Here our reefs appear barren and the Menhaden are being decimated.

It's now clearer than ever. We need to make our voices heard in Washington and Annapolis. It's time to stop: just talking about water quality, studying the wholesale slaughter of the Menhaden, and the long-liners that indiscriminately kill anything that swims. We need MSSA, and the RFA, and they need us. Tight lines to all.

Updates From Rob
(Continued from Page 2)

Maryland Fishing Regulations

Flounder - 15.5" and a 4 fish creel limit on the Coast.

Flounder - 15.0" and a 2 fish creel limit for the Chesapeake Bay.

Virginia Fishing Regulations
Flounder - 16.5" and a 6 fish creel limit

New members:
No new members this month.

Update on ASMFC Menhaden Hearing

On June 29 I attended a hearing presented by DNR for public comment on the ASMFC addendum on the Atlantic menhaden management plan. Briefly, There were two basic options: 1) status quo or no cap on the harvest of Atlantic menhaden; 2) cap the menhaden harvest. Under option 2, there were numerous alternatives to how many years to place the cap, the type of gear used under the cap and whether the cap should be coast-wide or Chesapeake Bay only, among other choices.

Bill Winley stated the MSSA's position of no purse seining of menhaden in coastal state waters and the Chesapeake Bay. Various other conservation-minded groups such as the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, CCA, Pasadena Sportfishermens group, Sierra Club and others, also reflected the MSSA's stand of the purse seining type fishery in state waters.

For other information, check with Bill Johnson at the July Frederick chapter meeting or call me at 301-663-4802

ASMFC welcomes public comments, which should be submitted by mail, email or fax by 5:00 p.m. on August 1.
Mail comments to: Nancy Wallace, Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, 1444 "Eye" Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20005, email at or fax 202-289-6051.

On Thursday, June 23, my fishing partner Ralph Cope showed up about 2 p.m. for a planned fishing excursion. The marine forecast called for one- to two-foot seas until the afternoon, when the wind was predicted to lay down out of the southwest at 5 knots with waves less than one foot. Since the Bay was near flat, our 7 p.m. departure time was moved to four. I had decided to take advantage of the light winds and try some areas that hold some flounder. We tried drifting on the edge off of 72B and Hooper's Island light, which only produced some snags on sunken crab pots. Drifting into shallower water, we found a few croakers on an edge that I marked with my GPS. As the sun was starting to set, I decided to anchor on the edge and try my luck after dark. The anchor had hardly taken hold, and I noticed Ralph shifting the rod from one hand to the other and cranking in a nice hardhead. He's one of the only fisherman I know who has the spinning reel handle on the right side. We were picking up some nice croakers on the white shrimp, which I had purchased from Giant Food. The man behind the counter had clued me in to the white shrimp as being a better bait than the Gulf or pink shrimp. His advice proved to be correct, at least that night. The wind that had been absent during the day found us after dark with three-foot seas, swinging the boat around so that we could hardly hold bottom with our lines. I can't imagine how many fish we would have caught if the tide and winds had cooperated that night, but we ended up with more than two dozen very nice croakers and were back at the dock by eleven. The croakers seemed to be of better quality at night once you find them. There's been nice catches of good size spot in the mouth of the of the river inside the three-legged buoy and off the Officer's Club. A few nice white perch are still being caught up in the river off of Helen's Bar. I've noticed some small schools of breaking rockfish off of Cove Point. These fish are only in the 12-inch class.

The night fishing trip scheduled in July may have to be moved to some time in August as I have some family business to attend to in July which will keep me in Frederick for most of the month. Until that time, catch some nice fish.

For any questions about legislative issues or fishing, I can be reached at my Frederick number, 301-663-4802.

For the latest fishing report, call me at the Fishin' Shack at 410-326-1891.