Printer Friendly Version - Management Plan to Rebuild Bluefish Stocks

Ice fishing in comfort is one way to enjoy this popular winter activity as Alyssa Nero of Northford, dad Larry, and their pet shepherd set in for an afternoon of quality family time. Photo illustration courtesy of Captain Morgan

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) approves and implements measures included in Amendment 7 to the Atlantic Bluefish Fishery Management Plan (FMP). It revises goals and objectives, reallocates quotas between the commercial and recreational fisheries, reallocates commercial quotas among the states, implements a rebuilding plan, revises the sector quota transfer process, and revises how management uncertainty is applied during the specifications process.

Using the best scientific information available, NMFS will respond to changes in stock health and distribution, as well as recognizing economic need and reliance throughout the management area. Amendment 7 became effective on Jan. 1 and was propelled through the efforts of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, which have jointly managed bluefish from Maine to Florida under the FMP since 1990.

Under the Magnuson-Stevens Conservation and Management Act, NMFS is allowed to approve, partially approve, or disapprove measures recommended by the council in a regulatory amendment if consistent with law. Following the 2019 operational stock assessment’s determination of the bluefish (Pomatomus sataltrix) stock as overfished, the council and the commission’s Bluefish Management Board added a rebuilding plan to the list of measures in Amendment 7. The purpose of Amendment 7 is to implement a bluefish rebuilding plan and update the FMP to better reflect the current fishery.

One item to note is that healthy debate concerned quota reallocation between commercial and recreational fishery sectors. Recent catch data indicates that 86 percent of bluefish caught on the Atlantic coast are caught by the recreational sector—considerably more than the commercial sector. However, reducing an already-small commercial quota further would be seen as a hardship to many. Amendment 7 does, nevertheless, establish an annual catch limit of 14 percent to the commercial fishery and 86 percent to the recreational fishery, marking a three-percent shift in favor of the recreational sector from the current allocations. This was based on more recent updated landings data from 2009 to 2018 and was consistent with catch data from 1981 to 2018 and 2014 to 2018, resulting in the same allocation percentages.

Amendment 7 hopes, in part, to achieve and maintain a sustainable spawning stock biomass and rate of fishing mortality, reduce release mortality, consider economic and social needs and priorities of all groups accessing the bluefish resource, and allow for a fair transfer of bluefish catches between fishery sectors not to exceed 10 percent of the biological catch (but to stop when the stock is overfished or subject to overfishing), in addition to addressing management uncertainty and, above all, implementing a rebuilding plan using a constant fishing mortality model to rebuild the stock in seven years beginning in 2022 and revisited and revised as necessary every two years.

Here we go again. Another high pressure moved over the region, followed by a warm front that saw air temperatures rise into the 40s and coincide with a developing Arctic high that eventually moved offshore. Temps tanked into single digits as a severely dropping jet stream and cold front crossed. That was followed by a deepening low pressure Arctic system that brought Winter Storm Kenan, accompanied by wind gusts of 45 knots (74 in Nantucket), three- to five-foot seas, low visibility, and some moon tide waterfront flooding. It dumped various amounts of accumulating, drifting snow up to 22 inches before tracking off the coast in time for a partial, but windy, weekend of high pressure.

There were windows of opportunity during the week that saw early morning and late-day lake and pond activity, the typical times when fish are generally more active. Varied weather and ice conditions throughout the state dictated results. With that, ice thickness generally remained fishable as it fluctuated from four inches to five- to seven inches, although wind, a few warm days around 45 degrees, and snow covering made some areas questionable.

These fluctuations affected the bite, whether ice fishers were using jigging sticks or tip-ups. However, fish species caught remained pretty much the same, as largemouth bass, yellow perch, crappie, pickerel, walleye, some northern pike, and even a few holdover striped bass or two were pulled through the iced-over, upriver coves and then released. It is best not to target striped bass when ice fishing. However, if you do use bait, remember to rig up with inline circle hooks. Live shiners produced the majority of fish, followed by ice jigs (tipped with some sort of bait), and then grubs and worms.

The couple of unseasonably warm mid-week days did see improved results in the rivers and streams. Swimmers, inline spinners, and small spoons produced hits when fished slowly, using steady or varied retrieves. Nymphs and streamers garnered some follows and hookups, but conditions were challenging for fly fishers, at least until breaks in the wind and adverse weather. That also held for Atlantic salmon anglers, sea run seekers, and those scouting out the native brookie waters despite ice cutter USCG Bollard breaking up parts of the Connecticut River. Wow! Here it is already February and it is almost mind-boggling to think that we’ll be fishing inland waters for trout in less than a month, since those normally closed waters will be open to fishing for trout only as afforded by Public Act 21-12, which states, in part, that “...closed seasons for trout are now prohibited…”

Note: Email us pics of your catches to share with our USA and international fishing friends who keep up with the latest fishing news and frequent social media.

For all things fishy including crabbing supplies, swing by the shop (203-245-8665) open seven days located at 21 Boston Post Road, Madison. Masks required inside. Until next time from your Connecticut shoreline’s full-service fishing outfitter, where we don’t make the fisherman, we make the fisherman better.