ARS like in the gulf

Saltwater Offshore Reports
1

I was able to get out yesterday with my brother, started by looking for some numbers in area 51, but apparently I didn’t have the numbers right. Moved to some numbers that I know in around 80’, we only fished one spot because we were really having a nice day with almost non-stop action. We caught a few keeper BSB but we did not get our limit, as we were almost continuously catching Red snapper. I have to wonder if the red snapper pushed the BSB off of this area, as it has regularly produced good BSBs and lots of them.

Through the day we caught maybe 2 dozen ARS every where from 2-3 lbs with a couple well over 10lbs, pushing 15 lbs. Including 2 very nice ARS that we unwittingly shared with a large shark. Also boated a nice gag 26" just 12 days before the season opens.

We ended the day with a nice mix of bottom fish.

I sure hope we get to fish for a few ARS sometime this year…

2

If you report the ARS catch to SAFMC they determine that some percentage of the fish died so that goes towards their quota for the year, so if a lot of them are caught and released during the year, they don’t open the season because the quota has been exceeded according to their strange math. If you don’t report catching any, they close the season because that means there are not enough to support a fishery. That’s how pointy heads who spend too much time looking at the models they developed rather than real population dynamics manage things.

Olde Man Charters

3

Blackfish are weird this year. El Nino always messes with the seabass I think. Vermillion and Red Snapper seem to really like the El Nino years.

Kill em’ and Grill em’

Colin