Article by Dale Timmons
Before Hurricane Earl came up the coast last week, white marlin fishing off Ocean City was nothing short of phenomenal, with double digit catches fairly common. On Monday, August 30, several boats broke the Ocean City record for a single day white marlin catch, which had stood at 27. The “Billfisher,” with Capt. Jon Duffie and Mates John Prather and Anthony Pino, set a new benchmark, however, with an amazing 57 white marlin releases in one day, and I just want to add my own congratulations to the “Billfisher” crew. I have known the Duffie family for many years, since Jon and his brother Jeremy (who with his mom and dad was an angler that day) were little kids, and the other John since he first became a mate, and it is nice to see them doing so well. Lynn Jarman at Ake Marine passed on an amusing anecdote about the “off the hook” recent white marlin fishing. He had a customer who told him he was fishing next to the “Billfisher” when his boat hooked a yellowfin tuna. He said it took them 23 minutes to land the tuna, and in that time, he watched the “Billfisher” catch seven white marlin—that’s some darn good fishing, no matter what part of the world you are fishing in…nice going, guys…
It is a serious subject, I know, but every time I hear one of the TV weather people go on and on about the rip current risk being “high” or “low” I have to chuckle to myself. A storm or even just high winds from something like a cold front or a northeaster does not suddenly create a rip current. They may make the current stronger if tides are higher than normal, but the “rip” must already be there. Every experienced surf fisherman knows that a rip is created by a “break in the bar”, also known as a “cut” or “outsuck”. Most surf edges consist of a shore break where the waves hit the beach, followed by a “slough” (pronounced “slew” in these parts) of deeper water, then an outer sandbar running sort of parallel to the beach. When the tide rises, the water fills the slough, and when it goes out, the water looks for a weakness, or low spot, in the sandbar. Eventually, it will cut a “break” through the bar, and where water rushes out of this break you have a “rip” current. Think of it as sort of an underwater inlet, or in this case, an outlet. Actually, most good breaks are formed during periods of relative calm, and sometimes storms will actually fill them in. As the water rushes out of these breaks, it will actually flow from the north on the north side of the break and from the south on the south side of the break. This current is often called “undertow”, and it can pull your feet from under you or move an 8-ounce sinker swiftly down the beach. The “rip” itself may go straight offshore, or it may cut through the bar on an angle. These breaks in the sandbar are good spots to fish, as species such as red drum, stripers or even the smaller kingfish use them as highways to move in and out of the slough. That access, plus the fact that the current pulls small fish and crabs along and makes them vulnerable, are what attracts the large predators. Maybe what coastal communities need to do is to hire surf fishermen to identify the rips, then make those areas off limits to swimming and create “fishing beach” areas for surf anglers, rather than keeping them off the beach…yeah, like that’ll happen…
On August 23, 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was petitioned by the Center for Biological Diversity and others to ban lead from ammunition and fishing tackle, including sinkers, jigs, weighted fly lines and components containing lead, such as brass and ballast in lures, spinners, stick baits and other fishing products.
On August 27, the EPA denied the petition regarding ammunition, but let stand the petition to ban lead in fishing tackle and has opened a short period for taking public comment. If you think this proposed ban is as ridiculous as I do, you need to let the EPA and your representatives in Congress know how you feel. One simple way to do so is to go to the Keep America Fishing website. There you can fill out a short form and an automated letter will be e-mailed to the EPA director and the proper representatives for your area. It only takes a few minutes, and if there are enough of them, maybe it will make a difference. The website is: keepamericafishing.org. Do it now, or you don’t have the right to complain if they take your jigs and sinkers away…
I see where my favorite group of nut cases, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), is once again practicing their favorite pastime— intimidation. This time they bullied a Sacramento, CA restaurant into taking an item off the menu. The item was called “Dancing Shrimp” (apparently a favorite in Japan…gotta love those folks), and it was basically live shrimp that you squirted lemon juice on and ate them while they were still alive. The dish in itself sounds crazy enough to me, and not my cup of tea, but I don’t see where it would matter to the shrimp whether they were eaten this way or boiled and covered with Old Bay…or even mashed in the throat crushers of a red drum…
Last week, during Earl, I was going through my surf box, and I decided I might start my own acronym group, AWHALOS, or Anglers Who Have A Lot Of Stuff (the last word is not really what I had in mind, but the publisher would probably censor the original, so I compromised). Actually, I had two surf boxes, a small one for “traveling light,” (also a joke), and my original larger box that I am getting too old to even pick up. As you can imagine, I already had a lot of rigs made up—kingfish rigs, drum rigs, puppy drum rigs, bluefish rigs, and even some flounder rigs—but all summer, in between making rigs for other folks, I would take a break and make a few for myself. These I threw in the small box, until I could barely get the lid closed (it’s one of those orange watertight plastic ammo can types). Anyway, I went through both boxes, in order to consolidate everything into the large one, and I really couldn’t believe just how many rigs and how much other stuff I had in there. Add to it all the rods, lures, plastic bodies, tackle bags, terminal tackle, sinkers and so on that fill up my garage. I’m reminded of that old joke, “When I die I hope my wife doesn’t sell this stuff for what I told her it costs.” Anyway, I really think I have a problem, so I might start this AWHALOS group, and we could all sit around and confess our addiction. Of course we could also talk fishing and rigs and new tackle and other neat stuff. Maybe I’ll even charge a little bit for dues, and if you join I could give you some little fishing item that you probably don’t need and will never use in this lifetime…
Contact Dale Timmons at [email protected] or call 410-629-1191.
