Article by Larry Budd
Welcome back to another season of the Coastal Fisherman, our 47th year in publication!
Spring this year has been busy in several areas, but our local inshore fishing just started to heat up mid April despite what felt like non stop wind all year! For example our first flounder for 2022 was caught while Scott Lenox was fishing in 29 mph winds. Several other First Fish also made the board for 2022 including seasonal usuals of tog, black drum, bluefish, rockfish. Don Mauzy also reported the first mako shark and probably the only one for 2022 given expected regulation changes. He ran out to the Norfolk Canyon in early February and caught the mako as well as an unusual barrel fish. You can see these catches in this edition and keep track of who reports in our First Fish tracker. Submit your catch and you could be etched in glory in the Coastal Fisherman for all of 2022!
Speaking of regulation changes, there have been a couple for 2022 already in addition to the expected changes to the mako fishery. The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) is an inter-governmental fishery organization responsible for the conservation of tunas and tuna-like species in the Atlantic Ocean and its adjacent seas. 52 countries participate in this group and pledge to abide by any rules approved by the body. In 2021 ICCAT members agreed to ban mako shark fishing for 2022 and 2023, and they may extend the restriction further. Each country is then responsible to implement the regulation and NOAA in the United States has been working through their process with and expected implementation date in June. So for now, mako fishing is allowed under the same regulations as last year.
The other notable changes are to the regulations for flounder and black sea bass. All three states in our publication area (DE, MD, VA) have lowered the flounder minimum to 16” a 4 fish daily limit and raised the sea bass minimum to 13” with a creel limit of 15. The sea bass season was also shortened by a couple weeks to December 11th vs the end of the month, so no New Year’s Eve fishing this year! As always we post weekly the regs for DE, MD and Federal so you can keep up to date!
These items and more are also shared through our weekly Delaware and Maryland fishing reports. New for 2022 is also the introduction of a Virginia Fishing report from Capt. Matt Abell of Seahawk Sport Center in Pocomoke City, MD. He will keep us up to date on the action on the Virginia Peninsula.
As for offshore fishing, the water is still too cold for most captains to make a run. Several boats remain on the hard still! There are several charters running for tog with several private boats finding some nice blackfish as well. The crew on “Chasing Tides” with Capt. Chase Eberly put angler Kelly Kellz onto a pending Women’s AGFA World Record tog that tipped the scale at 18 lbs. with a girth of 24”. Capt. Chase has been having a good spring in general! Several headboats have also been boating some nice tog at natural and artificial reefs. Norman Katrabos graces this week’s cover with a couple nice tog he caught on the “Angler” with Capt. Chris Mizurak.
Last year was also a colder start to the season, but by the end of May we had filled our First Fish for bluefin, yellowfin and bigeye tuna so reports should be coming in soon.
Lastly we have some news, the Coastal Fisherman is moving to a new office. After more than 20 years at our current local, our lease is not being renewed to make room for some J-1 employees for the Crab Alley restaurant. I guess we fell victim to the times. Fortunately we are not going far and are moving 350 yards west to 12703 Sunset Ave, Suite #8 and will be operating from there starting May 24th. §
