Updates From Rob
 

Chesapeake Fishing & Outdoor Expo - Jan 22-23
This is a new show that Georgie Kline of Tyler's Tackle is coordinating. It's at Show Place Area in Upper Marlboro (intersection of RT 4 & 301). They'll feature over 150 vendors, free seminars & the cost is $6.

Atlantic City Boat Show
Feb 5th
The chapter will be taking a road trip Feb 5th to Atlantic City. The tackle & accessories section is as large as the entire Baltimore Show. The boat section is huge. You get to experience many different boats & vendors that are from the northeast you usually do not see. Chuck Mullaney will be taking up his motor home & has graciously offered to drive. Call Chuck to reserve your seat at 301-831-6810 or see him at the dinner. We usually leave around 6am & come home that evening. It's always a great time.

Spring Tournament
April 22-24:
It closer than you think this year so get ready and sign up. The Main Tournament costs $150 until March 15th & the chapter tournament will be $50 until April 13th. We have reserved 20 rooms at the Comfort Inn in Solomons at a discounted rate of $70 per night. Please call 410-326-6303, tell them you are with the Frederick MSSA to get your discounted rate. We'll have a sign up for the slips at the Feb. meeting. Call Rob Pellicot if you have any questions at 301-696-7851.

Tom Musser wins Captain of the Year:
Our very own member Tom Musser won the MSSA Captain of the Year & the Blue Water Captain of the year as well. It's nice to see our chapter so far from the water represented so well. Thanks Tom & crew & congratulations on your angling efforts.

VA Beach Fishing Report:
Three boats went down to Virginia Beach Dec 17-19th. Tom Musser, Tony Tolbard & Bryan Etzler all caught nice rockfish trolling right of the beach both north & south of Rudee Inlet. We all took advantage of the $25 per night room rate at the Day's Inn. It's a nice clean place that's only 2 minutes from the public ramp. We even found some hoses to wash the boats down. It was beautiful on Friday & we starting fishing south at 8am. By 9:30 we had limited out with 6 rockfish 36-39" & headed for the barn. Saturday brought wind and waves. It was rough but we still managed to limit out with the longest being 41". In fact we had one 39" jump right out of the box & into the water but we already had another hooked up so it all worked out. Sunday was nice but tougher fishing. We picked up a local at the ramp who was looking for a ride and headed out for a ½ day. We managed only 3 fish that morning and later found out why.

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The Scholarship Foundation needs a volunteer so if you are interested call the office for details at 410-255-5535.
 
Scholarship Applications:
Call the MSSA office at 410-255-5535 for applications. They are due back by April 30th.

MSSA Lifetime Memberships
are available for $500, payable in four installments; and, you will receive an MSSA Captain's jacket, MSSA license plate and a print suitable for framing.

Chincoteague Island, VA
Fishing Report by Charlie Koski
 

A 63-lb., 8-oz. striped bass caught on January 2nd, 2005 by Paul W. Kleckner of Greenbackville, VA has been certified as a new Virginia state record by the Virginia Saltwater Fishing Tournament. Kleckner caught his fish in the Atlantic Ocean off the Eastern Shore of Virginia, approximately 18 miles south of Wachapreague Inlet. He was fishing on the private boat "White Bite." The record-setting striper, which measured 50.5 inches long w/a girth of 33 inches, was fooled by a parachute lure dressed with a 4-inch white shad fished as the trailing bait of an umbrella rig. They were trolling approximately 2 miles off the beach in area with a lot of bait & gannets sitting on the water when the record-setting striped bass struck. Kleckner fought the fish for almost 25 minutes before he was able to land it. The prior state record of 63-pounds was caught in the Atlantic Ocean near Corolla Lighthouse by Carolyn Brown on January 30, 2004.

Virginia Coastal Seasons:
January 1 through March 31 & May 16 through December 31 Minimum Size: 28 inches. Possession Limit: 2 per person.

CICA President Capt. Mike Handforth has been invited to a committee meeting at VMRC week of 1/3/05 to discuss options for the 2005 flounder regs. that will be presented to ASMFC. His position will be to ask for the smallest fish possible with a daily bag of 4-5 p/p and no closed season. It looks like we will be under quota again this year, about 30-40%. There will be an increase in the recreational quota. VA will be substantially under quota for 2 years in a row. We should be able to go to a smaller fish. We'll continue to ask for an area split (seaside/bayside) since we don't see the numbers or size fish that the bay does. Recreational Flounder fishermen need to make their comments heard on the flounder quotas. As you read in November it was a tie to 9-9 to get the harvest numbers equaled to 50-50(rec/commercial), It will stay at 60/40.

You can send your comments to: Mr. Jack Travelstead,
Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, 144 Eye Street NW, 6th floor, Washington, DC 20005 or email him at:


The more anglers who write their concerns and send them in the more hope we have to get them to ease up on the regulations and get us more fish in the freezer to eat.

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Updates From Steve

VA Beach Fishing Report
Continued:

The local put out a Stretch 30 that proceeded to tangle everything and we did not know it until the end of the day. We washed the boat and headed for home. What a difference a couple of hours make as it was 50 degrees at the beach and by the time we were near Richmond we had snow and ice which made for some slow going but it later cleared up. This was by far the best rockfishing the group on the Catch-N-Hell has experienced in recent memory. We were amazed at the people and boats they use to go fishing. On Sunday we saw a 14' aluminum boat headed out at dark to tackle the ocean rockfish. These guys are serious about their fishing. Oh I almost forgot, Tony purchased a new 28' Grady and broke it in right as he caught fish every day as well. Congrats on the new boat Tony. If you are looking to catch some winter rock just head on down as the fish only get bigger in January or so we are told. We are planning another trip depending on the weather in January.