Fishing fun, filets add up to a great day

He dropped the rod and concentrated again. Another jiggle or two, a strike upwards, and his rod bent like a sapling in a hurricane. Fish on, 90 feet down. A fat sea bass, fins flared, popped to the surface. Adams swung it over the side of Capt. Monty Hawkins’ Morning Star headboat — out of Ocean City — and dropped the fish into his cooler.

Twenty-five of us — a full passenger load — were onboard. On leaving the dock, Hawkins explained that this would be a sea bass trip, but he also held out the possibility of a flounder, maybe a tautog. No flounder, but later in the day, tautog came aboard, along with strawberry bass.

“Hurricane” got his moniker as “King of the Northeast blow” as a harbinger of bad weather for fishing trips. But it was a beautiful day. This could catch up.

Just where we were fishing on the open ocean was anyone’s guess. Hawkins, as with all captains, keeps GPS locations and secret spots to himself. Print those numbers, and the next step is into the witness protection program for safety.

“We’re going to fish a variety of reefs — some ship wrecks and some natural reefs” was as far as Hawkins would go.

At each spot, we lined the side at our reserved locations, 25 of them around the gunwale — No. 19 for Hurricane — each determined in advance on a reservation system (www.morningstarfishing.com or 410-520-2076).   

We were fishing bottom structure, artificial reefs, wrecks or any bottom that would hold the prevalent sea bass. Structure is the key to fish, explained Hawkins, preaching habitat and bottom with the zeal of a tent revival preacher.

Hawkins is big on creating reefs and structure to rebuild the bottom, giving fish someplace to live. He has been a major force in the current efforts to position 630 New York stainless steel subway cars off the coast for reefs. Hawkins blames deep-water clamers and trawlers for regularly raking and raping the bottom, destroying fisheries habitat in the process.

“They [commercial fisheries] can catch 200 pounds of flounder and ruin a reef for a decade,” he said.

He is also big on tagging fish, and in his 28 years of working fishing boats he has tagged well over 10,000 fish for the American Littoral Society to help determine population density and distribution. During the day one of his previously tagged fish came aboard for a new tag.

Everyone caught fish, some more than others, with some sea bass the legal 12 inches or much larger, others undersize and throw-backs. An overall average would be perhaps 15 per person.

“This one is 11 and 63/64ths,” said mate Tucker Colquhoun of Ocean City, tossing one of my catches over the side after carefully measuring it.

“Come back in 5 pounds,” said Hurricane, throwing one of his undersize fish back.

The biggest sea bass was caught by Robert Young of Liberty, Pa., who took the boat pool with his 4-1/2 pound fish.

Hawkins provides tackle for a $7 rental in addition to the $110 boarding fee. The tackle is all good quality, Shimano high-speed revolving spool reels, with braided line for maximum sensitivity in feeling nibbles 90 or more feet down. All rods are rigged with 6- to 8-ounce bank sinkers and feature two-hook bottom rigs with wide gap 3/0 to 5/0 Kahle hooks.

“There’s a reason for those hooks,” said Hawkins, always the conservationist. “It is extremely rare to get a deep-hooked fish. They mirror circle hooks in action.” No deep-hooked fish were taken on our day. Deep hooking and removal usually kills fish.

Bait is typically clam, with squid and sand fleas sometimes thrown in to give the quarry variety. Rebaiting frequently to keep clam scent on the hook is the key to fishing success. Even before we left the dock, mate Rich Silvani was cutting up the several large bags of clams that we would use.

The result was a biological conversion of clams into sea bass meals, with both mates filleting fish on our return run so that all parties upon reaching the dock had their catch bagged and ready for the ice chest and a trip home.

It was a good day.