sports

outdoors with Lou Rodia ^ Blues Lead Catches; Where Are Drum?

Cape May County fishing is still a mixed bag proposition Rluefish have taken over the top spot in the numbers game. Weakfish, fluke and black drum follow in that order, but far below thejiluefish reports What happened to the drum is a moot question. So far a major run has not materialized. Night trips to the hay produce lots of blues and some weaks. Day trips average about the same. The lack of drum has slowed interest Slow interest means fewer fishermen, fewer fishermen means fewer scouts out to learn the whereabouts of the drum if any do move in Keep checking local tackle shops Some may show up. There is still time for a drum season. Meanwhile, it is blues and weaks with some fluke to attract hay anglers OCEAN FISHING has also featured bluefish, with some party boats reporting sea bass, ling and tautog in goodly numbers Two new additions to the

party boat scene have been reported. At Sea Isle Capt. Ron Kobbins has accquired a new Holiday The new 65-ft. vessel will sail from Capt. Kobbins Dock. Sea Isle City, and will be on a four-hour schedule leaving at 8a m and 1 p.m The new Holiday is also available for booking charters, small or large. Call Capt Ron at 729-0320 or 522-0110 The other new addition is a 60-ft. Prize-built boat called the Miss Cape May It was acquired by Capt. Bob Schumann and will sail from South Jersey Marina at Cape May. The party boat will sail all day trips leaving by 8 a.m. It too is available for charters. Information is available at 884-3384. Captains will be Reds llamscher and Ralph Shaw. There will be a special weakfish contest on the boat for the spring run of those fish. The largest weakfish caught on the Miss Cape May will earn a $300 cash prize for the lucky angler.

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0 The contest ends June 29. REPORTS: Capt Neill J Robbins of the Capt Rob v bins reports a catch of 180 1 sea bass for Ben Bryant and i Son of Philadelphia on a re- » cent wreck trip. At Stone I Harbor. Capt. Don Cramer ^ of the Capt Cramer r reported a catch ol over 500 ■ bluefish for the Ocean City t Gun Club. Frank Jankowski of Strathmere's Frank's ; Bait and Tackle was high hook with 30 blues. Freddie Palermo of Thriftway i Supermarket in Ocean City was another high hooker Dad's Place at Grassy Sound is now open and in full swing. The new pier has been attracting anglers and crabbers and the boat livery has started to show activity on fluke and weakfish. A new bait house facility greets visiting anglers. Bait and tackle and boat and motor sales and service highlight the operation. Dad's Place has been an institution on the waterway at Grassy Sound for three generations AT STRATHMERE. Pete Thomas at Larry's Dock reports rental boats are picking up summer fluke and some weakfish John McBride of Philadelphia reported in with 16 fluke, one of which weighed 3% lb. Action centers around Corson's Inlet and around the Corson's Inlet toll bridge. McBride's fish hit bucktail and minnow combinations. Winner: Fred Tornquist of Philadelphia won the first Penn 710Z spinning reel in the Miss Chris Fleet weakfish contest. Fred's fish weighed 12 lb 10 oz. The contest will continue with a reel being awarded each week for the biggest fish caught on one of the boats in the Miss Chris fleet at Cape May WEAKFISH: An outing on the janie T produced a 7-lb. weakfish for skipper W. Boyd Tyler of Court House Hiram Thompson of Green

Creek boated a 10-lb. 6-oz. I weak. Jim Delaney of Villas caught an 1 1 W-lb. weakfish. ) Charles Glenn of Wildwood ] caught a 5W-lb. weakfish on a trip into Grassy Sound ? behind Wildwood. Charlie was fishing a bucktail. He also sighted a pelican on I that trip. r Fluke Report: Doug i Robinson of Ocean View caught a 5W-lb. fluke on a i recent trip out of Vitello's Dock in Sea Isle City. Doug was fishing Ludlam's Bay and^aught the fluke on a minnow and spinning tackle FLUKE REGULATIONS: An early run of fluke this season in Delaware Bay and a start of fluke fishing in the inland waterways points out the fact that Cape May County's angling fraternity is blessed. The county's waters have a capacity to hold many kinds of fish and large numbers of fish in the various seasons as they occur. Fluke have been a cyclic fish. By nature they have been numerous in peaks. At the bottom of the cycle, they have been a little scarce. But most years, there are fluke around. Last season and the season before, we saw an upswing in first and second year class fluke. Anglers could and did run up the numbers on these small fluke, some to the point of waste. IT AROUSED the ire of a lot of individuals who were appalled that these little fluke were being wasted. Anglers chose to dump them rather than to return them alive to the water or clean them after they killed fish which were literally too small to have been kept. As is true of all regulations. a new one has emerged because of the abuses by the few. Fluke fall into that category Since not enough anglers (commercial and

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recreational ) chose to avoid i catching baby fluke, we have a new set of state regu1 lations coming down to adi dress the problem. 1 Fluke must be 12 inches ; long or longer to be legal in ; 1985. Next year, the fluke i will have to be 13 inches long or longer to be legal in 1986. ; Next year, the fluke will have to be 13 inches long and i By 1987, the minimum will > be 14 inches. \ THERE IS A sound r biological reason for the i minimums. Fluke under 14 ; inches have not yet reached sexual maturity. By maintaining the 14-inch [ minimum, it is estimated i that most of the fluke will f have spawned at least once I before they are harvested. : This will help insure a con- ; tinuing flow of young fluke into the supply. More fluke i should be available each I year if the fluke supply re- : mains good It should help. Surprisingly enough, we got lots of reaction both ways. Some lauded the move and seem to appreciate the conservation message in the regulations. Others are opposed, many because they are antiregulation as a start. Much of the anti-reaction comes from two sources. One is the unknowing who't do not understand the biological reasoning and who have not been guilty of the abuses. The other reaction has come from a few unidentified anglers who are upset that they will not be able to harvest the big numbers of baby fluke which they have become used to. ODDLY ENOUGH, these same selfish anglers have not realized that fluke left to live another year longer would weigh twice as much and they would either have double the amount of filets if they caught the same number of fish, or they would have the same amount of filets for the table if they caught half as many We do not like regulations. . either, but we have also been around to know that it is not the users of a commodity or a facility which bring about regulations. One stretch of Delaware River which we love because of easy access to fine shore fishing for shad, herring and smallmouth bass has been lost because the owner (private enterprise) got tied of cleaning up litter and repairing damage from vandalism. Who did it??7 Who knows, but most of the people visiting there were fishermen, so it is safe to assume, as the landowner . does, that it was they who did the damage. SO IT IS with fish hogs. We know lots of fluke anglers. We know lots who have minimum standards they set for their catch size.

d Most common is the lid of e the cooler. If it fails to span j- the lid of most coolers the 1- fluke is too small to keep. A few have taped a ruler s somewhere handy on the n boat and use it. Our surf e rods had a marker 18 inches g from the butt so we could i. easily determine if stripers U should be retained. Measurd ing fish for minimums can II be easy if you decide to do it. You can also avoid catch1 ing little fish. One way is to e go up a size or two in the 4 hooks you use. Avoid wide i gap hooks, especially small ones. These tend to hook i fluke too deep so if you have i to release them, they will 1 have little survival chance. - Handle fish to be released as little as possible. Use a cloth wet in salt water and - avoid extreme pressure on - the vital parts of a fish. > FOR NOW, join in voluntarily in the fluke conservation effort. Release all the ; little ones. Be THE example i rather than to be made an ■ example. Some people are going to fall into the enforce1 ment trap. Some will be fined. Violate the law and suf- ' fer the consequences Or better, become an example for good by releasing 1 small fluke. That way you won't have to hide your >1 catch when you come into the dock. Fear of apprehen1 sion is only one deterrent. Facing the ridicule of your peers who kept only the big ones is another form of punishment. P.M. Exercise CAPE MAY - The city ' will be offering two P.M. Exercise classes as part of its summer recreation schedule The classes will be 5-6 p.m. taught by Minetle Southard and 6-7 p.m. taught by Donna Mazurek. Both of these classes are designed for the beginner student and will be held Monday and Wednesday at the Cape May Elementary School. Call the Department of Civic Affairs at 884-8411. ext. 20 or 27 for further information Donate Blood together. » American Red Cross +

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