The Fishing Line: Tagging on the local scene

Weather or not, the fish are here.
Black drum fish have arrived. Captain Joe Pritchard on the Big Game, out of South Jersey Marina, took the Fred Manzella group out in the Delaware Bay for a six-hour charter trip around the Tussey area. At the end of the day, he had four nice fish for the customers to take home.
Captain Joe reports plenty of shark and skate action but expects things to improve any day now.
He’s got room for six tomorrow. If you can go call Joe or Charlie Langan at South Jersey Marina, 609-884-3800 for this trip or any reservations.
Miss Chris, Cape May, is sea bass fishing everyday at 8 a.m. Night drum trips are sailing every night at 7 p.m. with limit catches to 45-pounds. Recent lucky fishers included Steve Adibato, Vineland, caught the limit with fish up to 43-pounds; Paul Erickson, Philadelphia, bagged the limit up to 45-pounds; and Jason Mattitucci, Philadelphia, also with the limit up to 40-pounds.
Look for the Lady Chris to start four-hour fishing trips on May 24 sailing two four-hour trips.
The American Littoral Society urges recreational anglers who are interested in participating in the largest volunteer saltwater fish-tagging program in the country to sign up now.
Visit the Web site at littoralsociety.org for registration forms or call Jeff Dement, at 732-291-0055 X106. The program costs $35 per year plus the cost of fish tagging kits.
Since the program was founded in 1965, the data collected has been com-piled and deposited in the databanks of the National Marine Fisheries Service at Woods Hole, Mass., where it is shared with scientists from around the world.
At the close of 2008 the program crossed a major milestone when the Society sold its 750,000th tag to Steve Sylvester, of Cape May Court House. He used that tag on a 13-inch striper caught on Nov. 3, 2008 in Strathmere.
Sylvester has been tagging for the Society since 2005 and is a protégée of “Bucktail Willie” (aka Bill Shillingford). He is one of 33 member taggers in Cape May County.
While the 2008 tagging data report will not be complete until later this spring, in 2007 the program’s 1,000 volunteer fishermen tagged 25,390 fish from Maine to Florida.
Recaptures of tagged fish, (reported by both taggers and non-taggers) numbered 1,264. Since the start of the program, taggers have tagged 528,482 fish and reported 28,125 recaptures.
Dement stresses the importance of getting the word out to non-taggers about reporting recaptures.
“We ask all anglers who catch a fish with one of our tags to report the recapture to us by sending the tag to us along with the date, location, length, and if possible, the weight of the fish,” he said.
“We even have a form that can be downloaded from our website. The tag and recapture data should be mailed to American Littoral Society, 18 Hart-shorne Drive, Suite 1, Highlands, NJ 07732.
“Of course,” he added, “when someone catches one of our tagged fish, we’d like to catch them as a tagger, too.”
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Winter Flounder Management Board approved an addendum to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for the Inshore Stocks of winter flounder. The Addendum establishes harvest reductions for both the Gulf of Maine (GOM) and Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic (SNE/MA) inshore stocks of winter flounder (0 to 3 miles).
States are required to submit proposals to meet the required harvest reductions by mid-June and the Board will meet in August and take final action. States must implement their regulations by Nov. 1, 2009. Contact Fishery Management Plan 202-289-6400 or cvonderwiedt@asmfc.org.
Fishnet-USA has sent out an interesting but lengthy article on the increasing threat of the dogfish. In part the article says “voracious almost beyond belief, the dogfish entirely deserves its bad reputation. Not only does it harry and drive off mackerel, herring, and even fish as large as cod and haddock, but it destroys vast numbers of them…. they prey on practically all species of Gulf of Maine fish smaller than themselves.”
For the entire report go to fishnet-usa.com/dogforum1.htm
Ocean City Flotilla 81, United States Coast Guard Auxiliary runs a number of local programs that promote safe recreational boating. The About Boating Safety (ABS) class mandated by the State of New Jersey leads to NJ State certification. Classes are held at the Stainton Senior Center.
The Auxiliary also offers vessel safety checks (VSC) to boaters who wish to be sure that their boats meet all federal and state safety requirements at no charge to the boater.
For either program contact Theresa Pierce, 399-4299.
Check out SeeMyBigFish.com and be sure to send your fish stories to cmiller@cmcherald.com. This column appears first online at capemaycountyherald.com