November 21, 2019
Omega Protein thumbed its nose at the law, regulators, and any sense of environmental stewardship by intentionally over-harvesting menhaden in the Chesapeake this year, the Atlantic States Marine…
July 20, 2019
Few events have had such a dramatic impact on our region’s fisheries as the recent explosion of northern snakeheads. This “new” species may have been around in our waters for well over a decade, but…
June 1, 2019
In late March the Gulf of Maine Research Institute held one of their Marine Resources Education Program (MREP) workshops in Hanover, Maryland. The aim of MREP is to provide the recreational angling…
May 23, 2019
The Magothy River watershed is like a mini Chesapeake Bay, and fishing here is a microcosm of Chesapeake Bay fishing. The river has a main body fed by tributaries with tidal influx and some fringe…
April 24, 2019
You may remember reading in our Chesapeake Bay Trophy Rockfish Season 2019 Opener Preview that in consideration of the recent stock assessments, North Carolina had already closed most of its waters…
April 5, 2019
Despite tremendous support for protecting oyster sanctuaries in the state of Maryland – with 88-percent of Marylanders in support of the idea and this bill in specific garnering a bipartisan 98 to 40…
April 1, 2019
UPDATE: Before you read the below, know that the Maryland General Assembly has just passed a bill protecting the Harris Creek, Little Choptank, Tred Avon, St. Mary's, and Manokin River sanctuaries -…
February 5, 2019
How is it that with a mere one to two percent of historic oyster populations left, our leaders could attempt to make oyster replenishment harder and less effective? Yet that’s exactly what Maryland…
February 2, 2019
Before reading on, you may want to check out this new video of reef building in action, shot on the Morning Star this February:
Imagine: despite the best bottom paint money can buy, if you leave a…
January 18, 2019
A few months back in Notes From The Cockpit: The Floaters, I addressed the issue of the floaters (dead striped bass) spotted in the Bay the past few seasons. It seemed to strike a chord - the…
May 14, 2018
On top of the how-to, where-to fishing info found at FishTalk, you may have noticed that we usually try to include at least one feature article in every edition that has an environmental and/or…
April 4, 2018
We all want to understand how our fisheries are being managed, but there’s a lot of miscommunication – and no shortage of issues to cover – when it comes to natural resource management.
You’ve…
September 26, 2017
This weekend the Coastal Conservation Association of Maryland (CCA MD) hauled their reef ball building trailer up to the Bass Pro Shops in Hanover, MD, where they set up shop and started building…
September 11, 2017
At present, the Mid-Atlantic region’s many depleted fisheries are being 'rebuilt' by effort reduction and catch restriction, which amount to regulatory-enforced increases or decreases in our fishing…
July 5, 2017
The Sheila Bordelon is pretty easy to recognize - keep your eyes peeled for it and when you see it, fish elsewhere.
Here’s an alert for you anglers fishing along the Mid-Atlantic coast: When you…
July 5, 2017
A lot of effort goes into striped bass management in the Chesapeake. Every possible user group clamors for just a bit more of the pie, whether to sell these fish commercially, leave as brood-stock,…
June 8, 2017
When we first dropped a camera to the seabed in 2001 it was because our bottom sampling Ponar Dredge (a small sampling device like a clamshell bucket) was coming up empty—what we called a "water grab…