Black Sea Bass Diet

Saltwater Offshore Reports
1

I have fished offshore Charleston for 30 Years! I have never seen so many Black Sea Bass out near the ledge. Also, the Black Sea Bass we caught were spitting up small vermillion snapper on the deck(first for me). Just my 2 cents

2

We went on to around 70+ feet with live bait looking for some grouper but couldn’t get a bait to stay longer than one minute before being eaten by a BSB. The one good thing about closing the BSB season is they are recovering well, the bad thing is they are eating everything that will fit in their mouths. I dropped some 200g jigs and caught BSB that were only 2 inched bigger than the jig.

A wise man once said “Do as I say not as I do” Good advice when I tell you that.

3

The seabass need a roundup not a closure… I have been attacked by them in the past one attached to my face pic below… Also been bitten by triggers and man they can bite.

I have shot 15lb fish and watched a single seabass come up and hit it acting like it was a 50lb grouper hitting a tinker mackeral. Almost like watching a comedy

4

Hopefully the aggressive Sea Bass found the end of your spear

Bragging may not bring happiness,
but no man having caught a large fish,
goes home through the alley.
-Anonymous

5

I went out of Murrels inlet this Saturday just kida messing around we fished between the breaks and the parking lot in about of 100 ft of water
We fished with live pin fish trying to catch some grouper we caught 3 scamps and we also fished with squid and caught our limit of sea bass but the biggest sea bass was like 3 pounds

Weston t

6

I’m very concerned about the long term effects of other species the large number of Sea Bass are feeding on. I’ve had them spitting up small Vermillion a number of times. Best Sea Bass trip I ever had was out of Edisto and we were baiting up with the 5" Vermillions the Sea Bass were spitting up on the deck and sending them back down. The powers that be better get a handle on this… if it’s not too late alread.

“Temptation may lean on the doorbell… opportunity may only knock once”

7
quote:
We went on to around 70+ feet with live bait looking for some grouper but couldn't get a bait to stay longer than one minute before being eaten by a BSB. The one good thing about closing the BSB season is they are recovering well, the bad thing is they are eating everything that will fit in their mouths. I dropped some 200g jigs and caught BSB that were only 2 inched bigger than the jig.

Sorry OPPS but I must respectfully disagree with you! Recovering?? Even before the closure if you were not limiting on BSB then you were doing something terribly wrong. They were plentiful and are now a nuisance. Sorry just my .02

36 Contender Fisharound
Are We There Yet?

8

Four of us fished Friday at 80 ft.to 100ft. Three used 3-5 0z. jigs with circle hooks (no natural bait), and one tried bait. None could get to the bottom. We caught 200+ bsb, and we guessed that 90% were 14" or better. Fished half a dozen places, and caught fish on all of them. Had to vent all fish caught at 100 ft… Is it possible to get out of them to catch any other bottom fish?

9
quote:
Originally posted by springtide

I’m very concerned about the long term effects of other species the large number of Sea Bass are feeding on. I’ve had them spitting up small Vermillion a number of times. Best Sea Bass trip I ever had was out of Edisto and we were baiting up with the 5" Vermillions the Sea Bass were spitting up on the deck and sending them back down. The powers that be better get a handle on this… if it’s not too late alread.

“Temptation may lean on the doorbell… opportunity may only knock once”

Just be careful what you ask for. I'm about 99% confident that the SAFMC is using what you write to promote their 20+ year vision for LARGE MPA's. Don't get suckered into "Ecosystem Based Management". Their long term vision is to close off 70% of our fishing grounds (i.e. "No fishing zones") and then relax regulations outside of that zone. They have purposely made these limits complex with the full understanding that they will eventually fail so that they can position us into thinking that we only have 1 choice left... Large closures...

Digest on that for a bit and you will see how intelligent, but deceiving their plan is…

And please realize. This is not a “conspiracy theory”. I do NOT believe that they want to shut down all fishing. I believe that they honestly believe large scale MPA’s are the “correct” way to manage a fishery, but they are having a hard time selling that notion to the public, so they need a better angle…

10

I still fail to understand why this applies to Recreational Fisherman.

11
quote:
Originally posted by dreamin-on

I still fail to understand why this applies to Recreational Fisherman.

Because we are easy to pick on and don't put up much of a fight... Honestly though, I agree with this statement for the Carolinas down to Central Florida, but I think that South Florida and the Keys, the recreationals are just as responsible (if not MORE responsible). Honestly, I don't have any problem with commercial hook and line fishing as long as it's reasonably regulated, though it wouldn't hurt my feelings to see the remaining commercial fish traps disappear.

There hasn’t been any overfishing since they outlawed bottom trawling (1988) and bottom longlining (1997). It just takes a while for fishing stocks to recover.

12

You boys still are confused from the reading of all this…

C bass were a NUISANCE before,

and now they are a NIGHTMARE.

Split the management up and do it by state unless you want to be catching only C bass on your favorite trout spot up the Wando.

There were already too many, and they only have one place to go…

If you disagree with me, then you desperately need to buy a legit sonar machine, read the owner’s manual for it, and fish somewhere besides the most “unhealthy” reefs off the coast (the larger public artificial structure that gets pounded 100,000’s of times a year by recreationals).

There are millions of acres of hardbottom off SC that all see 1/1,000 of the pressure of the artificial reefs where you may not limit on C bass in one drop.

www.scmarine.org

www.joinrfa.com

Luke 8:22-25

13

Phin, I am not confused by it at all… What I am suggesting is that they are playing “good cop\bad cop” with us… The “bad cop” is supposed to be the current system. They are doing everything that they can to make us hate it including overpopulation of Sea Bass. They want us to beg to them to see the “good cop” which is their 20+ year ideal of “Ecosystem Based Management”…

Again, I understand things perfectly. I am suggesting that there are a handful of people on the council (hmmm… who has been involved for 20+ years and hold “influential positions” inside of the council?) that would love nothing more than to see the current system fail so that they can replace it with a system that they have been dreaming about for the majority of their career…

14

SAFMC says
Oh, you guys don’t like:

  1. Shorter seasons
  2. A bible of fishing laws and confusing bag limits
  3. Overpopulation of species in certain areas
  4. Restricting fishing to the most unproductive times of year
  5. List goes on and on and on…

Oh yeah, we do have this other system that may make your life easier… We call it “Ecosystem Based Management”… Nah, you guys wouldn’t want that now,… would you??? You know what? Forget we brought it up… It was a stupid idea anyway… I feel silly for mentioning it…

Fisherman says:
No! No! Please tell us more about this “Ecosystem Based Management”. I would do just about anything to change the current situation!!! ANYTHING!!!

SAFMC Says:
Really? We had no idea things were so confusing… Okay, if you guys insist, let’s talk about it… You see, it works like a popcorn machine… You see that large area out there we call “The Black Banks” and that other one north of it called “The Red Banks”? Yeah? Okay, let’s pretend that is the little silver box where we put all of the kernels. Of course, you know that you never eat popcorn inside of the little silver box… However, you guys can fight over anything that falls to the bottom of the machine, or outside of that little silver box. No limits! No confusing rules, etc! We literally don’t care if you eat every last popped kernel as long as you don’t touch the silver box. The tiny little crumbs taste better anyway. You do like popcorn, don’t you? Well, that is our “Ecosystem Based Management” plan! I’ll go get the butter while you dumbasses, I mean fisherman figure out which plan you want to use!!!

15

I fully agree with you SJ.

C bass mismanagement is yet another straw being added to what’s beating the camel’s back. It makes us want to accept things like catch shares (a scheme to make the govt agencies and certain private folks more money even long after their jobs of rebuilding fisheries have long been completed) and MPA’s (a cheaper, less complicated, “proven” (YEAH RIGHT) mode of management that is a huge infringement on your freedom and directly in conflict of the public trust doctrine that’s been around for the entire history of western civilization)!

My post was directed at what some others here said, which seems to be what the majority of amateur recreational anglers like us think (based on most of our own personal experiences and common sense). Most will think “wow the C bass population is exploding- the ban clearly is making a difference.” What those folks do not understand is how overpopulation can be even more devastating to a habitat than under-population…

www.scmarine.org

www.joinrfa.com

Luke 8:22-25

16
quote:
Originally posted by Phin

I fully agree with you SJ.

C bass mismanagement is yet another straw being added to what’s beating the camel’s back. It makes us want to accept things like catch shares (a scheme to make the govt agencies and certain private folks more money even long after their jobs of rebuilding fisheries have long been completed) and MPA’s (a cheaper, less complicated, “proven” (YEAH RIGHT) mode of management that is a huge infringement on your freedom and directly in conflict of the public trust doctrine that’s been around for the entire history of western civilization)!

My post was directed at what some others here said, which seems to be what the majority of amateur recreational anglers like us think (based on most of our own personal experiences and common sense). Most will think “wow the C bass population is exploding- the ban clearly is making a difference.” What those folks do not understand is how overpopulation can be even more devastating to a habitat than under-population…

www.scmarine.org

www.joinrfa.com

Luke 8:22-25

Agreed.
17
quote:
Originally posted by Phin

There are millions of acres of hardbottom off SC that all see 1/1,000 of the pressure of the artificial reefs where you may not limit on C bass in one drop.

And this is where I fish. Seriously, I hate catching these pests.

I have always thought that since we were part of the South Atlantic, that all of Florida’s overfishing were grand totaled into our #'s. I don’t see the overfishing here in SC.

18
quote:
Originally posted by dreamin-on
quote:
Originally posted by Phin

There are millions of acres of hardbottom off SC that all see 1/1,000 of the pressure of the artificial reefs where you may not limit on C bass in one drop.

And this is where I fish. Seriously, I hate catching these pests.

I have always thought that since we were part of the South Atlantic, that all of Florida’s overfishing were grand totaled into our #'s. I don’t see the overfishing here in SC.

No doubt. I won't argue that there wasn't overfishing in our water in the 80's and 90's when the bottom trawlers and bottom longliners were around, but anybody who is on the water nowadays understands what little pressure remains on our abundant resources, and the fact that each year, they catch more bottom fish than they did last year.

However, if you look at Florida, and particularly South Florida (I’ll say at least Jupiter and South including the keys), you see real quickly that there aren’t nearly the abundance of fish as there is elsewhere. In addition, certain species (take hogfish for instance) common size seems to mirror the legal size. In other words, if the legal size is 12", 90% of the fish you see around are 11.99" long, because as soon as they hit 12" they are dead. Now, I am not saying that there aren’t any 20" hogs left in Florida, but they aren’t nearly as common as 12" hogs.

It also doesn’t help that the SEDAR committee is not very good at reading charts and graphs. The whole basis on the red snapper shut down is that catch surveys showed way more young fish than older fish. While that is exactly what you

19

Also, why did I choose Jupiter? The major reason is the “big ledge”, “60 fathom curve”, “continental shelf”, or whatever you want to call it. Look at how far it is off the SC coast. Where does it start to pinch down and form a “bottleneck” in fish habitat? Probably somewhere around Jupiter. This squeezes a lot more fish into a lot less habitat and covers them up with a lot more fisherman (i.e. No place to hide). Take Boynton Beach for instance. 200’ of water is probably only about 2-3 miles offshore. Compared to SC, bottom fishing flat out sucks there. If you asked a local guy in Boynton that grew up there, they would say it’s “Great”, but that’s because they don’t know any better. Just from reading fishing reports and looking at hundreds of photos, etc, it does seem that fishing starts to get a little bit better around Jupiter and north, though Jupiter is still nowhere near as good as SC\GA\North Florida. So it’s probably on the fringe…

20

Skinnej, your knowledge of the salt certainly surpasses mine, and you have been forefront to keep our fisheries open to all of us. But I beg to disagree with you when you say there is no conspiracy. It is easy for us to forget that there are so many people in this country who have no sympathy for our cause.They may have good intentions - to save the world - but They are perfectly willing to do it at the expense of those of us who like to fish (and hunt). They go by all sorts of names, from this Club to that Foundation, but, make no mistake about it, They are conspiring against us, and They have lots of dollars to help sell their cause. I have caught my fish and killed my game, but I really fear for the freedom of my grandchildren to legally do the same. Worst, They have made it appear that what is illegal is also un-ethical, and I struggle with the difference.