New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed New Jersey's free saltwater registry bill into law today, which will allow coastal anglers to register their name and phone number with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) at no cost in 2011.  By federal law, saltwater anglers are required to register their name and phone number with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on an annual basis in order to fish in coastal waters.  In November, NMFS announced that the fee for registering with the National Saltwater Angler Registry will be $15 as of January 1, a change affecting many anglers and spear fishermen in Hawaii, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

"From a federal perspective, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has just put forth a historic piece of legislation that helps memorialize the public's right to free and open access to our nation's public resources," said Jim Donofrio, Executive Director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance (RFA). "While there's been a lot of public confusion over the past few months in the state regarding this legislation, and we're grateful that Governor Christie has taken the time to analyze the facts, cutting through the red tape and bureaucracy surrounding the need for a saltwater registry." 

It has been extremely disturbing to witness the recent actions of many activist groups and the media as related to the tragic events in Arizona.  Many of these groups have attempted to further their agenda by manipulating the circumstances surrounding this tragedy and by suggesting cause and effect linkages based upon a benign Internet posting. As a result, Sarah Palin is presently engulfed in a media firestorm because of the now infamous image posted on her website, depicting a map with cross hairs on congressional districts across the country. Important lessons may be drawn from this travesty regarding the exercise of discretion in posting images on-line. These lessons may help protect the sport of recreational fishing from criticism and misrepresentation by its opponents.


The Internet has been a great tool for anglers; it’s a great source for weather, tides, products and fishing reports. Many fishing websites allow fisherman to post their personal reports along with images. Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are also full of great fishing images and anglers showing off their catch.

The recreational fisherman is already in the “cross hairs” of groups like P.E.T.A. and Greenpeace. Our own country’s energy policies have made a day out on the water fishing and boating an expensive one, not to mention the unknown effects of E15 gasoline on our marine engines.

When surfing the web, especially sites that allow posting of reports and images, I am often amazed by  fishing photos submitted by fellow anglers which show our sport in a poor light. I am sure that many readers have seen the recreational blood bath photos or are familiar with photo of the 120 quart cooler overflowing with Cod. These images may be great for the poster’s ego; however, such photos may easily be used against our sport. As a webmaster of Skimmeroutdoors, I exercise discretion regarding the images posted on the site. In fact, throughout the years, I have received many images which I have chosen not to post because such images had the potential to make our recreational fishing appear barbaric. Even with such a review process, I realize that there may be some images our site that others may view unfavorably,

Once you post an image on the web, you have lost control of the content forever, so be careful what you upload. Well organized groups such as the aforementioned P.E.T.A. and Greenpeace have volunteers scouring the Internet for images which may be used to promote their agenda.

Here are some steps you can follow to ensure that your photos cannot be used to support the anti-fishing agenda.

• When taking a photograph of an angler and their catch, take the time to rinse the fish off with seawater to remove any blood. This will also make the fish look fresh, improving the appearance of the catch.. Secondly, anglers should follow this rule as well, and should wash down their skins and make sure they are clean for photos.

• Look beyond your subject and make sure the deck is not full of blood and fish. Try to shoot using the water as your background (not your driveway), and use the flash even on a sunny day to fill in any shadows.

• If you send your photos to magazines to be published, you will have a much better chance if the subject posing with the catch has a neat appearance, for example he or she should not be smoking a cigarette or wearing a sweatshirt on with advertising is printed.

By following these common sense rules we can not only take better photos, but more importantly , we can help to protect the reputation and perception of recreational fishing from those that would prefer to damage or tarnish this wonderful pastime.

Tim C. Smith

I received word that the fluke regulations for 2011 will be 3 fish per day at 20.5 inches which is better but the best news is that the season will run from May 1 to September 30th. Personally I would have liked to see a 19.5 size fish in there somewhere, maybe one per day per angler slot size but this is certainly better by far than last year. The longer season is a real plus for the East end where they have a good run of big fish early and also a plus for Fire Island where the big fish show in the ocean in September. At least there will be something else besides striped bass to fish for in September and take some of the pressure off them.


Capt. Al Lorenzetti

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As most of you know by now, striped bass poaching and over kills to the south have been so out of hand it appalled many anglers and non-anglers alike.

Trawlers fishing the Outer Banks were culling their catch, dumping tons of stripers overboard so they would stay within their limit, leaving miles of dead fish floating on the surface.

This was followed by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) shutting down the February striped bass gill net season after Natural Resources Police (NRP) confiscated more than 10 tons of illegally caught bass in two days. NRP seized the 20,016 pounds of stripers from four illegally anchored gill nets found in Chesapeake Bay.

Maryland's commercial striped bass fishery is managed on a quota system, in cooperation with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The commercial gill net quota for February is 354,318 pounds. When the illegally harvested striped bass confiscated by the NRP were deducted from the quota, DNR was forced to immediately shut down the fishery.

Read more: 

POINT PLEASANT BEACH — The owner of a commercial vessel based here and the captain were both charged with illegally harvesting thousands of pounds of summer flounder and black sea bass.

Alda Gentile, 53, of Speonk, N.Y., the owner of the trawler Atlantic Queen, and Captain William Jeffery Stanley, 44, of Brick are charged with landing 2,397 pounds of summer flounder and more than 1,208 pounds of black sea bass following a 10-day fishing trip that returned in the overnight of Jan. 24-25. The vessel was permitted to harvest a maximum of 200 pounds of summer flounder and 100 pounds of black sea bass, according to the state Division of Fish and Wildlife which issued the summonses. Read More

By Darryl FearsWashington Post Staff Writer 
Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Maryland Department of Natural Resources Police officers stumbled upon a poacher's net bulging with more than three tons of rockfish in the Chesapeake Bay, the largest haul seized by a single patrol in at least 25 years, police said.

Officers retrieved about 6,000 pounds of rockfish Tuesday near the Bloody Point Lighthouse, between Queen Anne's and Talbot counties. Sgt. Art Windemuth, a DNR Police spokesman, said the 900-yard gill net was probably in freezing waters for several days.

A pair of officers on patrol spotted the net about 2 p.m. Monday and returned to their base for a third officer. The three staked out the net overnight in freezing rain, waiting for someone to retrieve it, but no one came. They started to pull the net early Tuesday but had to call for help when they feared the weight would sink their boat.  Read More