NOAA Recreational Fishing Striped Bass 2011

[garlien]

Thoughts on NOAA's 2011 Striped Bass Rec Survey for Maryland...I guess this is why we have to "register" with NOAA...

One thing that stands out to me is that roughly 875,000 Striped Bass are estimated to have been caught....about 25,000 were released dead, became fillets at sea, etc...that seems to be a lot to me...Regardless C&R accounted for more than 2/3rd's (612k) of the activity according to NOAA's estimates...

That means there are a heck of a lot of us out there performing C&R...or a bunch of us are good at telling "fish" stories.....

Anyway more than 1.2 million striped bass caught by non-commercial fishers, the majority in private or rental boats...That is one heck of a lot of fish...If I guessed I would have been off by a couple hundred thousand at least...

Check out the site.... http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st1/recr...ies/index.html

Select the link "querry data"

The first chart is inland fish, caught in maryland, observed by a trained observer,(at the dock). The second is reported C&R by anglers, inland, maryland.

Estimate Status Year Common Name Fishing Mode Observed Harvest (A) PSE
PRELIMINARY 2011 STRIPED BASS SHORE (3,991) 103.1
PRELIMINARY 2011 STRIPED BASS PARTY BOAT (159) 82.6
PRELIMINARY 2011 STRIPED BASS CHARTER BOAT (81,972) 22.4
PRELIMINARY 2011 STRIPED BASS PRIVATE/RENTAL BOAT (243,117) 18.4



Estimate Status Year Common Name Fishing Mode Released Alive (B2) PSE
PRELIMINARY 2011 STRIPED BASS SHORE (321,087) 50.0
PRELIMINARY 2011 STRIPED BASS PARTY BOAT (145) 52.8
PRELIMINARY 2011 STRIPED BASS CHARTER BOAT (54,446) 54.5
PRELIMINARY 2011 STRIPED BASS PRIVATE/RENTAL BOAT (612,623) 20.3

[Southerly]

i couldn't get anything meaningful from the link, so thanks for your numbers. surprising to me too, but i don't think you could have dragged an estimate out of me.

i like hearing/reading people's opinions of the fishery. reminds me of the story of the 3 blind men encountering an elephant and describing what it's like. all true - but each guy is touching a different part and has a different idea what the elephant is.

[Skip]

I've been interviewed a few times at Sandy Point.

Guy seemed to be doing a very good job gathering information. Not just what we caught but how often we fish , how much we spent , etc. Took about 10 minutes to answer every thing.

Even had a follow up phone call about a week later to verify the info he turned in.

My only concern is if the information is exponentially used ( hope right word ).

Say they interview 3-4 guys who did well , then apply that catch number to a hundred other boats they saw but did not interview.

The old saying 10% of fishermen often catch 90% of the fish often holds true.

I know some very good fishermen either flat out refused to be surveyed or worse - lied and said they got no fish.

[drichitt]

I have to admit that I am one of those fishermen that refuses to answer the questions of the MRFSS surveyors at Sandy Point truthfully; I do admit to spending lots of money though. They would take my answers and extrapolate my data to apply to all of the fishermen that were never interviewed (private piers/docks/marinas etc). I will answers any questions truthfully when I encounter one of the many DNR biologists that will show up at SP; except when they ask how many rods we used because we all know how that data is going to be used. I do want to participate in the process but what has been used until now is so flawed it is criminal. I hear that the new NOAA Saltwater Angler registry is finally up and running and welcome a call from these folks. Still don't know why I have to get my mother registered for the few times she will fish with with me; I think they should call and ask me directly.

[garlien]

Don,

I could not agree more...Having everyone registered is complete BS...The owner of the boat should be registered, if anyone should...

If some first time fisher comes on the boat and gets interviewed I would hate to hear some of the potential comments...

"uh yeah not too good of a day out there"

"Not sure but I think it was 3 marlins, uh yeah blue ones"

"um well we caught em on something called a surgical shad"

"those things have like 10 hooks man !"

"I dont know remember how they got the trasher, thresher, what ever, i think they used a graph, uh grapple, or maybe it was a gaffe, i dont know"

It is a hassle and a half to fill those things out, last year I printed them for all the folks that might be on the boat throughout the season...Just to save them the hassle and to insure I had them on hand...

Of course no one ever asked to see them, and you are right, no one is going to ask me at my marina how the day was anyway....

[Skip]

Honestly would be a fairly simple way to get a close number on how many Rock are kept.

When moratorium was lifted - in spring we had to buy a Rockfish stamp. Think it was $2.00 but do not hold me to that. Each angler had to have it and you were given five trophy tags.

They were thick plastic that snapped together - non reusable. The tag went into the fish's mouth and made a great handle to carry them. Tag had to be put on Rockfish as soon as it was in the boat.

That could be brought back - you buy tags in say groups of two , six or ten. Depending on how much you plan to fish / keep. If you use all your tags - you buy another set of what you think you'll use. Tags could be 50 cents each so math is easy - doubt any one would complain.

Then at end of year - have some type trade in for tags not used. Still be some not used or turned back in but would get a better number of fish kept.

[Mikie]

Originally Posted by drichitt

I have to admit that I am one of those fishermen that refuses to answer the questions of the MRFSS surveyors at Sandy Point truthfully; I do admit to spending lots of money though. They would take my answers and extrapolate my data to apply to all of the fishermen that were never interviewed (private piers/docks/marinas etc). I will answers any questions truthfully when I encounter one of the many DNR biologists that will show up at SP; except when they ask how many rods we used because we all know how that data is going to be used. I do want to participate in the process but what has been used until now is so flawed it is criminal. I hear that the new NOAA Saltwater Angler registry is finally up and running and welcome a call from these folks. Still don't know why I have to get my mother registered for the few times she will fish with with me; I think they should call and ask me directly.

I would say if you don't want to answer the questions just refuse to take the survey. If you take the survey and LIE about the answers, you become part of the problem.

[B-Faithful]

My boat was interviewed by MRFSS 3x in the last year. (usually older retired guys) Twice out of SPSP and once out of Solomons. They usually interviewed two people on board the boat. They typically asked how many fish we each caught, how many we kept (then they measured the fish kept), about how much fuel we burned, how many trips we make a year, etc.

The only concern I had about the survey was the possiblity that many fish got counted twice. We were trolling all three trips as one survey was in the spring trophy season and other two were in the late fall when the big fish were around. I was cautious with our crew to make sure if we caught say 12 fish on the boat for the trip that they they only told the surveyor how many they reeled in themselves and how many we kept that they reeled in. I didnt want each of them saying we caught 12 fish and kept 2 fish if they each reeled in 3each and we only kept one of the fish between the two guys who reeled in 6 fish. I think it is important to give as accurate info as possible. The one surveryor was laughing at how he likes the measure the fish as many recs think the fish are bigger than they typically are.

interesting tid bit: I was also interviewed by DNR last trophy season at SPSP. The surveryor noted that there were only like 3 boats out of 25 interviewed that caught fish. While last tophy season was tougher than most in the upper bay, I was surprised to hear of so few actually caught by anglers.