Fish Report 6/22/26
Opening Days in July..
Block Count Update..
My New Sea Bass Recruitment Theory Has Gained Ground..
My friend and reigning Reef Queen (handles reef matters & mail!) - Marisa took over the helm on my reservation line over two years 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 (except Steve!)
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 July to the 18th - Fishing Sea Bass Tuesday 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..)
Taking off for family the 4th.
We are seeing a couple flounder most days - my dedicated flounder trip failed miserably though.
Am holding late July & August in reserve to see if Mahi come inshore.
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.
At 65yo (fishing MD reefs 46 years) 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 on 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.
My website shows Fish Report posts 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 FB 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.
Bait is provided on all trips. While jigging for sea bass 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.
What I see sometimes is refusing to accept fate. If the technique you most wanted to try Just Isn't Working - switch to what is!
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.
We take blocks or terracotta pieces everyday and have since 2007.
Reef Block Count - As of 6/22/26 we have 45,656 Reef Blocks (mostly in units) & 3,191 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 1,203 Pyramids - Uncle Murphy's Reef 340 Reef Blocks - Uncle Murphy's new barge 174 Reef Blocks plus 4 Pyramids - Rambler Reef 552 Reef Blocks & 15 Pyramids - Pete Maugan's Memorial Reef 156 Reef Blocks & 14 Pyramids - Calder's Reef Improvement - 224 Blocks & 12 Reef Pyramids - Virginia Lee Hawkins Memorial Reef 594 Reef Blocks (+100 Reef Pyramids) - Capt. Jack Kaeufer's/Lucas Alexander's Reefs 2250 Blocks (+58 Reef Pyramids) - Tyler Long’s Memorial Reef 798 (+30) Doug Ake's Reef 4,214 blocks (+16 Reef Pyramids) - St. Ann's 3,035 (+14 Reef Pyramids) - Gratitude Reef 404 Blocks (+13 Pyramids) - New Reef at Jackspot #1 - 168 Blocks plus 3 Pyramids - and Another new reef at Jackspot #2 - 140 Blocks - And Yet Another(!) #3 - 124 Blocks (4 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 1,572 (+18 Pyramids)- Capt. Bob's Bass Grounds Reef 5,232 (first reef to cross 5K) (+ 120 reef pyramids) - Al Berger's Reef 2,154 Reef Blocks (49 Reef Pyramids) - Great Eastern South Block Drop (Now Bill Beacher's Memorial Reef!) 304 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 119 Reef Blocks & 2 Pyramids - Kinsley Construction's Reef 1,380 Pyramids - Bear Concrete Reef 512 Pyramids, 44 Blocks - MCH Reef 104 Blocks & 2 Pyramids - New Unnamed Reef at Bass Grounds 40 Blocks 209 Pyramids..
Greetings All,
This worries me.
A lot.
For the feds to clap themselves on the back and tell Congress what a great job they've done with sea bass is a farce - a disillusionment preserved in recreational catch data no one any longer believes.
What I write below comes from a time when sea bass management was working incredibly well. I saw regulation's promise 5 years before state and federal management began owing self regulation. I my n 1992 I had a boat enforced size limit that swiftly began to improve our sea bass fishing off Maryland & Virginia.
As production/recruitment stand now? I'm certain we were better off in the years when management had just begun.
Before management began my anglers would sometimes take more sea bass in a day - one day - than they take in several months now.
As size limit regulation alone (no bag limit until 2002) built sea bass up incredibly, I would sometimes catch all I personally wanted with bare hooks - just shiny silver hooks - catch double headers for hours.
In fall a client with 150 sea bass was not unusual.
The following year there would be more..
When I began sea bass fishing with my boat, the Morning Star in 2003, we would often start the whole rail with bare hooks. Folks thought I'd lost my mind
..until they got bit.
Doubles of nice cbass.
There were days we'd start with bare hooks around the rail, then put on small 2 inch artificial squids and limit out at 25 cbass per person. Other times we'd run bait too - a boat limit was what I was targeting, and commonly accomplished.
Do we have fish today?
Yes, of course.
But, I promise - the abundance we have today isn't remotely what good sea bass management is capable of.
It needs fixing - not just here, but across the species entire range from Florida to (just recently) even Maine.
I've paid very close attention to sea bass for four decades - was discussing aquaculture with Professor Tom Handworker in 1986. Eileen Seltzer Hamilton was the librarian at Chesapeake Biological Lab and past president of the American Fisheries Society. She would bring me books on fisheries in the 80s every time she and her husband came fishing. I still have them and several bookcases more.
Since 2006 I have begged management to reduce the size limit on black sea bass. The guy who enforced a limit for five years before any real regulation is not trying to sneak one past the Magnuson Act. I need abundant sea bass - true abundance - far more than NOAA's computers do. There is sound scientific reasoning for what I ask - and I have the work made plain.
A smaller size limit makes spawning far more productive and takes advantage of an important behavior regarding 'recruitment.'
Nearshore reefs all along DelMarVa have gone all but dormant. That same regulatory darkness is working its way offshore. In but a few more years all our reefs inside 20 miles will not be productive enough for a partyboat like mine to fish - and I only carry 18 anglers.
I used to sometimes carry 90 and cannot imagine that today. In the 1980s/90s I would often fish 50 anglers at the African Queen Artificial Reef site just 12 miles south of Ocean City MD. Back then the fishing made folks glad they came.
Today? I doubt there are as many sea bass on the entire Queen Reef complex as once schooled upon a single Vietnam era tank or armored personnel carrier sited there by the Army's 'Operation Reef Ex' in 1994. When I have sampled the cbass fishing there in recent years (even a few weeks ago) it's but a grave disappointment and must be left astern swiftly. (Fortunately tautog and summer flounder do not have the same complex behaviors!)
With sea bass no longer using our inshore wrecks and reefs as they once did; with their decline a bit further offshore holding pace as I'd forecast & now management's folly coming into full effect, I have no reason to think it will slow down.
The repair--and this situation is 100% repairable--should warrant 'emergency regulation' - but NOAA is quite happy telling any who will listen there has never been a greater abundance of sea bass.
At the heart of their erroneous sea bass population estimate are NOAA's recreational catch estimates - the MRIP program. I'm not guessing. I have several deep works on it. Have fought for repair since 1998. Consider reading Fish Report 2/1/22 "MRIP's Coming Disaster" where I show two month wave by wave and state by state estimates that are even millions of pounds above any plausible number. Just May/June 2021 in MA shows 2.2M pounds more than For Hire skippers can possibly account in Private Boat catch.
I consider all of it a real life Milgram Experiment (youtube search if unfamiliar) being run with computer simulations of catch that could never have happened. Despite no one in fisheries science having faith in MRIP's catch data: when authority demands punishment - management delivers: sea bass spawning production & recruitment grow worse with each tightening of the screws.
I've looked at mountains of data since February as I've dug deeper into natural 'recruitment regulation' of sea bass. In a nutshell this habitat ecology/population biology term 'recruitment regulation' simply shows how higher order animals naturally prevent overcrowding their habitat.
There are dozens of studies on Caribbean reef fish showing habitat exclusion - where mature damselfish, for instance, will chase and nip youngsters that try to inhabit their reef until those newcomers abandon the idea.
I've come to believe reefs inhabited by age 3 & 4 cbass (which means all of our reefs today owing size limit regs) will not allow age 1 (6 to 9 inch) sea bass to cohabitate.
Yes, really.
Even at only 1.5 to 2 inches sea bass are defensive of their habitat. Though perhaps only an oyster shell, they sure don't want to share.
And, while looking at this behavior from the view of a coast-wide population of managed fish is new; in the study of habitat ecology? It's just everywhere. A marine habitat ecologist would call youngsters newly joining or being repulsed from a reef 'density dependent recruitment.' Here where, though having survived fertilization and the earliest stages of life, numerous adult species of fish deny reef habitat access to youngsters when they perceive their habitat is full - those very young fish trying to access adult stage habitat are called 'recruits' - and in sea bass we're losing successfully spawned recruits by the boatload
..yet I believe many would survive to recruit to our fishery and even spawn twice with an 11 inch size limit instead.
On my way offshore the other day I listened to a work called: "Working Paper: Black sea bass ecosystem considerations and indicator development." (The Coast Guard considers it terribly impolite to read deeply while at the helm. Listening is OK so long as emergency radio comms are audible..)
This paper is NOAA's latest and greatest effort at understanding sea bass. Its authors are at the fore of fisheries science & management. More than some of their work sailed over my head.
For instance, having fished the Mid-Atlantic 46 years, I would have no idea if salinity was ever once different than it had been the day before. The super sharp folks who put the paper together hold salinity important for developing sea bass in the first days and weeks of life.
Nor do I understand "North Atlantic Oscillation" theory. Sounds like black magic cooked up for simple things we don't yet grasp to me, but the Dunning Kruger effect is in full force - I just don't know.
One could be forgiven for assuming all science included in this paper believed true. As ever, though, statements in these sorts of works are always couched as 'may' or 'might be so'
..and, some of it at least, dern well should be. It's out of synch with sea bass life on the seafloor I've observed for nearly 5 decades. Given this 'shunning' behavior (where recruits are denied reef access) I learned of only this past winter, I think management has to act swiftly to reverse course.
(See Fish Report 4/3/26 https://www.morningstarfishing.com/fishing-report/fish-report-71425-6x976-z88l6-msftw-dcm8g-d8ndp-8232z for a 12 page report on how I at last sorted this recruitment issue out.)
As they did almost 30 years ago in Buzzards Bay below Cape Cod, sea bass are now rapidly expanding into the Gulf of Maine above the Cape. It's noted in this 'working paper' that sea bass up there spawn smaller/younger and grow a tad faster.
Scientists attribute these variances to prey availability, water temperature; even envision some manner of amazingly rapid Darwinian evolution, to be able to pull this off.
Well, this skipper thinks what Gulf of Maine sea bass are doing is what they always do. Because there are still precious few sea bass north of Cape Cod, all that rocky bottom is seen by colonizing sea bass as 'wide open.' (Was named Cape Cod, after all, not Cape Sea Bass..)
What I was told by Biologist Nancy Butowski in 1991 was true back then. She said, "All Sea Bass Have Spawned By 9 Inches, Some Twice."
Saw it plain as day in brightly colored 6/7/8/9 inch male 'knothead' sea bass for years before 2002.
As management progressed into a 12 inch size limit, however, it became untrue. With one 3 year exception as the MD Wind Area recolonized, we've only rarely seen age one males lit up in spawning colors since the early 2000s.
Once age three sea bass (11.5 to 13in or so) have become established on a specific reef habitat, then no age one/9in sea bass at that reef will mature young to spawn. With the rec size limit at 12/13 inches? All reefs hold these 'larger' fish insisted on by regulation. (a 12 inch sea bass may not seem large to us, but for a 6/7/8 inch sea bass? They're the boss.)
Consider: if you've ever had the good fortune of being with a skipper when discovering a truly new piece of reef, you'll remember doubles of jumbo sea bass ..and virtually no smalls.
I stopped on an offshore wreck a few years ago after tuna fishing. Had my head handed to me in the pelagics dept and wanted to send clients home with dinner at least. Though not a new reef, it had very light pressure.
Wow..
We caught our 15 cbass limits in 35 minutes - crew and all.
There were 4 throwbacks.
While certainly not 'normal' - I've seen reef fishing play out in that fashion many times over the decades. I knew I'd obviously found jumbos, but it never occurred to me the absence of smalls owed to sea bass themselves policing their own reef - no young'uns allowed on this habitat. We're here, now scoot.
Since 2006 I have asked managers to lower the size limit on sea bass to 11 inches. For two decades I thought it was all about getting every sea bass in the ocean in the spawning class. Though I'll always believe vastly many more spawners an asset, only this past winter did I see the recruitment issue. I think smalls will 'recruit' to a heavily fished reef under an 11 in limit.
Should.
Yes, it is actually fishing pressure that allows managers this increased recruitment tool - and overzealous size limits that have caused recruitment to fail in grand scale.
I have observed age one males in large number five different ways: During the very real overfishing of the 1980s -- whenever we've built a new large area of artificial reef -- when an area of natural substrate is regrown -- during pre/early management from 1992 to 2001 with size limits of 11 inches or less -- but, especially of note, when the Maryland Wind Energy Area (MD WEA) recolonized in 2016 with sea bass after three straight summers of subbottom profiler surveys.
In all cases, whenever larger sea bass are no longer present, age one fish of 6.5 to 9 inches mature swiftly and begin spawning. If no larger sea bass are present? Their instinct is get busy making more sea bass.
It also strikes me that males especially 'fluff up' ((get brighter and tail filaments grow longer. ))
I've seen it over and over and over. That sea bass mature younger and seem to grow more swiftly in the Gulf of Maine with its newly warm-enough seafloor is exactly what I would think they'd do: with habitat largely uncolonized they fluff up and start spawning. It's a gigantic new area of habitat for them, and they're driven to occupy it.
I predicted a rapid population rise in 2016 owing recolonization of the MD WEA combined with age one maturation. That prediction was spot on & perfectly supported by daily recreational For Hire Vessel Trip Reports (Rec VTRs).
From 2016 until 2023 our catch goes up - For Hire anglers were even sometimes catcing 15 fish limits in August by 2021.. Unfortunately, I had also predicted a rapid decline once the wind area was again fully colonized by age three and four sea bass. Sure enough, with larger sea bass on every possible bit of reef? Age one spawning has again disappeared and summer limits are derned unlikely
We're seeing this same sequence play out with cbass in Buzzards Bay below Cape Cod. A brand new fishery in my lifetime; as a kid I did my very best to eradicate scup/porgy from Buzzards Bay and never saw a sea bass until I fished DE Bay in the mid 1970s. (Seatrout/Weakfish were just unreal in DE Bay then. I caught a 7 lb weakfish and my friends about died laughing that I'd caught such a tiny seatrout. Times change, no?)
Buzzards Bay has warmed 13 degrees F since I was a tweener. In 1991 someone (I forget who!) was tagging sea bass on their lunch break at Woods Hole Oceanagrohic Institute - at least some of those fish returned after wintering far offshore and south. This is the earliest demonstration of habitat fidelity in sea bass that I'm aware of. I didn't see the work until the late 2010s though. For many years I thought my tagging with ALS in the 1990s showing fidelity quite unique. Moser & Shepherd's huge federal tagging study of 2002 put it to bed. Habitat Fidelity, spawning site fidelity really, is a surety in sea bass.
They don't call it the granite coast for nothing. There's a lot of submerged rock in southern New England. Newly warmed with exactly the type of seafloor sea bass thrive on? Instinct to populate that habitat kicked in - and, Boy, did they. By 1998 sea bass were being targeted below Cape Cod and soon became an important fishery.
But now, & even under the coast's most truly draconian regulation, the Buzzards Bay population is in decline. Though still a fishery, they sure aren't catching what they were in 2010. How could a fishery that built itself from zero to astounding taper even a little given the largest size limits and smallest bag limits anywhere in their range?
Indeed, how can the multigenerational fishery from Hatteras to mid-Florida, given a 13 inch size limit and bag limit of only 7 be 'overfished'?
Remember - Many partyboats once caught and kept more sea bass in a day than we do now in a month or more. What's happening with that amazing savings?
How did I predict we'd have an enjoyable surge in sea bass on 2/2/16 owing the MD WEA recolonization; plus, importantly, also predict by the mid-2020s we'd be on our way back down, sure to revisit our historic low of 2015 if NOAA doesn't take action..
I'd wager what I saw off DelMarVa in the 1980s & 90s - then witnessed again several times on our largest artificial reef constructions, and predicted would happen in the MD Wind Energy Area, was what science calls "habitat dependent recruitment."
Perhaps "same species bullies won't let small fish live on the reef" sums it up well enough.
If we cut the size limit to 11 inches sea bass will again flourish. What we saw (& I wrote about) year after year in the earliest self then fed/state management was nothing short of true 'exponential spawning production' aided enormously by a size limit that allowed recruitment on our most heavily fished reefs.
Imagine getting 25 anglers to start their day with no lure and no bait - double headers of sea bass around the rail with just bare hooks.
I used to do just that.
Sure can't now.
I'm working on another piece for the scientific community. Will show need using their works and methods.
Hey NOAA - sea bass from Florida to Maine need fixing. It's an emergency and has absolutely nothing to do with 'overfishing.'
It's an over-regulating issue.
Cheers,
Monty
Capt. Monty Hawkins
mhawkins@morningstarfishing.com
Reef Restoration Makes Fisheries Restorations Simple!