Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2019 i Salt Water Sportsman

Two days before Christmas last year, angler Josh Harrison took a holiday break on Chesapeake Bay with his dog, Colt, and scored his first bass over 50 inches. He was fishing a live eel on a Shimano Calcutta spooled with 20-pound mono. His trophy taped out at a 32-inch girth and tipped the scales at 53 pounds. YOUR CATCH To send in your catch photo, email us at catches@saltwatersportsman.com. Got a piece of good news to share? Want to gripe? Like to see your thoughts on the pages of Salt Water Sportsman? Send your letters, manuscripts and any relevant comments to editor@saltwatersportsman.com or via U.S. mail: SWS Editor, 460 N. Orlando Ave., Suite 200, Winter Park, FL32789. Unsolicited manuscripts are welcomed but will not be acknowledged or returned unless accompanied…

Rip Cunningham Passage of the Modern Fish Act delivered less than expected. Please, anyone who can, help me! What am I missing? Fellow travelers down the road of recreational fishing are singing Congress’ praises for having passed what is being called the Modern Fish Act, or more formally the Modernizing Recreational Fisheries Management Act of 2018. This piece of legislation was passed in the waning hours of the 115th Congress and signed by the president. One might think that this new legislation made wholesale changes to how fisheries will be managed. Perhaps the good news and the bad news is that it really did not. To a large extent, it might have been more appropriate to call it the Modern Red Snapper Act. Looking back, there was an eff ort…

See More for Less Garmin’s new Panoptix LiveScope LVS12 transducer offers both 30-degree forward and down real-time scanning-sonar views with Garmin GPSMap 8400/8600xsv MFDs without the need for a black-box module. Panoptix LiveScope lets anglers see images so clear that it’s possible to distinguish between species of fish. The LVS12 includes a transom-mount kit as well as a trolling-motor mounting kit. $499.99; garmin.com It’s Elementary Raymarine has debuted the Element series of sonar/GPS displays featuring RealVision 3D and new Hyper Vision with ultra-high 1.2 MHz chirp sonar frequency. Element’s LightHouse Sport operating system lets anglers quickly mark fishing spots and create high-definition bathymetric maps using the new Raymarine RealBathy sonar map generator. The series includes 7-, 9- and 12-inch models. $799.99 to $2,249.99; raymarine.com Pluggin’ In SmartPlug Systems’ new dual-coax…

San Francisco Bay striper fishermen get serious in the spring, when school fish from 3 to 12 pounds begin responding well to both live baits and artificial lures. During the spring season, boating anglers do best from lower San Pablo Bay south to Bluff Point, along the Marin shoreline. The game plan calls for light tackle, and casting to rocky points and shorelines, shallow flats, coves and islands. Stripers prowl the current eddies that form behind the rocky edges and points on both the incoming and outgoing tides. Approach within casting range, and then hold the boat in position while casting bucktail jigs or swimbaits into current seams. Experienced anglers favor ½- to 1-ounce white bucktail jigs, ½-ounce Rat-L-Traps in natural colors, and 3- to 4-inch swimbaits in natural baitfish…

New Jersey boasts two out of three of the world’s major striped bass spawning grounds because migrating schools pass through Delaware Bay up the Delaware River, and through Raritan Bay to egg out in the Hudson River. “In late March or early April, I’ll troll light plugs like Rapala Magnum X-Raps, or set up on a clam chum slick to get those slow-moving, first-wave fish biting,” says Freddy Gamboa of Andrea’s Toy Charters. “But the real run doesn’t kick off until May or early June when the bunker (menhaden) move through.” Live-lining bunker is a staple of the north and central Jersey fishery, with large, adult bunker live-lined on 10/0 Gamakatsu circle hooks. Bunker also play a big role in Delaware Bay as bass hounds chunk fresh bunker in the…

A bulletin from the University of South Florida (USF) said sargassum in the central-west Atlantic has continued to increase from the record amount recorded in November 2018, when a USF researcher found more than double the average measured in previous Novembers between 2011 and 2017. Sargassum, which usually bunches up into large mats on the surface, provides food, shelter, breeding grounds and nurseries for a wide range of marine life, including crustaceans and finfish, but excessive amounts can have harmful effects. In addition to mucking up beaches and producing a lingering, pungent smell, it can also hinder navigation and fishing, keep sunlight from reaching coral reefs, cover sea turtle nests and prevent hatchlings from reaching the sea, and more. With the Gulf Stream Current acting as a giant conveyor belt,…

Caedan Burns 11, Massachusetts Caedan loves fishing and is a firm believer in catch and release. He often fishes with his grandfather, a charter captain on Cape Cod, who praises Caedan’s proficiency at casting, fighting, landing and releasing his fish. Mackenzie Marsh 9, Florida Mackenzie caught this mutton snapper on her very first trip offshore a few miles outside the Palm Beach inlet. She loves eating yellowtail snapper for dinner and looks forward to landing her first mahi in 2019. Hudson Clark 6, New Jersey Hudson learned to fish with his Pop Pop at the age of 5. On his first trip, he caught two sea bass — which he released back into the ocean — on a double hook rig near Atlantic City, among the 10 fish he caught…

Stamas 33T Aventura Stamas Yacht, the oldest family-owned and operated boatbuilder in the country, recently launched the 33T Aventura, a 33-footer built on the company’s popular Tarpon platform. The smart layout includes an ample aft cockpit with a tuna door and generous casting room up front, and like other Stamas models, this one comes loaded with fishing amenities. Three fish boxes afford a 904-quart capacity to keep the catch on ice, and a pair of aquarium-style baitwells — a 199-quart on the leaning post and a 120-quart on the transom — let anglers carry a substantial supply of live bait. There’s no shortage of rod holders, and the tackle station with sink and freshwater faucet converts to a summer kitchen. A foldout bench provides comfortable seating in the cockpit, and…

Stripers historically resided in the brackish waters near Jacksonville, Florida, but changing environmental conditions caused reproduction to fizzle by the early 1970s. A joint restocking program by the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, along with the abundance of cool-water springs in the St. Johns River basin, now supports a smaller population. “Prime time is December through February,” says Capt. Chris Holleman of Jacksonville. “There are some holes 77 feet deep in the St. Johns that offer thermal refuge. We still catch stripers sometimes in the summer. But in the winter they are fat and sassy. My two biggest were 25.5 and 19.6 pounds.” The stocking program boosted numbers in the St. Johns and Nassau rivers, and Georgia’s bordering St. Marys. Spots such…

THERE ARE ANGLERS WHO EXCLUSIVELY FLY-FISH FOR STRIPERS. I’M NOT ONE OF THEM. I LOVE TO FISH PLUGS, EVEN BAIT. BUT THERE’S SOMETHING AWESOME ABOUT TARGETING STRIPED BASS ON FLY GEAR. MAYBE IT’S THE CHALLENGE. Or perhaps it’s the excitement from moments like when you unfurl a perfect loop to land your fly in the path of a cruising fish and witness the striper’s predatory instincts take over, and suddenly it pounces. Or the times you lay your fly right on top of a boil, begin stripping and, a split second later, the line is nearly yanked from your hands by the jolt of a brawny bass claiming possession of your streamer. Although dealing with wind and a rocking and rolling boat — while remaining steady in the midst of…

Jim Hendricks How to decide if your boat needs more than one MFD. Having more than one display at the helm was common back when sounders, GPS and radars were all housed in separate stand-alone units. Then, in the 1990s, manufacturers combined GPS, plotter and fish-finder functions into single models. Such products were initially known as combos, but with integration of additional features, greater processing power, networking, and touchscreen capabilities, the nomenclature evolved. Most are now called multifunction displays — MFDs for short. Such displays with split-screen functions let boating anglers pare down to just one machine. With a touchscreen MFD, boaters suddenly have access and control of GPS, chart plotting, fish finding, scanning sonar, radar, autopilot, thermal imaging, engine instrumentation, digital switching, audio entertainment and more on a single…

Striper stocks have been through up and down cycles. In the early 1980s, stock assessments estimated that the spawning stock biomass was less than 5 million pounds, and spawning success was at low levels. With angler angst running high, the government passed the Striped Bass Conservation Act in 1984, and strict management regimes were put in place, resulting in steady improvement that peaked in 2004 with the SSB well over 170 million pounds. Today there are new worries that stocks are on a downward trajectory. The SSB has been on a slow decline since 2005 to an estimated 127 million pounds in 2017. Recruitment had its typical ups and downs, with robust years in 2012 and 2014. Spawning success in the Chesapeake has been at or above the 50-year mean…

The fate of striped bass rises and falls in Chesapeake Bay, North America’s largest estuary, where 70 percent of the world’s stripers, locally called rockfish, are born and raised. Capt. Pete Dahlburg has been chasing them here for almost 20 years. He starts his year in mid-April, searching the shallows of the Eastern Shore islands. “As soon as the water temperature rises above 50 degrees, bait moves into the shallows and the rockfish follow,” he says. Current rips, points and channel edges provide cover for the bait and a corral for the striped bass. “The backwater can be 10 degrees warmer than the main bay,” he says. “When the fish spread out or the water is stained, a Rapala X-Rap 12 calls them in.” When Dahlburg finds schools of stripers,…

LENGTH: 45 BEAM: 14' DRAFT: 30" DEADRISE: 21 degrees FUEL: 616 gal. WEIGHT: 28,308 lb. MAX HP: 1,700 PRICE: $1.34 million w/quad Yamaha 425 XTOs GRADY-WHITE: gradywhite.com During a 60-mile run for a day of swordfishing off Morehead City, North Carolina, the 45-footer showed its mettle. The deepwater gladiators failed to cooperate; nevertheless, the Canyon proved the perfect platform for any offshore hunt. Boasting a 14-foot beam, it offers a roomy cockpit with port- and starboard-side doors large enough to slide a hefty tuna aboard. Four insulated fish boxes with overboard drain — a 123- and a 43-quart in the port bow, a 239-quart to starboard, and a 459-quart on the aft transom complete with lighting and refrigerator/freezer with digital thermostat — afford substantial capacity to store the crew’s catch.…