Salt Water Sportsman covers the world of saltwater fishing. The magazine offers loads of how-to information, advice for those who travel within the greater U.S. and surrounding waters, and reviews of new boats, tackle and electronics.
A recent pilot study conducted by NOAA revealed unsettling findings: Fishing-effort surveys might be overestimating recreational catch and effort data by 30 to 40 percent. According to a white paper released jointly by the ASA, CCA and others, this marks the third time in 13 years that serious issues have emerged in NOAA’s MRIP program. It’s a stark reminder that in the world of fisheries management, even when we claim to have “the best scientific information available,” that information isn’t always correct. UNRAVELING THE PARADOX Fisheries management agencies around the world place tremendous importance on using the best scientific information available (BSIA). This approach seems entirely reasonable. After all, we entrust the health of our oceans to these agencies. However, beneath this seemingly unassailable principle lies a challenge: biases that…
In 40 years of fishing, Capt. John Williams developed a deep understanding of when he can expect fish to show at his fishing grounds off New York and New Jersey. When things change, he notices. “Thresher sharks and mako sharks are usually a June thing,” says Williams, who runs Blue Chip Sportfishing out of Southside Marina in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. “Now they’re showing up in May.” Any experienced saltwater angler knows that fish migrations can vary year to year. And just as unique catches of wayward single fish might not mean much, more than a single captain’s observations are needed to prove a trend. Now, though, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has put scientific proof behind observations that some saltwater species in the Atlantic are migrating from…
There is no shortage of good things in the world today. Thanks to the advancement of technology and manufacturing, good is everywhere. Good is the new average. Good is the new standard. Good is the price of admission. There’s nothing inherently bad about good. It’s only that it is so plentiful and, as a consequence, unremarkable. From this day forward, we declare good to be our enemy. If good is the enemy of great, then we will work tirelessly to flush good from our thinking and our rods. Starting now, we no longer accept the terms of good’s offer, no matter how easy, agreeable, practical, cost-effective, or efficient those terms may seem. Good has no guts Good doesn’t want to push the envelope. Good just wants to lick the stamp.…
Capt. Keith Johnson considers himself a newbie. After a decade as a river fishing guide, he switched to the ocean two years ago. Part of Johnson’s education in offshore fishing came from the time he spent trolling off South Florida. “They were using rudder spreader bars to catch blackfin tuna and dolphin,” he observed. When he returned to the Pacific Coast, he brought the spreader-bar idea on board his boat, Tunacious. “I am new, so I wanted to try something new,” he explains. The results have been positive. Some days, the spreader bar catches more fish than the rest of his spread. Johnson fishes three spreader bars in his albacore spread. He uses 6-foot trolling rods with 30-pound reels spooled with 60-pound braid. He connects the braid to the spreader…
Angler Hans Brings shocked the Atlantic Coast fishing community in August when he landed a 5-foot tarpon on a Cape Cod beach, hundreds of miles from where anyone would expect it. Generally, if you’re fishing the New England shore, you’re looking for such species as striped bass, bluefish, fluke or false albacore. Brings has pursued all of those since his father began teaching him how to fish from a beach at age 4. But Brings and friends were after sharks the night of August 12 in Mashpee, Massachusetts. “The primary species is the brown or sandbar shark, as it’s known down South,” and fishing for them is growing in popularity, he says. The brown sharks can be as big as 7 feet long, and both their teeth and skin can…
Sometimes, catching a trophy fish is the result of years of experience and meticulous preparation. Sometimes you just get lucky. Jeff McCoy, who recently set the Delaware state record for king mackerel, is the first to admit his catch falls in the lucky category. “I’ve never caught a king mackerel before,” he laughs. Kingfish are an unusual catch in Delaware. The state’s fisheries department website lists king mackerel as “uncommon.” The previous state record of 48 pounds, 9 ounces was set in 1992 by Gordon Harris. When McCoy set out shark fishing with his family, he never could have predicted how the day would end. “I’ve only been fishing in the ocean for a couple of years,” he says. His in-laws and wife wanted to catch a big fish, so…
