Anglers unhappy with the new rules
I’m curious if a chorus of boos from striper stakeholders wafted up to the fourth floor of the Tawes state office building after Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz formally announced this week the rockfish rules for both recreational and charter boat anglers in advance of the 2024 summer and fall fisheries?
Backlash is coming from two opposing yet significant angling sectors: The light tackle crowd that includes professional guides and the for-hire fleet, typically larger deadrise style charter boats that carry six or more passengers.
The first group is peeved the state slammed the door shut on the popular April catch-and-release season. The second group is irked because the new the regulations, which cover the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries including Maryland’s side of the Potomac River, eliminate the two-rockfish per person creel and, for some, mandate a 19- to 24-inch slot limit.
In past seasons, an angler could keep two stripers if they fished with a licensed professional as long as that captain participated in the DNR’s electronic reporting system.
The so-called “spring trophy” rockfish season has rightly been eliminated, but that hasn’t been a thing for many years. Sadly, the April catch-and-release season — which most definitely has been a thing in the past decade — is also a casualty of what I’d call DNR’s short-sightedness.
The regulations are effective May 1 with Virginia and the Potomac River fisheries commission adopting similar rules.
This is all part of the aftermath of the January meeting of the Atlantic Striped Bass Management Board. Commissioners approved Addendum II to Amendment 7 to its interstate Fishery Management Plan, widely seen as the long-term blueprint to guide states in their attempt to collectively help stripers rebound throughout its Chesapeake and Atlantic range.
Avid anglers, pros and associated businesses are all too aware of these changes and the ramifications.
However, the changes could come as news to the new or casual angler.
If you’ve read my weekly column for the past 15 years, then you know where I stand on the paradigm shift that’s required to have a decent shot at rebuilding striper fishery.
I’ve also vented about how the state’s resource agency — under this administration and its predecessor — has missed (or wasted if you prefer) an excellent opportunity to lead the recovery as they did decades ago when the rockfish crashed.
Passing the new addition to the rebuilding plan back in January was not a slam dunk by any means. In fact, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the Potomac River delegations voted in opposition.
The reason, I was told, is because the one-rockfish daily creel for charter operators, as well as the 7% percent cut in the commercial harvest, would cause economic hardship. It did not take long for a group of Maryland watermen and charter boat operators to file a lawsuit against the commission citing these general reasons.
For what it’s worth, my view is that the single-digit reduction in the commercial harvest is largely symbolic, at least in Maryland, since that quota hasn’t been reached in years.
And so we enter yet another rockfish season with yet another set of new rules without having solved the continuing conundrum of whether these actions will actually move the needle toward a tangible recovery.