Gone Fishin' : Amid growing numbers, fluke limits are cut back
The tenth annual VFW Fluke Tournament is this weekend. It is a fun event and this year roughly coincides with the opening of the recreational fluke season on July 1.
Nelson Sigelman holds up a 20-inch fluke he caught Sunday. This weekend he will be one of many VFW fluke tournament fishermen looking to catch a significantly bigger fish. Photo by Ned Casey
As a tune up, on Sunday Ned Casey and I headed out early into Vineyard Sound in my Tashmoo-18 skiff hoping to get in a few hours of fluke fishing before the wind picked up. Wishful thinking and a sense of bravado inspired by hours of watching reruns of the Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel were no match for the gusts already howling across the sound.
I wanted to fish the deeper holes off Seven Gates, but once off Paul's Point we realized that the sea conditions would not be pleasant. There was also the drift to consider.
Fluke, also known as summer flounder, are ambush predators. When a strip of squid, or another bait choice, floats by where the fluke lies in wait, it pounces.
Fluke fishing is all about the bottom and the drift. Under ideal conditions the tide carries your boat through a productive area as you bounce a lure off the bottom.
The amount of weight used to put the lure on the bottom depends on a combination of water depth, tidal flow and wind direction. I have used four ounces to stay on the bottom in 90 feet of water and have had to use 12 ounces.
Sunday I would have needed an engine block (I hear GM is giving them away). The tide was running west and that factor combined with the wind out of the west-northwest made for a very fast drift that would have caused our squid strips to whiz by any fluke.
I was actually grateful for the speed at which we were moving back in the direction of Tashmoo Landing. I had underestimated the amount of gas in my two six-gallon tanks and not counted on the gas we burned up plowing through the waves.
I mention my stupidity as a lesson. Do not leave the dock without an ample supply of gas.
We had enough gas to get home but not enough to remain off Middle Ground and fish for fluke. Luckily, Peter Cox happened by in his Lund, a boat that has earned a sturdy reputation in Alaskan waters, and he had a small tank of gas he was carrying just in case.
As it turned out we did not need the gas, but it was reassuring to have the extra can in the boat just in case. We arrived back at the dock just before noon with six eating size fluke in the cooler.
The Vineyard's much awaited 2009 fluke season began on July 1, three weeks later than the start of the season in 2008, amid much grumbling by recreational fisherman, who were upset that the commercial season remained unchanged.
The recreational minimum size increased from 17.5-inches to 18.5 inches, while the bag limit remained at five fish.
Last week I spoke to Paul Caruso, Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) senior fisheries biologist, about the fluke restrictions.
Fishing regulations for fluke, and many other migratory species such as striped bass, are a bit like sausage. The ingredients include Federal law, lobbying by various interest groups that include conservation organizations and commercial fishermen, Congress, multi-state regulatory agencies, lawsuits and judges and studies by marine biologists.
The federal Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act requires that any fishery designated as "over-fished" by the Department of Commerce's National Marine Fisheries Service be rebuilt over 10 years.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Management Council set state quotas designed to achieve that rebuilding. It is left to individual state's to come up with regulations that meet those quotas.
DMF staff presented a slate of various options to the state's Marine Fisheries Commission (MFC). It recommended the recreational fluke season go from June 10 to August 3 with an 18-inch minimum size and five fish bag limit. That would have put the season in line with the commercial season. The MFC voted to go with the 18.5-inch option and a later season start.
Paul said that as with so many fishing regulations, the reaction of fishermen depended in large part on where they lived and how they fished.
Other states have a variety of limits. For example, Rhode Island has a 21-inch minimum size and six-fish limit. Connecticut has a19.5 inch minimum and three-fish limit, while New York allows two fish at 21 inches and has a split spring and summer season.
The commercial season opened on June 10 with a 300-pound limit for draggers and a 200-pound limit for hook and line fishermen. The size limit is 14 inches and is not set by the individual states. The law sets a 60/40 split for the commercial and recreational sectors.
Paul explained that the size limit is a function of the mesh size, which had been 4.5 inches and is now 5.5 inches. Fishery regulators decided that a smaller minimum size would reduce the number of discards, too-small fish brought up on board and thrown over dead.
The target date for recovery is 2013. All signs point to a recovery. There are more fluke now, and that only adds to the frustration of fishermen.
It also adds to the pressure applied to fisheries managers. If there are more fish, why can't we catch them and why are the catch limits getting reduced, is the question. "It goes right back to that rebuilding timeline," Paul said. "We have to meet these mandatory recovery timelines, which is ten years for an overfished stock."
Most fishermen are familiar with the sad history of fisheries management. In the past, as fish stocks began to decline, biologist would propose restrictions that would then get watered down during an approval process that was vulnerable to political interference and pressure from various interest groups.
The current regulatory system is supposed to be based on science. Of course, not everyone agrees on the science, and the battles go on.
Paul said that coming up with recreational regulations everyone can live with is a balancing act. DMF wanted to avoid size restrictions that would put fluke out of the reach of the average guy.
Islanders can expect to find decent-size fish in Vineyard Sound that exceed 20 inches. But fishermen in other parts of the state are not that lucky and are hard pressed to find any big fish. "You try to strike some kind of balance between not going too high in the size, not going too high or too low in the bag limit, and trying to have some season in there," Paul said.
I asked Paul why the problem was not recognized earlier and appropriate restrictions put in place before drastic action was needed. "You know the answer to that one," Paul said. "Nobody ever wants to take the hard action."
Federal law now requires hard action and to a certain extent keeps the politicians out of the equation. The bottom line is that fluke are recovering and we'll benefit with a longer season next year as fluke continue on the road to recovery.
VFW host fluke tourney
The tenth annual Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) fluke tournament is scheduled for July 11 and 12, weather permitting, said tournament chairman Peter Hermann.
VFW Post 9261, located on Towanticut Avenue in Oak Bluffs, hosts the annual contest to raise money for scholarships.
The fluke derby also features a trophy for the fisherman who catches the largest black sea bass, one of the tastiest fish caught in Island waters.
The fluke tourney weigh-in is from 4 to 6 pm Saturday and Sunday at the VFW. On Sunday the final weigh-in is 6 pm sharp (If you are stuck in traffic that is too bad, Peter told me, so do not be late). A cookout and awards ceremony follows.
There is no entry fee for kids 12 and under. Youngsters 13 to 16 years of age and folks over 65 pay $10. The rest of us pay $20 to enter.
There is also a side team competition. Any team of up to four people may enter this category. Each competing group will weigh in its four heaviest fish on Saturday and again on Sunday. The team with the highest combined total weight wins bragging rights and custom-made tee shirts proclaiming the wearers to be the "Team Champs," or something like that.
The entry fee is an additional $40 per team.
Fishermen can sign up at Island tackle shops or at the VFW. Peter can be reached at 774-563-0293 with any questions or weather cancellation updates.
