Fish Report 5/7/26
Opening Through June for Sea Bass.
Updated Block/Pyramid Count.
A Few thoughts and letters from the NOAA regulatory battle..
If new to my bottom fishing trips please read thru this too section. You can skip or enjoy reef and regulatory news/thoughts as you see fit.
My friend and reigning Reef Queen (handles reef matters & mail!) - Marisa took over the helm on my reservation line over a year ago. She's been keeping reservations running smoothly - a huge improvement!
Truly a sharp gal, she is still but a one person operation & with a toddler at that. My anglers have enjoyed many more live answers and faster voice mail/text responses than in recent years. If she cannot pick up, (she might be putting her 2 yo & very handsome future angler down for a nap or any other Mom duty!) leave her a message or text her. She's been getting back to folks quickly.
Reservations at 443-235-5577 - The line closes at 8pm and reopens at 8am. Marisa won’t take reservations for trips that are not announced - but she can note & pass along your desires.
If you want a spot for a sea bass trip call Marisa on the reservation line at 443-235-5577.. Emailing/FB messaging me for a reservation is no good. I have plenty on my plate without following the blow by blow of reservations. I won't have real time info on what's available anyway (probably no idea!) - but Marisa knows exactly. I do check email for questions, however, & Facebook messenger from 'friends' too..
For May - Fishing Sea Bass Sunday to Friday from 7 to 3 - $155 per spot with an 18 angler max.
Fishing sea bass Saturdays also but from 6:30 to 3:30 at $175 with 18 anglers selling out.
(Both up $10 over last year..)
Fri/Sat/Sun Memorial weekend will be Sat rate and Sat times 6:30 to 3:30
Spots are numbered with a chart at morningstarfishing.com - portside aft is spot one - #7 port bow - #15 stb corner & #18 port corner. Makes for a lot of room per angler - something I'd wanted to do since 1984.
Beginning last day of May I'll be "taking off" Sundays & Mondays. Keep an eye here - if the weather's nice there may well be a Shelly trip (where we go or some other special venture.
Am now charging 10% gratuity for parties of five or more as a failsafe for crew. Most will surely see robust effort and sweeten that figure..
Be a half hour early! We always leave early!! ..except when someone shows up right on time.
Clients arriving late will see the west end of an east-bound boat. Seriously, with a limited number of reserved spots, I do not refund because you overslept or had a flat.. If you’re reserved and are the last person we’re waiting on - you’ll need to answer your phone. I will not make on-time clients wait past scheduled departure because of a misfortune on your part.
Sea Bass Size limit 12.5 inches - 15 per person. Season is open to Dec 31st.
I try to always leave a half hour early (and never an hour early!) I rarely get in on time either. If you have a worrier at home, please advise them I often come home late. It’s what I do.
Website shows latest Fish Report and is searchable for waaayyy back reports. It was also shows Facebook posts (when I remember!) For those who cannot bear to even get near FB - I post every trip and some seriously boring fisheries thoughts on my personal page..
All trips are announced via email from the sign-up at
Trips Are Also Sometimes Announced on Facebook on my personal page & at Morning Star Fishing..
I post after action reports (or lack thereof) (and sometimes detailed thoughts on fisheries issues) for EVERY TRIP on my personal FB page and Morning Star page. Posts including OC Reef Foundation work will be included on those pages as well. Most should also post to my website now. You do not need to be a registered FB user to see my posts and should soon be able to see them all on my website morningstarfishing.com
Bait is provided on all trips. While jigging with appropriate wt (varies with current) is always welcome - it doesn't always work. But when it does? Fun and productive - we'll have jigs you can borrow too.
No Galley. Bring Your Own Food & Beverage.
If You Won't Measure & Count Your Fish, The State Will Provide A Man With A Gun To Do It For You. We Measure & Count — ALWAYS — No Exceptions!
It's Simple To Prevent Motion Sickness, Difficult To Cure. Chewable Bonine seems our best over the counter preventative because it's (supposed to be!) non-drowsy. It's truly cheap & effective insurance. If it makes you a bit sleepy - but not suffering extreme reverse digestive disorder? That's a great trade! If the bite is any good - you'll be up..
"The Patch" -Scopolamine- however, is an anti-nausea prescription that beats all comers.
If the ocean still wants to get the better of you? Zofran (anti-nausea frequently given by physicians and especially in surgery) can be a day saver. iI you have it left over from a prescription, bring it - if only for someone unprepared. We sometimes have a few aboard also.
Honestly - If you get to go on the ocean once a month, once a year or even less; why risk chumming all day?
Ahhhh, then there's the ebullience of youth! Of course you can party hard all night and go on a moderately calm ocean..
No you can't!
If you howl at the moon all night? Chances are good you'll howl into a bucket all day.
Get Rest & Take Preventative Medicine!
Please Bring A Cooler With Ice For Your Fish – We Do Not Mix Different Party's Catches In a "Boat Cooler" - A 48 Quart Cooler Is Fine For A Few People. Do Not Bring A Very Large Cooler. We have some loaners - you'll still need ice. I want your catch memorable even after the dishes are washed! Should you catch some monstrous fish, we’ll be able to ice it.
No Galley! Bring Food & Beverages To Suit. A few beers in cans is fine for the ride home.
Our daily fish pool is a $20 Split Pool - half goes to the heaviest sea bass or advertised species announced in AM. Perhaps summer flounder/fluke or mahi, for instance - and half goes to our daily 50/50 reef raffle. Reef building works wonderfully off our coast - we're building fish habitat & growing coral like crazy! I do all I can to fund/build & promote it.
*****
Reef Blocks - As of 5/5/26 we have 45,927 Reef Blocks (mostly in units) & 3,032 Reef Pyramids (170lb ea) deployed at numerous ACE permitted ocean reef sites. There are also 1,539 pyramids deployed by MD CCA at Chesapeake Bay oyster sites working to restore blue ocean water.
Currently being targeted on ocean reef permitted sites with reef block units: Crystal Ann Brinker's Memorial Reef - 310 Reef Blocks (mostly loose here to create a foundation) - Ryan & Shari's Bay Breeze Reef 1,082 Pyramids - Uncle Murphy's new barge 106 Reef Blocks plus 2 Pyramids - Rambler Reef 528 Reef Blocks & 14 Pyramids - Tyler Long’s Memorial Reef 818 - Pete Maugan's Memorial Reef 156 Reef Blocks & 14 Pyramids - Calder's Reef Improvement 244 Blocks & 12 Reef Pyramids - Virginia Lee Hawkins Memorial Reef 570 Reef Blocks (+98 Reef Pyramids) - Capt. Jack Kaeufer's/Lucas Alexander's Reefs 2202 Blocks (+57 Reef Pyramids) - Doug Ake's Reef 4,214 blocks (+16 Reef Pyramids) - St. Ann's 3,035 (+14 Reef Pyramids) - Gratitude Reef 380 Blocks (+13 Pyramids) - New Reef at Jackspot #1 - 100 Blocks plus 2 Pyramids - and Another new reef at Jackspot #2 - 140 Blocks - And Yet Another(!) #3 - 52 Blocks (1 pyr) - Sue's Block Drop 1,810 (+30 Reef Pyramids) - Kathy's Cable 386 blocks (12 pyramids) - Rudy's/Big Dad's Barges 164 Reef Blocks (+9 Pyramids) - Benelli Reef 1,552 (+18 Pyramids) - Capt. Bob's Bass Grounds Reef 5,232 (first reef to cross 5K) (+ 120 reef pyramids) - Al Berger's Reef 2,130 Reef Blocks (49 Reef Pyramids) - Great Eastern South Block Drop (Now Bill Beacher's Memorial Reef!) 280 Reef Blocks (+10 Pyramids) - Cristina’s Blast 140 Reef Blocks & 2 Pyramids - Capt Greg Hall's Memorial Reef 362 Blocks (+2 {very important..} Pyramids) - Forgotten Block Drop at Great Eastern Reef 95 Reef Blocks & 2 Pyramids - Kinsley Construction's Reef 1,380 Pyramids - Bear Concrete Reef 512 Pyramids, 44 Blocks - MCH Reef 60 Blocks & 2 Pyramids - New Unnamed Reef at Bass Grounds 40 Blocks 209 Pyramids..
Greetings All!
What a terrible mess since my last Fish Report. NOAA claimed they 'had to' shut us down to the (very!) 'non-preferred' sea bass and flounder regulations owing an office error on their part.
One heck of a letter writing campaign ensued - Senators, Congressmen, all manner of fisheries staff and representatives, plus many anglers asked for repair - we were finally granted the regulations we'd been promised the day before sea bass season opened on May first.
Meanwhile, on the last Sunday in April we held our best reef building fund raiser ever at Hoopers Crab House.
With all that going on I got way behind on finishing my boat's overhaul and sea trialing her new engines.
Just about caught up now! Let's go sea bassin!
We did try sea bass twice on sea trials - that were also combined with block trips. Figured I might as well build some reef if I have to be in the ocean anyway.. Dropped 120 blocks on Tyler Long's Memorial Reef in memory of his Father, Elmer Long; then 100 blocks at Crystal Ann Brinker's Memorial Reef and an 18 block unit at Capt Bob Gowar's Memorial Reef..
Will try to get to 50K reef blocks by Christmas. Donny & Joe probably need the exercise (umm..)
Will likely announce some block trips too on FBook and via email sign up at ocreefs.org.
Also in reef news - am trying to put together a barge load of pipe units that will be preassembled and trucked to near Cape May for deployment on an OCRF permitted reef site.
Haven't got bids yet - gonna burn some coin, for sure. Concrete pipe units will last many generations longer than any steel construction.
If you know anyone in need - the OC Reef Foundation will be selling two fully rebuilt 6-53 Detroit marine engines. Was going to put them back in the Navy boat before I realized its hull was shot..
My work in Fish Report 4/3/26 on reinvigorating sea bass spawning production and recruitment appears to be getting serious consideration. Would that it might. If they'd listen sea bass could be made more prolific than anyone alive has ever witnessed. Were we to combine regulation that actually works with accelerated seafloor habitat building? I believe sea bass could be made more numerous than even in the pre-industrial fishing era.
What do you suppose happens to tautog when most anglers are focused on boxing up some tasty cbass?
If my experience from the late 1980s to mid 2000s is a guide - and it is - tautog too become prolific.
Below is a post I recently made to FB plus a (not very) short TY letter to the top of NOAA.
If there are ways to make our part of the ocean more productive we need to explore them
..and shall.
Cheers All,
Monty
Posted to FaceBook April 27th. 2026..
Greetings All,
Reef Foundation event at Hoopers a smashing success; uncountable letters written to .gov to get relief from a NOAA paperwork failing - and all on the heals of a massive boat overhaul? I must turn 100% of my attention to my boat now. She needs to be ready!
Who could guess when the feds will open sea bass? MD has them open May 1st till after Christmas with a 15 fish bag limit @ 12.5 inches. That's inside 3 miles.
Outside? Where I take virtually all my anglers? Where NOAA regulation holds sway?
Yeah No.
They "forgot" to publish recreational sea bass & flounder/fluke regulations in the federal register. That means sea bass open May 15 for a few months with a 5 fish bag limit at 15 inches.
I surely hope my reward for over three decades of fisheries restorations work isn't bankruptcy.
Yet if no repair by NOAA or the Dept of Commerce is forthcoming?
Oyyyyy...
I am confidant all levels of government have heard our plea.
Perhaps this time the efforts of so many will prevail..
Thank You to All who wrote!
Feel free to write again though!
It's quite simply a clerical error that has our sea bass season held hostage
..and the livelihoods of many party/charter businesses and crews with it.
I know for a fact NOAA has heard from our Congressman, Dr Harris; and Senator VanHollen as well.
Many skippers too have been read at least to the top of NOAA Fisheries.
Noise from above and noise from below..
If of a mind, here are some addresses. More noise from below cannot hurt!
Time grows short. The real pain starts soon.
Cheers,
Monty
Note to top of NOAA sent May 4th, 2026..
Greetings Good Folks,
I wanted to write and say Thank You for bailing us out of a mega jam with sea bass along the Mid-Atlantic.
So Thanks!
It's always been my hope too that NOAA would at last consider the Mid-Atlantic's hardbottom seafloors so important to many fisheries. NOAA was persuaded to study deep water corals some while back and what amazing work it has been(!) - but the work will neither improve our knowledge of, nor help create a plan for restoration for shelf habitats ecologically important to ocean health, and economically vital via their fisheries productions to the vast percentage of marine and estuarine fishers.
Indeed, I begged NOAA's researchers to come just a few miles inshore while they were looking at the Washington Canyon in the summer of 2015 to examine the Washington Rockpiles - an area some 12 nautical miles north of the Washington and approximately 4NM x .75NM.
Alas, that amazing seafloor is in fifty fathoms, not one hundred. (they weren't 'allowed' inside the 100)
At the time I thought the rockpiles were too robust to have ever been trawled. But no, apparently they're trawled every year. Still, there might be remnant patches of cold water corals there worth learning about..
Then too several of my dear friends who have passed fished for decades commercially. A story from Christmas Eve 1974 when (here as I recall, have it written from quotes somewhere) there were approx 40 trawlers in the tip of the Washington with many crews singing Christmas carols on VHF. Of those boats only two were US..
In the same era & area, another old deckhand told me of a 50 fathom snowy grouper longline fishery along the north wall. If grouper were prolific in that area there must have been significant reef growth that no longer exists. I've looked at it best I could with limited equipment & resources and found an abundance of slab rock with precious few sea bass. I've seen no sign of growth there.
It's not just me. I've heard these sorts of stories from MA to VA. Seafloor habitat along our shelf waters from nearshore to the hundred is vital to fisheries productions - yet there's never been any interest I could perceive. Loss recognized, their restorations would create amazing fisheries productions.
While an argument for habitat's importance is well supported in the science, my 2006 discovery of reduced spawning production in sea bass owing only increased size limits has been soundly dismissed by every administration - and I had excellent comms with Dr Lubchenco & Kathy Sullivan.
While examining habitat fidelity in black sea bass this winter I realized my work was much too narrowly focused. It isn't just sub 9 inch males that have gone missing since the size limit went to 12 inches here in 2002, but ALL sub 9 inch sea bass are virtually absent from our catches these last 25 years.
I have it plain in VTRs (Vessell Trip Reports ForHire skippers must fill out per trip) and in the science - a size class of sea bass once amazingly abundant no longer is.
Not just spawning production, but recruitment too is stymied by sea bass behavior.
Promise - large fish happen two ways in this era of fishing: either size limit creates larges, or spawning production and recruitment exceed extraction thereby allowing many to grow old.
Believe me, we had incredibly more jumbos and vastly more sea bass overall in the lightly regulated period -- and always a slowly declining population in the post 12 inch size limit era.
When cbass are abundant they also become a more important part of the food web. Dave Secor's work found bottlenose dolphin feeding on cbass - At Night. I was astounded. I've had pods go by while reef fishing - sometimes even killing the bite temporarily - but never thought they were really feeding on em.
The only thing that bolstered our numbers post 2002 was the recolonization I'd predicted of the MD wind area
..and that card has now been played.
Our sea bass here will decline as is plainly seen in the SAFMC SSC's work, the Buzzard's Bay recreational ForHire VTRs, and indeed, our region's VTRs from 2004 to 2016 and now post 2024..
That's not the tale told in MRFSS/MRIP mislead stock assessments - but ForHire fishers don't slowly forget how to catch them. VTRs are an excellent indicator of abundance....
An albatross around my neck for two decades - the last thing anyone with a fisheries education would ever believe is that "enlivening spawning production and recruitment in a fishery can only be accomplished by reducing its size limit.."
Oh Boy.
Promise - with this protogynous hermaphrodite? Its true.
While I've had many PhDs examine and generally concur over two decades, none ever wished to stand against MRFSS/MRIP driven regulation.
My work on this has always grown more firm & grew stronger still across two months this winter. I've never seen cause to reconsider it.
Rec catch estimates, especially MRIP and its 'recalibrations,' have built a house of cards in several species.
I know you all are working on estimates' repair and so hope this time the endeavor is successful. You'd not believe how painful it is to suffer increased regulation based on catch estimates that are glaringly untrue.
Now I know an office slip's pain too - a close call, anyway. My 46 years of fishing would swiftly have gone into bankruptcy without access to sea bass.
For your efforts there I am truly thankful.
Turn the ocean blue and fill it with fish..
It's 100% Doable.
Regards,
Monty
Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@morningstarfishing.com
Reef Restoration Makes Fisheries Restorations Simple!