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Bunker Advocates Deliver Over 90,000 Comments to the ASMFC, Vote Pending

by Ben Kryzinski - Tuesday, Nov 8th, 2011

Omega Protein accounts for over 90% of the current bunker harvest.

In an article published last week, Don't Let Bunker Go Bust, Captain Paul Eidman detailed the current threats looming to the population of bunker (formally known as Atlantic Menhaden) and the potential catastrophic impacts of a collapse of that population. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is set to vote tomorrow on a proposal to protect Atlantic Menhaden through the imposition of catch limits, which do not currently exist for bunker. According to advocates for the protection of menhaden, the absence of these limits is the main culprit for the sharp drop offs in populations of bunker. Representatives of the fishing industry responsible for the bulk of the bunker harvest in Atlantic waters, Omega Protein, disagrees.

According to H. Bruce Franklin, author of 'The Most Important Fish in the Sea', “if we do not put the heat on the ASMFC to do the right thing in November, Omega Protein will prevent any meaningful protection, the menhaden population will continue to crash, and species after species of the valued fish dependent on menhaden will crash with them." It is this sort of scenario that has proponents of catch limits motivated. This motivation has led a variety of environmental advocacy groups, recreational fishing organizations and individual concerned citizens to deliver over 90,000 comments to the ASMFC in order to make their voice heard pending tomorrow's vote.

Giveaway: RIO Redfish Fly Line

by Chad Shmukler - Friday, Nov 4th, 2011

One of the great things about chasing redfish is that you can do it year round in Altantic shore waters as far north as Virginia and all the way around to Texas's Gulf waters. If you've ever tried to fish for these spooky, cruising fish with a line not suited to the task, you learn quickly that the wrong tools make the job significantly harder. Lines that wilt in high temperature situations won't shoot the way you need them to and lines that won't load a rod quickly and allow for quick casts with a single back cast will often cause you to miss your chance. That's why fly line manufacturers make lines specifically for warm saltwater destinations. Some, like RIO, take it a step further and tailor lines specifically to individual species such as Redfish.

We're giving away one of RIO's Redfish fly lines, a floating, weight-forward 8 weight line. Since we haven't had the pleasure of getting this line on the water (thanks to a redfish trip laced with lightning storms and downpours), here's some stuff RIO wants you to know. The RIO Redfish line has a short back taper designed to help deliver quick casts. The line has a hard coating designed for saltwater, which RIO says helps anglers maintain excellent loop control. Throw in front and rear end welded loops and RIO's AgentX and XS coatings, which help repel dust and reduce friction, and you've got one of the favorite redfish lines currently on the market.

Summer's Over

by Louis Cahill - Thursday, Nov 3rd, 2011

In August of 2010, at the end of a hectic and exhausting summer, I found myself in western Alaska for a week at the Alaska West Lodge. Frankly I was a little burned out. The weather, which can be a formidable challenge in Alaska, complicated my travel arrangements. From Anchorage I was still two bush planes a bus and a boat ride from the camp which rest on an island in the Kanektok River. I fully expected to be spent by the time I got there. I found quite the opposite. By the time I reached the camp I was recharged with excitement by the place. Western Alaska is quietly beautiful.

Don't Let Bunker Go Bust

by Captain Paul Eidman - Wednesday, Nov 2nd, 2011

Menhaden are harvested for use in aquaculture feed, pet foods, livestock feed and dietary supplements. (Photo: NOAA)

Raritan Bay is home base for many of New York and New Jersey’s fishermen. In season fishermen leave the many marinas that dot the bay shore of Staten Island, Monmouth and Middlesex county and head out to the bay in search of striped bass, bluefish, summer flounder (fluke) and other game fish. In order to have a successful day on the bay, anglers look for baitfish. Find the bait, you find the gamefish. The predominant baitfish in Raritan Bay is bunker (formally known as Atlantic Menhaden), both large adults and immature small bunker that we call “peanuts”. Without bunker in the water, you might as well play golf.

Ranked right up there with the Chesapeake and Delaware bays, Central New Jersey’s Raritan Bay is one of the predominant nurseries/estuaries for Atlantic Menhaden stocks. Bunker spawn out at sea and the fry get caught up in the currents and ride them into the back bays and estuary areas where they stay the summer and grow larger until fall. The adult bunker are herring-like fish which swim together in very large schools and feed on micro-organisms like algae, copepods and plankton. They are a lynchpin in the ecology of the bay – converting the micro organisms into flesh and becoming a protein enriched package for our carnivorous fish, marine mammals and marine birds.

Lethal Virus Found for First Time in Pacfic Northwest Salmon

by Chad Shmukler - Tuesday, Nov 1st, 2011

Spawning sockeye salmon.

Researchers at Canada's Simon Fraser University announced recently that Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) was detected in two wild sockeye salmon collected from the waters of Rivers Inlet, British Columbia. This marks the first time that ISA has been detected in fish found in pacific northwest waters, whether wild or farmed. The discovery has caused a considerable amount of alarm, given the potential threat that ISA poses to the already-dwindling stocks of wild salmon in pacific northwest waters.

ISA has long been a problem for salmon farming operations in the waters off Norway, Scotland, eastern Canada and Chile. The virus, by infecting the red blood cells, causes severe anemia in affected fish, often leading to death. Mortality rates in infected farming operations as high as 100% have been observed. Loss rates of 70% are not uncommon. There is no treatment for the disease once a fish is infected and vaccines designed to prevent infection are considered less than effective and difficult to administer.

Gas Companies Targeting State Parks for Drilling

by Ben Kryzinski - Sunday, Oct 30th, 2011

The Youghiogheny River ("The Yough") in Ohiopyle State Park, is one of Pennsylvania's premier trout fisheries.

PennFuture, one of Pennsylvania's leading environmental advocacy organizations, is calling for support for their efforts to bring legislative action to stop the prospect of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania's state parks. Gas companies, which are steadily expanding drilling operations throughout the state, are current performing preliminary studies evaluating state parks for drilling operations. Most importantly, despite seeming counter-intuitive, drilling for gas in Pennsylvania's state parks is currently completely legal.

Although it may come as a surprise to many, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania does not own the mineral rights to over 80 percent of the land in Pennsylvania's state parks. This is a result of the fact that when the state acquired the majority of the land currently established as state park lands, the mineral rights to these lands had already been purchased or were too expensive to acquire. The state acquired only the land, not the right to drill below its surface, and the current laws of Pennsylvania give the current owners of these mineral rights full authority to develop their assets.

Giveaway: Airflo Rage Compact Skagit Head

by Chad Shmukler - Friday, Oct 28th, 2011

We're giving away one of Airflo's relatively new Rage Compact floating skagit head lines. This new type of compact skagit head was designed by Tim Rajeff of Rajeff Sports and Tom Larimer to fill a void in the world of compact skagit heads. As Tom puts it, "what [he] really wanted was a Spey line built for surface and near-surface presentations that bucked like a Skagit but still had the finesse of a Scandi."

As I'm certainly no expert in the world of compact skagit heads, I can't list all of the ways this versatile new floating head can be utilized. However, the Rage Compact is a versatile line to say the least, with applications in both floating line and light sinking leader spey presentations and switch rod presentations. We're giving away the Rage Compact in 480 grains. It is a 30ft head. This should be good for switch and spey rods in sizes 6-8, though personal preferences will allow you to expand on these suggested sizes if you know what you're doing.

Liners, Lifters & Snaggers, Rejoice!

by Chad Shmukler - Tuesday, Oct 25th, 2011

At work at the vice under the worst cheap hotel room lighting imaginable.

October can be a special time on New York's Salmon River. Runs of chinook and coho salmon are usually in full swing and big brown trout and steelhead often have begun entering the river in numbers. But, it isn't just the fish that make the Salmon special. The people of the Salmon River are as unique as each fish that swims through its waters.