The meeting started at 7:00 pm.
The leadership gave General Board reports.
John McClain gave the treasury balance. He reported on the upcoming Hope for The Warriors fishing trip. The trip is scheduled for Thursday, May 18, on the Captain Stacy head boat, launching from Morehead City. This report was written, for the Beacon, after the scheduled event--the event was canceled late Wednesday afternoon due to high winds and rough seas. This is unfortunate for the Veterans and family members who were expected to be on the fishing trip. John McClain did a significant part of the planning, and we commend him. John will work on an alternate date and coordinate the new date with the Hope for the Warriors program. We'll keep you posted.
Jim Spatharos spoke to the membership about taking a survey to see the level of satisfaction and direction for the club membership. We are waiting for the results because an email went out to those members that didn’t attend the last meeting. We plan to have a report for the following newsletter.
Art Thinguldstad is still looking for a few more members for his mentoring class scheduled in June. Art headed up the Striped Bass Tournament last month, and the winner of the biggest Striped Bass was Dan Moses of the ESWFC (Eastern Saltwater Fishing Club) with a 22” Striped Bass. We Don’t have any pictures; however, we do have a picture of Dan with a 17” Striped Bass.
Our main Presenter was Lucas Pensinger/NCDEQ Marine Biologist, who is studying the situation with the Speckled Trout. Lucas had a slide show presentation and spoke about the trout being overfished, but it is not overfished yet, meaning there is plenty of stock. Lucas reported that they are done with the scoping process and trying to devise a plan for the next steps. This should not take effect for a few months. There was talk about the Doug Cross amendment, which primarily shifted the allotted catch numbers from the recreational to the commercial side. Right now, 80-85% of the catch is caught by the recreational fisherman and 15% by the commercial fisherman. The Cross Proposal would cut recreational to 60%. One reason is that there is a higher death rate with catch and release because of the mishandling of the fish. For instance, grabbing the fish with a towel is not advisable because the protective slime should not be disturbed, and the fish can get a fungal disease and die. Or using hooks that are not circle hooks, and the fish swallows the hook, and when you remove it, the hook can result in killing the fish.
The breakdown would be 60% recreational and 20% commercial, with a 20% reserve for commercial. Oh, and the 60% needs to consider the 10% mortality rate of catch and release for the recreational, which means we could only catch 50% of the total take. Also, when that number is reached, we cannot fish in our local waters because trout would be the likeliest fish caught at that time of the year. So, the Marine Fisheries Department decides on the total take number.
Lucas said this doesn't have much chance of happening. The likely scenario is that the numbers stay the same or close to the same with a few rule changes, such as fishing with single barbless hooks, increasing the minimum size limit, or even a slot size limit. Lucas also touched on the subject that regardless of his recommendations, politics might get in the way of making sound decisions.
For those that have questions, you can call Lucas Pensinger at 252-808-8159 or email him at lucas.pensinger@ncdenr.gov.
The winner of the 50/50 was Kevin Crockett-lucky guy!
Upcoming Events:
Boys and Girls Club May 26 to teach the kids how to cast.
Clean our local waters-May 31st for a couple of hours.
Fish Fry-June 7th – at the CC at 5:30 – Sign-up and payment by May 19 are required.
Boys and Girls Club-Fun Day June 23, rain date the following Monday, 26.
Steve Mink
Leadership