Let's get it started

Lots of news in the past year: a boat repowered, a member becomes a partner, an old member gets into the National Academy of Sciences. And, my meeting in Bolivia on November just got cancelled, which opens up a lot more fishing dates! Let's get those talks ready, those clousers tied and think about the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Asa Gray Foundation! Cape Lookout, NC, November 5-8?

2007 Annual Meeting

The 2007 AGF Board Meeting will be held at Cape Lookout, NC, Nov. 1-4. Sessions start Thursday a.m., with the Plenary Talk, "Microbial ecology land and sea: the case study of Cape Lookout," being given by Duke University's Rytas Vilgalys at 8 p.m. at The Pine Grove.

For those of you planning on fishing, here is some received wisdom from past years:

> >>> Miles Silman - 10/22/01 11:29 AM >>>

>Hey Steve,

>

>Great to hear from you. I was fixing to send Rytas an email telling him to

>get ready! None of your problems are insurmountable. First, the important

>stuff: line and terminal tackle. My buddy Craig and I have thrown just

>about everything there is at them and keep coming back to a couple of

>baits. First, for fly fishing, I fish a teeny 450 sinking line. That

>stuff sails out there in the stiffest of wind and stays up enough to get

>the fly to the fish. I use a tapered leader when fishing a floating line,

>but I think I have been using about 6' of 20lb fluorocarbon. Anyway,

>nothing too fancy with the lines. Whatever you'd use for ocean striper

>fishing will work. I think craig often uses an intermediate sink. I am

>ccing him on the email, so you can get him directly.

>

>As for flies, Craig is a fly-tying master, so any specifics go to him. I

>mooch flies from him for the trip. That said, the only thing you really

>need are chartreuse and white clousers, about 2" long. I guess my

>second-place fly would be the same thing at 3", and my third place would be

>the same at 1.5". Really, they eat them up. You might want to throw in

>some all whites and maybe a blue and white. And if you have the bug bad

>tie some Deceivers in the same colors. If you just show up with c&w's,

>though, you'll catch fish.

>

>We spin-fish for them when they are skittish, when the wind is howling, or

>when our arms ache. No shame there! Craig had an awesome lure called a

>'megabait', all silver, about 3.5" long. It rocked. You may want to call

>him and get the exact make. The second-place finisher, believe it or not,

>was a lead-head jig with a single-tail white mister-twister grub. And it

>wasn't second by all that much! I'd bring both. There are other things

>like 'sting-silvers' etc., that people say work, but I haven't tried them.

>

>Craig and I camp on the Core Banks. We go out to the light house and dock

>if the Feds aren't there, or unload and then anchor the boat if they are

>(overnight docking is prohibited). There is a picnic shelter to the left

>of the dock where we set-up food, and we camp a little further off in the

>sand. One thing to remember is that it can be windy, so bring a tent that

>is up to the job. It can also be chilly. You want to be prepared for the

>hardest driving spray you can imagine at 40 degrees while fishing, and also

>80 and sunny. I'll have a Coleman stove, so we should be set for cooking.

>

>I always start at www.wmi.org/saltfish when looking for reports. Check the

>saltwater flyfishing page as well as the other reports. Don't get too

>sucked-in by the NC Saltwater page, the reports are under the general

>reports section usually. Also, www.captjoes.com has some good info.

>

>Search for a guy named Gordon Churchill on www.google.com and you'll get

>his page. He's a guide, but he has good articles on fishing for albies.

>

>I'm getting psyched for the trip. The place is beautiful, and the fishing

>is almost always awesome. Sight casting to busting fish with gulls

>wheeling overhead. You can't beat it! Ah, there will be jillions of 1lb

>bluefish out there as well, so bring some gear for them as a diversion.

At 03:19 PM 10/22/2004 -0400, Craig Poff wrote:

On the albie flies...2/0 is a little too big. Most of the one's we've
used in the last few years are are #1 & #2. The baitfish have a tinge
of pink to them so I'd highly recommend chart over pink, pink over white
& chart over white for your clousers. Ditto on the megabaits. They
also make one that has a purplish/pinkish side that rips. A 4' leader
of 20-30 mono with a tippet of 15-20# flouro will be plenty.

While Miles luvs his teeny line, my primary rod (9wt) has a clear
intermediate shooting head with flat running line. Doesn't get as deep
as Miles' but I think I can pick it up and shoot it a bit quicker and
with less effort...I'm all about less effort! I'll have my 11 rigged
with the teeny 450.

Global Change Symposium Online

The New York Botanical Garden had an excellent symposium on the effects of climate change and CO2 enrichment on land and ocean. You can see all of the talks on-line as a web-cast. Check out Al Gore's talk, and also Elizabeth Kolbert's. One of the more chilling discussions was on oceanic acidification and its potential effects on marine food chains.

A fish on a dish

There was a great opinion piece in today's New York Times by Paul Greenberg on the ethics of keeping versus releasing large game fish. His opinion: we should only eat fish that are low on the food web.

Your one-stop fishing home...

Hey guys, I updated the page to include some often-used links for getting out on the water at Cape Lookout. Check the sidebar for forecasts, water temps, and boat repair info. Fishing season is upon us!

Cape Lookout Lighthouse update

Here's a posting about soundside erosion at the Cape Lookout Lighthouse.

whale rescue near SF

Here's one whale of a story with a happy ending. We should keep snorkeling gear on AG for future whale rescues.

Oregon Inlet Rockfish Report – 12/20-12/21

It’s that most wonderful time of the year…. holiday parties, visions of sugar plums, hitting the malls, family time, egg nog, going to the Nutcracker. NOT. Here in NC, the talk at Christmas parties invariably comes down to one thing: “Have the stripers shown up yet at Oregon Inlet? When can we go?” A couple egg nogs and phone calls later, ‘arrangements’ were made. I would tow the boat up to OI and meet Steve and Jay (from MD), and Mike and John (from Durham) at OI Fishing Center Tuesday morning.

Monday afternoon: Due to a few things that ‘came up’ during the day (truck needed new brakes, furnaceman had to come, wife’s car had flat tire), I didn’t get out of the driveway till midnite. Drove to Harkers Island, picked up Asa Gray, hauled her to the Cedar Island Ferry. Caught the 7 am ferry to Ocracoke. Beautiful morning, clear skies, low wind, temps in the 20s. Got to the fishing center around 11:30, the other fellers were ready to roll.

Tuesday fishing a little slow, bait still scattered, but the seas were pretty flat so we covered a lot of water and caught up with the rest of the fleet off of Nags Head. Lots of bunker in the water, not much catching until Jay (18 yr fishing savant from Annapolis) finally hooked up with our only fish of the day. Jay already has a reputation in Maryland as a pro kayak fisherman and ‘fish whisperer’, and its no surprise that he crossed paths and teamed up with Steve ('Perch Stalker’). Steve hooked another but lost it at the boat. Oh well, the stink was off. Had an exciting ride on a following sea heading back into the Inlet as the tide was coming out. Mike and John had to head back that nite, so you’re mojo’s paid up. Next time fellas.

Wed morning, the Jackson boys show up. Rob and his sons Robert and David were ready, stripers better watch out. Funny thing, wind was up from the NE, the Inlet a bit meaner- seas around 5-7 ft, with some big NE swells, and it was cold. At OI, west wind is fine, east wind is brutal. Fished about an hour until one of the boys starting chumming (I was not far behind), decided it was time for plan B (maybe tow the boat to Mann’s harbor?). Headed back to the docks, just as the Poacher was unloading some GIANT rockfish onto the docks (up to 40 lbs). They had their limit by 8:00 am about 8 miles up the beach, and were getting ready to take another charter out for the afternoon- maybe we should reconsider plan B? A couple hot chocolates and Dramamines later, the boys and I got our mojo working again. We were going back to get those rockfish, come hell or highwater. Everyone, back in the boat!

Didn’t have to go far this time, in fact we never made it out of the inlet!
Spotted some birds diving under the OI bridge, so we headed straight for ‘em and that was it. Again, first one on was Jay (kid knows how to keep his line wet). The fish were all good size, most over 20 lbs. All caught on light tackle (one of my rods had 12 lb mono!). Everyone got hooked up, even had a quadruple on once. Had our limit within an hr.
Note to self for next time: “Screw plan B”.


By the end of day 2, everyone had their hands full on this trip! By the way, all of these fish were caught casting and jigging with light tackle!



Drs. Rehner and Jackson doing some research on rockfish stomach contents.












AG boat report. The boat is parked up in Manteo for rockfish season. Come on down, and fish it! Boat running really rough at the docks on day 1. Running better in the ocean- what’s up with that? Changed out the lower unit oil Tue nite, and that did the trick (the water temp inside was 42, enough to congeal the lower unit). Average speed increased by about 5 knots as well. The trailer, well that’s another story. Still need to switch out leaf springs and right fender (see photos) before trailering back to Harkers next month.

Rock fish ought to be running until the real cold weather hits sometime in January. Let's hope there's still time to get out and fish with 'Wild Hog' Silman, 'Lefty' Talbot, 'Mad Dog' Willis, and everyone else who couldn't join us this time out! Wishing everyone peace, love, and tight lines in 2006!

Duncan's fuzzed memories of Albiefest ought 5

Yeah--Friday everybody arrived by 4am or so (Miles and Duncan at the New Bern Wally World at 3am). Craig and Brandon appeared out of the darkness. We splashed the boats at 4, noticed first light at 430, took a nappie until maybe 530. Was kind of ugly getting the boats started--they did not want to go out, it seemed, but we prevailed. It was fricking COLD. Breezy too. Had to wait for enough light to cross over--hurricanes changed the channel? Anyways, set camp in the usual spot and headed out. Wind 10-15 in the am, maybe picking up toward noon. Duncan Miles Heath in AG, Craig/Brandon in the Whaler. Probably 6-8 albies caught total for two boats by noon. Some whitecaps,seas 2-4, fair number of birds, fish in twos and threes up/down. Craig and Brandon look like pros in the Whaler. Have they done this before? We headed back upwind to get closer to shore for some relief and as we did so the wind began to lay down and it began to feel almost warm.

Fishing not red hot; then C&B zoomed up and said a flotilla was heading thru the shoal to the east side. They raced off, we reeled up and started to follow, but we got kinda lost in the rollers as we headed thru, no obvious way, so we turned around. But we didnt stay turned around--how could we? So we resolved to press thru and turn around if it got hairy. But what happened is, as the wind quit, the rshoals laid down, so the rollers evaporated over about a 30 minute period. So there we were with 25 other boats (everybody came out right after lunch), middle of the shoals, in 8 feet of clear water and the birds are on and the splashes are on and we are hooked up! To one-pound bluefish.

Now if we are keeping score on albies caught, subtract one quarter albie for each blue.

But as we fished (and had gear bitten off) the splashes got bigger and greenfish started roaring thru. What a sight! A lot of hookups resulted. We did this for awhile, chased east and west after the birds, when Craig and Brandon waved us over to them. Something wrong with the Mercury! Oh no! Tilt up, look...tilt back down, look....outa gas! Subtract two albies!

So we spliced up a tow rope and started hauling them in to get some gas. Of course we stopped at a promising blitz, threw stuff at it, pressed on. We took them around the hook (Miles at the helm--can we get both boats on plane? See Brandon putting on a life jacket, Craig checking the rip cord on his Sospenders). Dropped B and C and Whaler at the hook (maybe the albies will come in) on anchor, AG went to CJ's to get 5 gallons. Return, gas up the Whaler, restart, head back out. Seemed dead though, so came back in.

Sat am clear, not so cold. Duncan/Heath in the Whaler, Craig/Brandon/Miles AG. Long story short we got separated, so didnt hear about AG fun until 6 pm. Whaler headed out, saw 3 trawlers and 100,000 birds just past the rock jetty buoy, about 1 mile out, so we went at 'em. Nothing much happening on the surface, but we veered off a bit and found breaking fish right away, Heath on! There were so many pods in that area that we stuck around. Maybe fished a 4 mile square area going pod to pod. Not much joy though. Fish up and down, a lot of boats now. Actually getting ugly in some instances. Gestures and so on. Most people pretty cool though. Total for Whaler before lunch only 3 albies.

Heath had to go in to meet Stephanie, so Duncan took him in, returned to rock jetty area (about a mile out). Many boats, some trollers passing thru, but not much happening on the surface. AG not reachable on VHS or cell phone (and they had the lunch!). Flyfishing alone (caught enough of them on metal-time to switch) not easy. Good strategy was to putt putt to a likely-looking spot and drift/cast. Copied this from other singleton flyfishers. So this worked pretty well. Got one and some good whacks blind casting; frequent pauses for PBR.
Then (330pm?) trouble with the Mercury? Noticed no cooling water coming from the telltale on the motor. Spent a fair amount of time motor up/motor down looking for cooling water stream, but no dice. No peeps from the motor indicating overheating, but decided to go in just in case. No replies from AG. VHS batteries dead? So ran in just on plane, doing a straight route so AG could find me. Return to dock, motor running, I could see water dribbling from the telltale. So motor OK (should clean out the hole) head back out! Some action near shore past the jetty so headed there fearing bluefish. Again, drift and cast, hookup one albie (using a surf candy fly). Couple hits, break off fly, almost sundown now, head on in, arrive 5 minutes before AG.

Sunday as Craig already said. Headed out, immediately spotted birds (dozens of boats a hint) and got into raging albies right off. Bait spraying everywhere! Fished a one square mile area just drifting and putting. Several on metal and Megabaits (corrected for bluefish landings), then switched to flies. Everybody but Duncan hooked up. Kind of a lull from about 915 to 10 am, heated up again as we left!

Miles big rig awesome as it kind of idles up the ramp, not noticing AG in tow.

Thanks guys, albies, weather for a most excellent fest!

Bookeeping for Rytas:
*In the sleeping bag stuffer--VHS, Okuma fly reel, Heath's DEET, cover for Garmin.
*Mercury ok but should be able to see the telltale cooling water stream (I would describe it as seepage now). Just poke out the hole with a piece of wire as the motor is running on the ear muffs.
*Rytas have you got a safety switch? I didn't see one.
*Stern nav light gone. It was there Friday night, not there Saturday eve. Duncan owes Rytas.

I have a few bad dig pix I will get up a little later. Luggage lost so no charger for the cam.

Albie-Fest 2005, briefly

It happened again. The Asa Gray Foundation crew and Euthynnus lineatus rondezvoused at Cape Lookout this last weekend. The action was as good as ever. Acres of bait. Check out this film of the action (not foundation footage) to see what the mayhem was like.

Albies are HERE.....

Looks like it will be another good year for albies.
The AG is ready to go- new t-top canvas, rebuilt trailer, who knows what else...

Some decent schools of large albies were rampaging yesterday thru the east side of Cape Lookout Shoals. Had the boat surrounded several times by slashing pods of panicking baitfish, blues and greyhounding albies. Won't be long until they move to the west side....

didn't matter what you used - flies, stingsilvers, bucktails, and megabaits all worked. albies were on the big size, up to 20 lbs. In 3 hrs, three of us were hooked up at least four times, took at least 30 minutes to land each fish. sound familiar? The only bad part was listening to my colleagues whine about their tired arms.... ;-)

Water temps make for great mix!

The latest water temp image off the coast of North Carolina looks great for the upcoming board meeting. Warm temperature on the east side, cooler on the west, and a steep change out by the gulf stream, particularly up north. We should be able to get into whatever kind of fish we want. The Baltic Express went down to the coast on Friday to get the Asa Gray ready for the trip, and, as far as I can tell, everything is shaping up to get the board from the airports and highways to the meeting.

Duncan, that toothfish post is disturbing. I'm teaching my class about demography right now, and I'm using Patagonian toothfish as a case study. Where have all the toothfish gone? Gone to poachers every one....

Chilean sea bass harvest

Interesting article in the NYT concerning overharvest of Chilean sea bass (aka Patagonian toothfish).

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/magazine/23bass.html?pagewanted=1

Duncan

Looking forward to Albiefest 2005

A few shots from '04

Check out Science, August 26, 2005 issue

Worm, et al., Vol 309, pg 1365 in print, describe decreasing blue ocean diversity, but note there are some
hot spots worth saving from the longliners.

Duncan T

Pamlico Drum 2005

First the good news, we used ONLY circle hooks, and did not kill any drum. Now the bad, lord, we got skunked again. I give up. Drum were caught, but I think we were too far at the end of the line of boats. You gotta know where the dropoffs are- its very subtle when the water's only 10-15 ft deep to start with. some folks had their honeyholes but were keeping quiet on the radio. Conditions were a little choppy with a stiff east wind. Fished till midnite without any serious bites (kids caught lots of bait, however, so we still had fun). Highlight of the evening was a 3" flounder the boys got using a bait-net. Still a beautiful time of yr to be on the Pamlico.

fishing expedition

Over the weekend, we attempted to get sbft off of Newport, RI. Nothing doing. People had not seen any fish since earlier last week, with some dorado showing up. But everybody was gone by the weekend. Ah well.
We will try Cape Cod Bay next.

Google searches related to the eye projects turned up this little ditty:

http://www.eyedesignbook.com/index.html

Wherein it is indicated that a Designer has made it pointless to do eye research. Well, Hell, let's go fishin!

DT

Schoolie bluefin tuna (sbft) here at home

I have been babbling about sbft up here of Rhode Island and in Cape Cod Bay, too. To
read some stories, go to reel-time.com and look in the New England Forum. Stories of:
*Broken leaders, rods, lines
*Lost backing, flylines, spoolings
*Even a sinking (and survival)!

The RI fishery has been going for some years, with a few pods showing up from July 4 until early August.
The fish are 20-30 lbs. The Cape Cod Bay ones are 35-100 lbs and start in August, running until October.

Did good last week-2 on the spinning rod (they like metal) and one on the flyrod (biggest of the day @ 22 lb).
After the two on spin rod (2 casts = 2 fish) we spent the rest of the time with flyrod. Kept hooking up, but
then the little %$#@#$% would pop off! No breakage, good sharp Gamy hooks (they liked a white"mushmouth" pattern. Another fly lost to a big bluefish, then everybody started getting boat shy.
I went with my friend "Capn Eric" in the tricked out Parker 18. All fish released.

We will remember our cameras for next week.

glimmer of hope for menhaden

Published in the Asbury Park Press 08/18/05
BY KIRK MOORESTAFF WRITER

Atlantic states fishing regulators agreed Wednesday to cap industrial menhaden fishing in Chesapeake Bay for five years — a victory for recreational fishing and environmental groups, but one that could be challenged by a fleet that's already been kicked out of New Jersey waters and other coastal states.

Omega Protein's net boats would be limited to 105,800 metric tons of menhaden from Chesapeake Bay starting in 2006, after a vote by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission menhaden board in Alexandria, Va. In an Aug. 11 letter to menhaden committee Chairman Jack Travelstead, Omega Vice President Toby Gascon said the company would pledge to voluntarily hold its annual harvests to 131,000 metric tons a year for five years.

The company can't support, "and will resist," any restrictions that it sees as not being based on the best scientific evidence, Gascon said. But it was willing to set the five-year limit on catches to address critics' concerns, he wrote.

Board members discussed the Omega proposal for several hours Wednesday, but ultimately voted to impose the lower cap that had been sought by Menhaden Matter, an effort by Omega critics, who wanted the catch limited to an average of the last five years. "It's a first step. All our work begins right now," said Ken Hinman of the Virginia-based National Center for Marine Conservation.

Menhaden have long been processed into fish meal and oil for a range of industrial and animal feed uses. Omega recently opened a new fish oil plant in Virginia designed to meet growing demand for omega-3 fish oils for human consumption.

Recreational fishing and environmental activists contend Omega is taking too many menhaden, affecting the ecosystem of Chesapeake Bay and the health of striped bass, a popular food and game fish that feed on menhaden and range up the coast to New Jersey waters.

Omega officials counter that critics don't have scientific evidence to back their claims, and the company has indicated it may appeal any new catch limits.

Sharp-toothed critters--Lookout Offshore

Morehead City, August 5th
Offshore on the Asa Gray

Steve Rehner came down from DC with his boys Isaac and Daniel and met me at the boat to head out after kings and AJs out on the wrecks off Cape Lookout. I got to the boat yard right around midnight and splashed the boat and snoozed for a few hours until Steve and crew arrived in the wee hours of the morning. After waiting for an impressive line of squalls to pass we headed out. We fished AR 285 first--mainly drifting cigar minnows and live baits. Steve nailed a nice 'cuda and we hit some kings as well. We were enjoying hearing the reels sing as the kings ran line out when we got a particularly strong hit. Not savage (that comes later at the Russian Freighter), but man did it put a bend in the rod. It put up a hard fight on the 20 lb gear--really a strong fish. It turned out to be a 6-7' long shark in the requiem shark family, probably Carcharinus plumbeus, the sandbar shark. Man, what a good looking animal.

After a few hours at AR285 we headed out to the knucle buoy and the litte wreck right near it and picked up one small dolphin. Then, out to the field of dreams....sky blue water over the Russian Freighter. We caught some wreck fish for bait and did some live-lining and drifted cigar minnows. The 20lb rod took the most vicious hit and fastest run I have ever experienced on any gear. The fish was so hot that the water in the reel spool flew out in a white fog! Very cool. The fish had some weight on him too. But, into the fight he broke the hook off a commercial king rig. I'm guessing a big wahoo, but I guess a ginormous king could give the same fight. We were watching big schools of bait swim under the boat when we saw a very large 'cuda (maybe a king--it was deep) moving with them. Steve rigged up a live bait and we drove up on the bait ball and pitched it in--WHAM!!!--and he was hooked up. We were catching Atlantic sharp-nosed sharks, Rhizoprionodon terraenovae, as well. All in all a great day!