Funding secured to fix Indian River Inlet scour hole

I just received an email from Karen McGrath in Sen. Tom Carper’s office telling me that Operation and Maintenance Work Plan funding for the Philadelphia Corps of Engineers in the amount of $43,871,000 has been awarded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that Carper shepherded unanimously through EPW and with overwhelming support through the Senate.

This money will be used to repair the dangerous scour hole that has required closing the handicap pier and a large portion of the sidewalk and fishing access on the north side of Indian River Inlet. Thank you, Sen. Carper!

Sea bass saga

For those of you who stayed with me through last week’s column, I have more information on how you can make a difference in this year’s black sea bass Total Allowable Landings or quota. As it worked in the past, and I hope before the Delaware regulations become final, there will be a public hearing where the various conservation equivalents will be proposed and the attendees will be asked to pick the one they feel will be the best for them. Remember, the National Marine Fisheries Service has said recreational fishermen overfished their TAL a few years ago, and now we must pay that back by cutting our quota by 28 percent in 2022. The fact that they used lousy data that they computed with even more lousy data to come up with the idea that we overfished our TAL doesn’t seem to figure in their train of thought.

I have attended many public hearings, and I am always disappointed by the poor turnout of recreational fishermen. If the subject has any bearing on commercial fishing, those folks will be there in numbers, but not the recreational anglers. Black sea bass support the head boat and charter boat industry in the spring and fall, so I will be anxious to see who turns out for this public hearing.

Due to the pandemic, I expect the hearing to be virtual, so you won’t even have to leave the house. There is also a hearing officer who will accept comments for a certain time period after the hearing. These comments become part of the hearing record just as if you had attended.

Once the date and time of the hearing are announced, I will let you know. I would ask you to either attend or at least write a comment to the hearing officer. I plan to copy my comments to Sens. Carper and Coons, and Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester. They are the only ones who can bring these bean (fish)-counting bureaucrats under control.

The people who do not deserve any of our wrath are the folks at Delaware’s Fish and Wildlife. They get their marching orders from the National Marine Fisheries Service through the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council or the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. All our state folks get to do is figure out a conservation equivalent by juggling around bag limits, seasons and size limits to meet the criteria sent down from above.

Fishing report

Believe it or not, people are still catching rockfish close to, if not directly off, the Delaware coast. I had one unconfirmed report of rockfish caught out of Indian River Inlet and one confirmed report of big rock taken out of Ocean City, Md. The lures were the same, Stretches and MOJOs, and according to the reports, the fish were inside the Three-Mile-Limit.

I also had a report of rockfish off of Cape Henry, Va. I caught many a rockfish there including my largest, a 46-incher. 

I also have a close relative in Virginia Beach who is supposed to let me know when the rockfish show up. I told him I can be at the Lynnhaven or Rudee Inlet launch ramp in about three hours.

My reports from the tog fishermen in Ocean City have not been encouraging. These are the guys who brought in the world-record tog a few years ago, and they are having trouble scraping up a boat limit. My guess is the water has gotten too cold and the tog have slowed down. I have had divers tell me that tog will actually lay down in a crevice or hole when it gets too cold and go into a sort of hibernation. Lord knows it has been a pretty cold winter so far.

It looks like we are going to have some fishing and boat shows this winter. The first local show will be held Saturday, Feb. 5, from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Laurel fire house. Sponsored by Big Mouth Lures, there will be vendors from various lure builders as well as other tackle dealers. The fire house will be selling food, and that alone is worth the $4 price of admission.