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mackerel

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    Flounder and Mackerel Are Here, but Haddock Are Not

    We’ll be getting the blues early this year

    By

    The water temperatures off Cape Cod are only sluggishly increasing this spring, reaching the upper 40s and in some spots the low 50s last week. If all you’re thinking about is where the striped bass are, it certainly feels like we are in a holding pattern. But there are more fish in the sea.

    Reports of large schools of mackerel are beginning to come in from across Cape Cod Bay. And the flounder fishing down by Sesuit Harbor has been steadily improving, according to word I am getting from the charter fishing boats out that way. Things are beginning to get going.

    That said, one big disappointment this year has been the absence of a spring run of haddock up on Stellwagen Bank. These very tasty deep-water bottom-dwelling fish usually come into shallower water in the spring, giving sport fishermen a chance to catch them close to home. But they were pretty much no shows this spring. For a time, there were reports of a good haddock bite up on Jeffries Ledge, which is farther offshore to the northeast of Stellwagen, but even that has fizzled out somewhat.

    So, what about the highly migratory striped bass and bluefish? Well, it’s good news, bad news south of us so far. I’ll start with the bad news: they didn’t have a great spring for striped bass down in New York and New Jersey. Whether that’s because most of the fish migrated farther offshore than the three-mile limit for charter boats or because the stock numbers are low remains to be seen. The good news, however, is that the bluefish are early in big numbers and are larger fish so far. I am already hearing of bluefish catches around Block Island Sound, and it’s still very early for that.

    Where I can’t tell good news from bad is the fact that the fisheries are part of an executive order signed by the current president on April 17 having to do with “Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness.” In theory, this is trying to promote a more productive harvest of our seafood resources by easing the headwinds for commercial fishermen from federal regulations and from uneven trading policies with foreign nations.

    A Kemp’s ridley sea turtle swims off Tortola with a remora hitching a ride on its back. (Photo by Tammy Rabbett)

    In the opinion of many commercial fishermen, myself included, overregulation is a chronic problem. While the intent of federal regulations is to promote sustainable fishing and protect marine ecosystems, some of the rules are poorly crafted and make the costs to fishermen too high. This could be a step in the right direction. But as the saying goes, the devil is in the details, and those, so far, are few.

    Just as we’ll have to wait and see what kind of striper season we get, we’ll also now have to wait and see whether all this flowery speech and strongly worded text translates into actual plans that get implemented in a timely manner and are truly effective.

    Here’s something that makes every sort of waiting easier to do: First Mate Tammy Rabbett and I are on our annual trip to the Caribbean, navigating and diving in the warm waters of Tortola. We’re set to beat the striped bass back to Provincetown.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    Ups and Downs of Late August Include a Boat on Fire

    Provincetown’s first responders once again show their quickness and skill

    By

    The fishing community experienced some wild ups and downs last week. The earlier part of the week saw striped bass fishing as good as it has ever been, with many boats limiting out and some big fish taken. A few bluefish were mixed in as well. But the latter part of the week saw the bass first scatter and then completely disappear. With them went the bluefish, too. We now have mackerel, however, and little hand-sized bonito virtually everywhere.

    Capt. Dave Gibson of the GinnyG caught a torpedo fish that weighed about 150 pounds. These bizarre fish are members of the ray family and can generate electricity, which they use to stun their prey. I caught one about 10 years ago and hadn’t heard since of one caught recreationally until this week, when Capt. Dave reported his unusual catch.

    We caught a striped bass last week that was tagged. The tag, which belonged to the National Marine Fisheries in Annapolis, said “If found reward,” with a phone number to call. It was tagged in Maryland as an “under 26 inch.” When we caught it on the CeeJay it was 34 inches. So, this fish had grown quite well since it was tagged in Maryland.

    The whales have thinned out off Race Point, and we are now seeing only an occasional one or two in an area that had as many as a dozen a few weeks ago. We also got our first brief visit of the summer in the outer harbor by a rather large pod of white-sided dolphins.

    A fire that broke out on the commercial fishing boat Clean Sweep was quickly put out by the Provincetown Fire Dept. (Photo by Mike Rathgeber)

    A commercial fishing boat caught fire in the harbor last week. It happened late Friday night on Capt. Damian Parkington’s boat Clean Sweep. I asked him what happened and he said, “I believe that wood was charred from exhaust heat around the deck flange. That area had previously been water damaged and was recently repaired. The repairs were like for like, with the same clearances but using dry new wood. My guess is that the char turned to an ember that chased up the exhaust cabinet until it found enough air to ignite. We left the boat at 5:30 p.m. and I returned at 7:30 p.m. and saw no sign of smoke.”

    Tom Lombardo was on his night watch at the harbormaster’s office around 1 a.m. when he smelled smoke and saw a glow. He called the Provincetown police, who responded in minutes and called in the fire dept., also there in minutes. The blaze was put out quickly.

    “Their response saved my boat, and the damage was amazingly minimal,” said Capt. Damian. He expressed gratitude to Tom of the harbormaster’s office for being observant and diligent, to the police for their fast response, and to the Provincetown Fire Dept. for its rapid response and efficiency.

    This is not the first time the fire dept. stopped a waterfront fire from becoming a catastrophe. Add this latest incident handled with great skill to the Surf Club and Whaler’s Wharf fires.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    North Winds and Pogies Come and Go

    Changeable weather may be part of global warming’s domino effect

    By

    The inconsistent weather has continued to affect fishing at the tip of the Cape, making it very difficult to get a handle on where the fish are and what they’re doing from one day to the next. We’ve had an unusual amount of north wind, which isn’t our friend when it comes to fishing. And even when the wind has come from the south, that shift has been only for a day and then it’s right back to the north again. We seem to be in an early fall pattern already.

    Evie Holden of South Hadley with a 25-pound striped bass she caught on Monday on the CeeJay. She was fishing with her dad, Rick Holden, who landed a 12-pound bluefish. (Photo by Mike Rathgeber)

    Water temperatures have settled into a mid-60s range practically everywhere. The cooler water has the striped bass more actively feeding, and there have been some nice catches down the back side, especially in and around the Peaked Hill Bar. But striped bass being striped bass, you can also be sitting right on top of them and they won’t bite for love or money. Mackerel baits seem to be working well, and they are finally hitting swimming plugs like Bombers and SP Minnows, which have been strangely ignored most of the season.

    Mackerel have finally dispersed off Stellwagen Bank and are being caught in the rips at Race Point as well as in the deep water off the bathhouse at Herring Cove. Pogies came into our harbor, as they usually do in late summer, as thick as I have ever seen them. But only for one day. Then they disappeared and haven’t been seen again.

    Bluefish are moving around quite a bit. The bluefish in the bay seem to be going north to south from the Pamet River all the way to the Brewster flats; on the ocean side, they are moving up and down from Head of the Meadow all the way up to Race Point. Food movements and water temperatures are probably the motivations here, but the fish are driving the charter boats crazy with their here-for-this-tide-and-gone-for-the-next antics.

    The whales also have been affected by the shifting winds and currents and for the moment have vacated the area around the Race, where they had been providing outstanding whale watching for boaters and beachgoers for weeks.

    One thing I have noticed that is very different from other years is the amazing clarity of our harbor water this summer. Clarity of sea water means the water is clean, but it also can mean that it is relatively lifeless. As our sea water warms each summer, certain algae and plankton typically percolate along. This can at times cut down on the water’s clarity, but at the same time it provides needed nutrients for sea life.

    While it’s very pretty to see the water looking crystal clear in the summer, that sight also worries me and makes me want to know the reasons behind it. Perhaps that is why the pogies, which eat plankton, came in for one day and then left. Our waters, though cooled down this week, have been warming, generally, along with the rest of the planet. Is the harbor becoming too warm for these plankton? And what of the animals that come here to consume it? Everything in the ocean is connected, and warming will have a domino effect.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    A Trip to the Bank

    Finding mackerel for striped bass fishing in the company of humpback whales

    By

    Last week was a good one for fishermen. Striped bass are here in numbers we haven’t seen in quite some time. They are seemingly everywhere, with acres and acres of them on the surface, feeding on sand eels off the Race Point Ranger Station. And at the same time, there was a huge body of fish biting between the Race rips and the Herring Cove Bathhouse and also off the Beach Point cottages. I’m hearing about big schools of fish farther south, from the Pamet to Billingsgate shoals.

    Humpback whales use bubble-net feeding to capture many fish at once. (NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center/Christin Khan)

    Given all this, with the areas teeming with fish being so expansive, there really is no reason for people to be fishing out there on top of one another. Yet we still see boats that simply look for other boats and head towards them rather than looking for their own fish.

    Bluefish are in a now-you-see-them now-you-don’t phase right now. They seem to come and go with the tides, with no pattern at all to their behavior.

    Tuna fishing is starting to gain some traction on Stellwagen Bank, and a few fish have already come in to Provincetown to be taken to market. These early-season fish are typically not very fatty and therefore do not usually fetch a good price at auction.

    Vaughn Cabral and I took his center console up to Stellwagen to get mackerel for bait, as they have been notably absent from their usual places in the harbor and the bay is absolutely loaded with mackerel. We quickly caught 150 pounds of them to use as bait for a week of striped bass fishing.

    We had the company of about a half dozen humpback whales, which were aggressively feeding on the copious numbers of sand eels and mackerel on the bank. The bank looked very healthy, with whales, tuna, mackerel, and sea birds all in big numbers throughout the southern edge.

    A breaching humpback close to the writer’s boat. (Photo by Mike Rathgeber)

    The fin whales have also finally showed up off the Race and Herring Cove, and there are plenty of sand eels there to keep them hanging around. This is a good time to take in a whale watch. Fin whales have the tallest spouts of all the whales here, so spotting them from the beach with a pair of binoculars shouldn’t be too difficult, either.

    We are still looking for the first appearance of white-sided dolphins in our harbor, as they usually come when the squid are here. And the squid are definitely here.

    It was heartwarming to see the Blessing of the Fleet return to our waterfront last Sunday after the Covid pandemic pretty much shut it down last year with minimal goings-on. We went right back to all the time-honored Blessing traditions that take place over the weekend of the Provincetown Portuguese Festival.

    In all, it’s certainly starting to feel like a “normal” season. We all know that can change on a dime, so here’s hoping we can keep staying safe and doing the right things for a healthy summer ahead.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    Stop and Smell the Plankton

    Of cold water, sea lice, early birds, and a few new rules

    By

    The weather this past week — the temperatures remained cooler than usual and the winds howled — was not conducive to an improvement in fishing.

    With the water temperature in the harbor at a frigid 46 degrees, I took a ride to look around and didn’t see many signs of life. Neither seals nor mackerel have arrived yet. Right whales are still around Race Point feeding on the enormous quantities of plankton that have bloomed. That’s what gives the ocean that wonderful aroma of fresh-cut melons you smell when you are by the water’s edge, by the way.

    Striped bass seem to have stalled their migration to our south, but there are reports of a few keeper-size fish being taken around Martha’s Vineyard, which is somewhat encouraging.

    Spring winds promote upwelling of nutrients from the deep, which, combined with more sunlight and gradually warming waters, make the northwest Atlantic fertile — first with phytoplankton, and then with fish. (Image courtesy NASA Earth Observatory/Landsat)

    One question I get asked a lot is “Early in the season, how can you tell if the first striper you catch is a migratory fish or a holdover fish that never left the area?” Well, the first way is by its size. Typically, only small, sexually immature fish remain in the area over the winter. In addition, because they hold over in brackish, muddy water, their colors aren’t usually vibrant — instead, they appear dull compared to migratory fish. The sure sign you have caught a migratory fish is the appearance of sea lice on the fish’s skin.

    Sea lice are the most abundant parasites found on the bodies of striped bass caught in island and coastal waters. They are parasitic copepods — small invertebrates that are members of the plankton family. They appear as orange and brown spots and almost look like leeches, which, of course, they are not. And they do not affect the taste or quality of the fish at all. What do sea lice have to do with migration? These tiny creatures cannot live in brackish or fresh water, where holdover fish reside in the winter months. If the fish you catch in the spring has sea lice on it, then it is most certainly a migratory fish.

    Lots of proposed changes to fishing regulations are being discussed lately at the National Marine Fisheries Service. Notable ones include a 16-inch minimum for commercially harvested bluefish; there is currently no limit. They’re also talking about reducing the recreational daily bag limit from 10 bluefish per person to five on boats for hire, with a three-fish bag limit for all others.

    There is also an idea of limiting the number of mackerel allowed per day to somewhere between 10 and 20 fish per person (there is currently no limit). Scup minimum size may increase from 8 to 10 inches, and there is talk of closing all scup fishing in federal waters, which is moot, as hardly any commercial or recreational scup fishing occurs in federal waters. Striped bass commercial quotas will remain the same as in 2020-2021, but bluefish quotas have been increased slightly.

    None of these proposals, in my opinion, really affects those of us who fish out of Provincetown and Truro. Our passengers do not typically catch more than five bluefish per day in a four-hour window.

    This past weekend, the Cee-Jay tendered the two cruise ships that visited our port, and I have to say it’s hard to find a downside. You see most passengers carrying multiple bags of items purchased in the shops as they return to the ship, and you hear a lot of rave reviews about the lunches they had in the restaurants. This happening in April, when business is usually slow, seems like a win-win for tourists and businesses alike.

    These ships will return in late October and early November, again bringing a welcome shot of revenue when business is otherwise a little soft.

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