as it's paid.
Read an article in the height of the DotCom bubble where a fellow had invested -wagered- most of his wealth on a stock and won. He'd then reinvested that in bonds and was meeting living expenses on the interest of the interest.
Nice gig.
All fishers need to pay attention to the interest percentage we're getting on our stocks. Fish stocks that is - populations; the interest being the annually accrued percentage of juveniles that survive from spawning.
Anything raising that percentage increases the number of fish we might be able to catch in the future.
In Lindholm, Auster & Kaufman's 'Habitat-mediated Survivorship of Juvenile Cod', the authors found that mortality rates due to predation fluctuated widely. It's a fish eat fish world.
In this controlled aquarium experiment designed to mimic trawl impacts to natural seafloor, habitats were varied from just sand to bare cobble-rock to dense sponge colonies. Young of the year (YOY) cod lived in the tanks and 2 year old cod were introduced as predators.
Without factoring in natural mortality, bycatch, or any of a host of factors, the scientists found just 6.6% of the YOY survived over sand, 33.2% over cobble, 53.4% over minimum sponge growth habitat and 68% over dense sponge. A place to hide makes a big difference.
Would the rule of 72 works here, the population of fish would double in a year and a bit at 68% or 11 years at 6.6%. Rule of 115 ~ it triples in 1.7 years at 68% or 17.5 years at 6.6%.
While no fish stock is ever going to be this predictable; dern sure be better fishing if we could bump up the percentage of YOY survivors in any similar fashion.
It's the ones that survive that we get to catch; that get to spawn themselves.
This study came out in May 1999, numerous studies since have come to similar conclusions about the importance of habitat.
We just need to apply what we've learned ~ maximize our interest. Many species; sea bass, red hake, squid, flounder, just to name a few, would benefit.
A far higher year's 'interest' -percentage of survivors- would offer significant improvement to fishing as they grow into legal size ~ a measure of recruitment. It's when you compound that interest over time ~several years classes of increased recruitment entering the spawning class~ that things start looking far better.
Fishery management without habitat management is like wealth management without regard to protection of the principle, let alone annual interest.
Still undiscovered and certainly unmanaged, constant attrition of our region's natural reefs leave we users exposed to asset disaster.
By building new artificial reefs and protecting the natural ones we'll add to our region's 'principal'. Done well, we could be fishing the interest of the interest.
Be a nice gig.
Regards,
Monty

Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@siteone.net
Party Boat "Morning Star"
Reservation Line 410 520 2076
http://www.morningstarfishing.com/