2007 Captain of the Year Results
Bay Captain Bryan Etzler is sitting in 6th place with only the fall tournament to go. He is only 22.1 points behind the leader. Bluewater Captain - Bryan Etzler finished 6th overall and this is final. Congratulations to Bryan. Overall Captain - Bryan is in 5th place and Rob Pellicot is in 6th.

2007 Captain of the Year Results
If you missed the dinner meeting you missed a great time. There was food, dancing and the chance to win $1,000 in Boater's World Gift Certificates. We gave away five $100 and ten $50 gift certificates throughout the evening. It's the chapter's way to give back to the members by subsidizing the dinner and entertainment. I would like to thank Jerry Leuters and his wife, Laura for organizing this event. It takes a lot of time from printing the tickets to coordinating the entertainment and location. It was a job well done. Thanks Again. One more thank you goes out to Tim Young who did the rockfish mount. Even though I thanked him personally, I would like to recognize his efforts and the fantastic work he did on this. Anyone looking to get a custom fish mount that is hand crafted and painted with vivid details see Tim. It will be displayed proudly at my house.

Rockfish Regulations for the Trophy Season April 19th - May 13th
One Fish per Person 28" or greater. There is no Slot Limit this year. No fish can be taken May 14-15. May 16 it's back to the summer regs of 2 fish per person greater and only 1 can be over 28".

Frederick Chapter Spring
Tournament Update
We'll have sign ups starting at the Feb meeting. We have reserved a block of rooms & slips at the Comfort Inn/Beacon Marina. You'll need to reserve your own room by calling the hotel at 410-326-6303 & provide the block name "Rob Pellicot". All of our rooms had to be reserved so they are under my name. Once you make the reservation, the room will go to your name & you will receive a confirmation number that you need to keep. These discounted rooms are the same price as last year at $109 / night. Slips will be reserved on our tournament entry form & they need to be paid at the meeting. It's our special rate of $1 per foot per night & he's only charging us for 2 nights. These need to go through me as I provide a list to the dock master & we already have a block of 20 slips as well. He already has a waiting list so sign up early as once we hit 20 slips there are no more. The tournament entry will be $50 until March 12th & the $100 calcutta will mirror the same. After the meeting in March the fee will go to $75 (March 13- April 9th) & the Calcutta will be $125. The last chance to sign up will be the April meeting. The rules & regulations will be given at the meeting. The dinner will be Friday May 2nd @6:30pm - members $5 in advance & $10 at the door. Non- members are $15 or $20 at the door. This will also be payable on the tournament entry.

New Releases: ATTENTION
Two new news releases:

FYI About Rockfish in VA

Pulling a Trailer in North Carolina

Chincoteague Island, VA
Fishing Report by Charlie Koski

This is an excerpt from the latest council meeting.

SUMMER FLOUNDER
NMFS, on behalf of the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary), has determined that summer flounder is over fished. NMFS notified the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council (Council) of its determination by letter. The Council is required to take action within 1 year following notification by NMFS that a stock is over fished or existing remedial action taken to end over fishing or rebuild an over fished stock has not resulted in adequate progress.

Looks as if there are two proposals and only two at current time. 19" or 18.5" and two fish bag limit coast wide. Only two states were under fished, Massachusetts by 26% and Va. by 5%. NMFS is pushing the coast wide regs. but all the states below N.J. are wanting to stick with the state fishing commissions to set the size and bag limits. This would mean closures and shorter seasons for most states.

Along the fishing front, if you can get a good day fishing is great. I have heard sea bass about 28 miles out on the offshore wrecks, Tautog are ready for your offerings at near shore wrecks as well. And of course we have the stripers still out here all winter long. Seem the most good days are always during the week when everyone is at work.

Tight Lines.

For daily fishing reports check out www.captbobs-marina.com/
NewsReports.php
and
www.stevesbaitandtackle.com/
NewsReports.php

VA Flounder Update
Here are the options we settled on to recommend VMRC consider for public hearing:
Option Size limit Bag Limit Closure dates
1 18.5 3 1/1 - 4/15 and 7/21 - 8/15
2 18.5 3 7/21 - 8/23
3 19.0 3 1/1 - 3/29
4 19.0 4 7/21 - 7/28
5 19.0 5 7/21 - 7/30
We also asked about options like one fish at 18", but Rob indicated the available data would not support analyses for size limits less than last year's. The obvious pain of a long summer closure led us to prefer options 3 and 5.

Chesapeake Bay Fishing Report
by Captain Ed Susa
None Submitted