Re: Weakfish Whereabouts
 

http://kensdock.com/2014/04/22/the-a...ine-may-issue/

I'm not sure what I'm missing here. Did the weakfish never make it north of Cape May? There was another article that blamed unrestricted netting both off NJ and North Carolina. There seems to be a loophole which eliminates weakfish regulations for netters to a certain degree. More things are becoming clear the more I read.

Re: Weakfish Whereabouts
 

There's really no great mystery. The main nursery for Atlantic weakfish is the Chesapeake. Those juvenile weakfish in the Chesapeake MUST have juvenile bunker to feed on. But Omega Protein is devastating the population of these juvenile bunker in the Chesapeake. So now picture young weakfish going up against the stripers (a.k.a. rockfish) in that bay. The resident stripers in the Chesapeake, that is the males, are themselves starving and diseased because of the scarcity of bunkers. Those young weakfish end up in the stomachs of the hungry stripers. Read THE MOST IMPORTANT FISH IN THE SEA: MENHADEN AND AMERICA if you want to understand how the ecosystem works and why we have to stop Omega Protein before that small company, which has a monopoly on the reduction fishing for bunker, wrecks that ecosystem.

Re: Weakfish Whereabouts
 

check the striped catfish's stomachs.
october 12th we had triple header weakies of south of manasquan with the fish monger majority were 10-14inches but we all kept a 15+ for the table as whole broiled trout is amazing. we must of caught 200 between 9 of us in 3 hours beofre the ocean calmed enough to go offshore for blues & lings

Re: Weakfish Whereabouts
 

EVERYTHING eats baby weakfish. Fluke, seabass, bluefish, and of course striped bass.

This fall, one of the few good jigging days we had off Lavalette and Ortley, out of the 8 bass we kept 7 of them were either spitting up juvenile weakfish (some still kicking!) OR had a few in their stomachs.

That "large" school of jiggable weakfish was around last October (10/2013) - we got into them off Bradley Beach/Avon/Allenhurst and were able to jig a few dozen. This past fall, I don't recall catching any but we did see them on the machine. Of course 2012 was the year of Sandy, and in early October, there were miles of them up and down the beach, and they were also there in 11' and 10' as well as 08 and 09.

The sheer NUMBER of them the last 2 falls, following Sandy has certainly decreased - my guess is predators have wiped out a lot of the ones that were <10" and maybe in pure volume, their #'s have decreased.

Just have to wait to see what this year brings...

I did hear there were good amounts of them taken in Barnegat Bay this summer, where they were caught on traditional methods of shrimping, sandworms, and fin-s fish/rat'l'trap type plugs...

Re: Weakfish Whereabouts
 

Allen, thanks for your updates. You are out there enough to be a reliable source of accurate information. You should really feel the decline of weakies especially the consistent fishery that used to be so popular around the old hospital, Treasure Island, the bridges and upper bay. If anyone caught them there this past year, they were understandably tight lipped about it.

Re: Weakfish Whereabouts
 

An excellent book about bunker by a fellow fisherman and historian. I had the pleasure of fishing with H. Bruce Franklin on the old Sea Pigeon out of Perth Amboy some years back. His knowledge of the fishery and his passion for fishing were obvious. His conclusions are as pertinent now as they were in 2007.

Re: Weakfish Whereabouts
 

There has always been loopholes in R weak fishing but during the 50's, 60' 70's & early 80's it was good to excellent ,most years! The fishing early season up in Peconic Bay was super & Delaware Bay had some of the biggest weakfish I've ever caught !
Very rare to not get several 10# plus fish any day u fished down their in spring.
Even nSandy Hook had great runs for many seasons!
Fishing at. Other on the old LB Pier u could fill a burlap sack with weakness of all sizes on the tide.
During late eighties the commercials in various east coast locations netted huge amounts , couple this to the bunker boats decimating the population along R coast of bunkers , lake of habitat = fishery collapse .
When the bunker fleet was located in Belford Creek & a wide range of netters operated out of this port as well . I believe this all contributed to their decimation & eliminated them from R fishery today .
Unfortunate for today's anglers to not have the opportunity to fish for a splendid gamefish like I did .
PS don't forget doggies as well their now in all R bays , never saw them except offshore years back in fall months not today they R all over & eat everything .

Re: Weakfish Whereabouts
 

Thanks for the memories, Lou. I feel for the younger contributors and readers on this forum who may never get to appreciate those days in Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay, Peconic and Delaware Bays not to mention the great ocean jigging during the fall. The Manasquan River and upper Barnegate Bay were great spots for light tackle action. A generation ago, our parents were still living with the effects of the Depression. Food was a commodity that was not taken for granted. Little was wasted. For those who grew up with little, a chance to catch and keep a bag of fish was not turned down. Conservation was seldom practiced. It was a mindset that was hard to break given the trauma of growing up with little and having to live off the land or water. It's hard to explain to anyone today about how things were back then and I don't expect anyone to understand but I'll put it out there. We are paying for those mistakes now. Overfishing was not even considered back then because in the minds of those Depression Era survivors, it was subsistence fishing. The commercial fishermen were no better. When prices came down, it meant they had to catch more. Houses were built; marshes drained; sewage dumped; oysters overharvested; industrial waste flushed; fishing tackle and techniques improved and forage and brood stocks decimated. So, stories about the good old days will just be that......stories to be told about a time that used to be. We all are suffering from the sins of our fathers. Let's hope our sons and daughters don't have to say the same thing about us.

Re: Weakfish Whereabouts
 

I didn't hear of a single weakfish caught in our river this year. But that's just me. With a 1 fish limit, not many guys target them.

However, the Manasquan river has always been a real "boom or bust" weakfish fishery -- some years it was insane, and then they'd disappear for 3 years for no reason. Same thing with kingfish and spots (???)

The upper Barnegat bay/Metedeconk weakfish fishery we had about 10 years ago, to my knowledge, was/is basically non-existent...

As I said in my original post, there certainly were weakfish taken down near BI, but we didn't see the #'s in the ocean this year like we did the last few years. But this fall, with the bass spitting them up so frequently, I'd imagine we just weren't looking in the right spots for them.

We'll see what happens this year.

Re: Weakfish Whereabouts
 

Sternline great post connecting the bunker to the weakfish and EVERYTHING. This is why we have to focus our efforts on protecting the bunker -- not putting draconian regs on our recreational species that are ruining all of our fisheries!!!!