Releases – May 26, 2011
Combining classroom instruction and on-the-water experience that lets students put what they’ve learned to use, the 59th annual NC State University Sport Fishing School will be held June 5-9 out of Hatteras, NC.
The experience is aimed at flattening the learning curve for the beginning or intermediate offshore angler by pairing participants with a group of the finest captains in one of the finest sportfishing destinations on earth.
After arriving on Sunday, anglers will attend a social function to meet the others attending (limited to 45) before the classroom portion begins Monday morning.
Participants will learn about offshore boats, tackle, techniques, and species from the ground up on Monday, and then break in the afternoon to meet with the captains they’ll be fishing with Tuesday and take a look at their days’ catches.
Tuesday is a full day of offshore fishing with seasoned local captains and mates, allowing participants to see what they’ve learned put to use in the productive blue waters of the Gulf Stream off Cape Hatteras. Likely catches include dolphin, wahoo, yellow and blackfin tuna, and even billfish like sailfish and blue and white marlin.
Wednesday the school will split into two groups, with each spending a half-day in the classroom and a half-day fishing in/nearshore for spanish mackerel, bluefish, trout, red drum, or cobia.
The following day, anglers will split back into small groups and venture out on a different offshore charter boat than they fished Tuesday, giving them a look at how a different crew puts principles that students will learn in the school to work to put blue water fish in the box.
After Thursday’s fishing, the school’s pupils are treated to a catered feast and an awards ceremony for anglers with the most impressive catches over the course of the school.
Staying another night in Hatteras and hopping aboard another inshore or offshore charter boat on Friday is an option for anglers who want to get even more hands-on experience on the water.
Registrants can expect to leave the school understanding the basics of offshore tackle, offshore boat setup, fish identification, lures, baits, rigging, and cleaning and handling their catch. Q & A sessions with the boat crews after the classroom portions of the school enable anglers to further their learning.
More information and registration options are available at www.continuingeducation.ncsu.edu/fishing.html.
Step Up For Soldiers will hold its sixth annual children’s fishing tournament on June 11, 2011, at the Kure Beach fishing pier in Kure Beach, NC. The tournament will begin at 7:00 am and run until 12:00 noon. As in past years, everything is free. Fishing equipment, bait, breakfast, lunch, snacks, prizes, and gifts are all provided by Step Up For Soldiers and their sponsors.
There will be a marching band, VIPs, military displays, clowns, and many more treats as well. This tournament is open to children of active duty, reserves, and veterans of all five branches of the military.
To register go to www.stepupforsoldiers.org, click on the fishing tournament icon located on the home page, fill out the form, and click submit. You can also contact Jim Verdon, event coordinator, at (570) 971-0553.
This event is always a great time for children and parents alike, so get registered and come out to catch some fish.
The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission has completed renovations to the Beaufort Boating Access Area on Taylor’s Creek, which is now open to the public.
“This site underwent a major renovation, and we are grateful for partnerships with several other agencies on this project,” said Erik Christofferson, chief of the Commission’s Division of Engineering Services. “We added parking, and replaced the ramps, and have added dock space. The restrooms have been refurbished, and the site is also fully ADA accessible.”
The road leading to the site has been realigned due to a three-way property swap between the Town of Beaufort, the N.C. Department of Transportation, and a developer. In addition, Beaufort provided land for additional parking for boaters.
The renovations were funded through sales of the Coastal Recreational Fishing License and motorboat registration receipts.
For more information on boating in North Carolina, including an interactive map of more than 200 free, 24-hour public boating access areas, visit www.ncwildlife.org.
The N.C. Marine Fisheries Commission will ask the public what it thinks about a commercial hook and line fishery for ocean-caught striped bass.
The commission voted Thursday, May 12, to take the issue to its four regional advisory committees and its Finfish Advisory Committee to receive input from the fishing public and to consider that input at the commission’s August meeting. Committee meeting dates and locations will be announced later.
The commission has not yet decided if it wants to create this fishery.
Currently, North Carolina’s share of the coast-wide commercial ocean striped bass annual quota is split evenly between three commercial fisheries: the trawl fishery, the gill net fishery, and the beach seine fishery. A commercial striped bass hook-and-line fishery has been prohibited since 1985.
At its February meeting, the commission directed the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries to examine a commercial hook-and-line fishery for ocean-caught striped bass to help avoid waste. The directive came after the commission reviewed incidents of dead discards of striped bass in the ocean trawl fishery this winter.
Division staff presented several options to the commission last week. The options ranged from keeping the status quo to adding hook-and-line as a fourth gear under the current permit system to replacing the trawl fishery with a hook-and-line fishery.
Division staff also alerted the commission that simply adding a commercial hook-and-line fishery, with no other limitations, could result in an influx of fishermen into the fishery because of the relative inexpensiveness of hook-and-line gear.
Currently, anyone holding a standard commercial fishing license or retired standard commercial fishing license can receive an ocean striped bass permit for specified gears. There are about 6,700 of these license holders. In the 2010-2011season, the division issued 844 commercial ocean striped bass permits, and only 207 of these permit holders actually participated in one of the fisheries.
One option to avoid such an influx would be to establish a limited entry system for this fishery.
Also at Thursday’s meeting, the commission voted to go on record opposing a bill in the N.C. General Assembly that would designate spotted seatrout, red drum, and striped bass as coastal game fish. The bill would prohibit the sale of these fish by commercial fishermen. The commission’s stated reason for opposing the bill is that it circumvents the process provided for in the Fisheries Reform Act, which is the standing law for marine fisheries management in North Carolina.
The commission also agreed with the division’s recommendation to reconvene the Spotted Seatrout Fishery Management Plan Advisory Committee so that it can begin looking at options for ending overfishing in two years.
A new law passed last year requires all fishery management plans to end overfishing within two years of final adoption. A draft Spotted Seatrout Fishery Management Plan, which was tentatively approved in November, does not meet this criteria. A bill in the N.C. General Assembly to clarify that the Spotted Seatrout Fishery Management Plan is exempt from this law has not been heard in committee.
Division Director Louis Daniel clarified for the commission that even if the game fish bill passes, there would still need to be reductions in the recreational fishery to end overfishing in two years.
Finally, the commission voted to ask division staff to explore what would be needed to implement mandatory electronic reporting for commercial dealers who deal with 50,000 pounds of finfish or greater per year. The decision followed a presentation in which division staff laid out pros and cons of such a requirement.
For more information on the meeting, contact the Marine Fisheries Commission office at (252) 808-8021. Many of the reports and presentations given at the meeting can be found on the division’s website at www.ncfisheries.net.
