THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 16, 1995 TAG: 9512160265
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY LANE DEGREGORY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 168 lines
Striped bass are back. And they're biting like mad.
In the sounds and in the sea, from Cape May through Cape Hatteras, anglers are catching limits of the tasty gamefish - often in less than an hour.
From the shores, on piers and in boats - with home-made bucktails and store-bought Rat-L-Trap lures - anyone with a rod and reel fishing around sunrise or sunset is almost guaranteed a free dinner.
Friday morning alone, anglers at Kitty Hawk Pier caught 50 striped bass weighing 15 to 25 pounds each.
Fishermen on the Outer Banks say they have never seen so many stripers.
Until two years ago, anglers could go an entire season without catching a single one.
This year, they can't miss.
"Striped bass are as plentiful out here right now as I've ever seen them," said Buster Bratton, a 42-year-old meter reader for North Carolina Power who grew up on the Dare County mainland and loves to fish. "This is the first year they've really been around this much. Now, there are plenty for everyone.
"I've been out every day since the season opened late last month. And there's only been one day I didn't catch one," Bratton said. "Some days out here, they just flop all over the top of the water and you get one every time you cast. It's surprising, how good it's been. Everybody's been real tickled that they've finally come back."
Some fishermen, however, see a need for moderation.
``Everyone else should do what I'm going to do,'' said Bernard Scanlon of Portsmouth. ``I'm going to do everything I can to keep from catching too many fish this time. We don't want them to disappear again.''
Bratton agreed. ``Rules, they need,'' he said.
A species coveted by recreational and commercial fishermen, striped bass - also called rockfish - were once the most popular and prevalent fish in North Carolina's coastal waters. Commercial fishermen landed more than 2 million pounds of stripers in 1968. Ten years later, state Division of Marine Fisheries spokesman Harrell Johnson said, that amount had dropped considerably.
By 1986, the entire catch for the Atlantic seaboard had plummeted to 335,000 pounds.
"We began to see problems in the health of the rockfish stock in the early 1980s," Johnson said Friday from his Elizabeth City office. "The state began enacting size limits, quotas and gear restrictions in the ocean about 1978 to comply with Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission management plans,'' Johnson said. ``They never did close the sounds. But you didn't find many out there until the species began to rebound about 1988."
In an effort to help the striped bass come back, state fisheries officials closed the ocean off North Carolina to both recreational and commercial catches from 1984 through 1990. Federal regulations still prohibit watermen from keeping stripers caught in off-shore waters, between 3 and 200 miles offshore. But for the past five years, fishermen have been allowed to keep a limited number of striped bass caught in inland waters - and from the ocean up to 3 miles out.
This is the first year, however, that the rockfish have returned in such stupendous numbers.
"It's been getting better each year for the past five years. The size and amount of fish are growing," said Jerry Harris, who works at Whalebone Tackle in Nags Head and has been fishing along the Outer Banks since 1961. "It's good for business, too, that the stripers are back. Because the big bluefish just aren't coming here as much any more."
Johnson agreed. "Across the Albemarle area, people've been telling me that there are more rockfish out there now than they recalled being around here in the late 1960s, when rock were at their peak," said the fisheries manager.
"By any standards, it's been a fantastic comeback. This is definitely the best year yet."
Biologists, sports anglers and commercial watermen disagree about what caused striped bass to disappear - and what brought them back.
Almost everyone admits that over-fishing by both recreational and commercial fishermen contributed to the species' decline. Most agree that stringent regulations and management plans helped rockfish recover. But pollution, natural fish cycles and other factors also could have contributed to the comeback, some say.
"There sure have been a lot of them," said Reed Meredith, a 19-year-old Nags Head resident. This fall, Meredith and his brother began running rockfish charter trips from their family's "Waterworks" boat rental docks on the Nags Head-Manteo Causeway. They said they saw a need for such a business when the rockfish began returning. For $180, they carry two anglers into Croatan, Pamlico or Roanoke sound on a five-hour fishing excursion.
Like the species on which it depends, the brothers' business is booming.
"We've taken about two dozen parties out this month. And we've caught keepable fish every time," Meredith said. "Most of the people've been from Virginia, Maryland and New Jersey. And they're all real glad that the rockfish are back."
One of the best place to catch stripers is in the Croatan Sound, between Manteo and Manns Harbor. Around the concrete pilings of the William Umstead bridge, the fish are so thick anglers hook one almost each time they drop a bucktail into the green-gray water. The two-foot long fish come up fighting, causing rods to double and ligh lines to snap.
But in less than two hours, most sports fishermen reel in their day's limit: two striped bass, each at least 21 inches long in the sound; two striped bass, each at least 28 inches in the ocean. Anglers can keep fish caught in the ocean any day. Those fishing on the sounds can only keep stripers on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays.
"We've caught as many as 30 fish in 90 minutes - and had to throw all but two back," said Jim Tosto, a 43-year-old Methodist minister from Manns Harbor who takes his golden retriever striped bass fishing almost every afternoon. "If you pull two rigs at once, you can even get a double-header out here - catching two keeper-sized stripers at once."
Most fishermen said they've had the best luck catching striped bass on green and white bucktails with plastic twister tails. In Kitty Hawk, anglers also were reeling the fish in on Rat-L-Traps - hard, plastic plugs that have BBs inside so they make noise beneath the water. Line ranges from eight- to 30-pound test, depending on where it's being used. Both casting and trolling rods work, fishermen said. Rockfish have been caught from the water's surface to right on the bottom.
Weights of the stripers range from 4 to 6 pounds in the sound to more than 20 pounds in the ocean. A 5-pound fish, anglers say, will feed a family of four. Many people think rockfish is the most delicious type of seafood.
"I like it any way you cook it: stew it, bake it, fry it, grill it - I'll eat it and love it," Bratton said, smiling into the sinking sun as he pulled a second striped bass off his neon green bucktail this week. "It's a real mild white meat, close to a flounder."
Besides being great to eat, rockfish also are great fun to catch. Most anglers said rockfish is the most exciting species to hook in the sounds - second only to bluefish in the ocean. The strong, thick, black-striped fish pull and run with the bait.
"I'd fish down here in the '40s for rock. Three guys in one day could bring home more than 130 fish each - mostly more than 10 pounds. And that was in the sound back then," Scanlon, the Portsmouth fisherman, said. A 76-year-old, Scanlon owns a Nags Head cottage and has been fishing off the Outer Banks for more than half a century.
Friday morning, he caught a 32-inch, 15-pound rockfish off Nags Head Pier.
"I didn't think I'd live long enough to see the rockfish come back. But they're definitely back - with a vengenance," he said. "If we stick to some sort of limits, there's no reason we can't all keep catching at least a few from now on." ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
DREW C. WILSON
The Virginian-Pilot
Buster Bratton of Manns Harbor, and a friend, caught the limit - 2
stripers each - while trolling in Croatan Sound this week. Most
fishermen say they haven't seen this kind of run for years. Anglers
are reaching their limit in less than two hours.
ROCKFISH RULES
Nov. 11, North Carolina fisheries officials reopened the Atlantic
Ocean up to 3 miles offshore to recreational catches of rockfish.
Anglers fishing in the sea can keep two fish each, at least 28
inches long each, any day of the week. The ocean season is scheduled
to close April 30.
Nov. 22, state fisheries officials reopened the sounds and inland
waters to recreational catches of rockfish. Anglers can keep up to
two fish each per day on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. The fish
must be at least 21 inches long each. The inland fishery will close
to recreational catches when a total of 12,000 pounds of fish have
been caught.
Dec. 1, the state reopened its commercial season for rockfish
caught in the ocean, up to 3 miles offshore, and in the sound.
Watermen are not allowed to keep any rockfish caught in federal
waters, between 3 and 200 miles offshore. Commercial fishermen are
allowed to catch a total of 334,000 pounds of rockfish this year -
mostly as bycatches while fishing for other species. The quota is
divided, with 100,000 pounds being allocated to each of three types
of commercial fisheries. Haul seiners, who drag nets from the shore,
can keep 125 rockfish per day per crew. Ocean trawl crews can have
no more than 100 fish on board at any time. And gill netters can
keep 25 rockfish per crew per day. The remaining 34,000 pounds of
the quota is reserved for possible overruns.
SOURCE: North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries
by CNB