# Blue fish in our back yards



## andypat (Jan 7, 2004)

CYT,






Back yard blues With my Daughter Margie.


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## CYT (Nov 9, 2015)

Ah yes......a young AndyPat.


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## andypat (Jan 7, 2004)

Margie is about 50 now. We had it made back then. Everyone caught 5-10 Lb. blues, with a 10 Lber now and then. Also great large 5 to 8 Lb. trout. BUT, the rock fish were in trouble so they shut it down for 5 years.
View attachment 59957
Margie with me on the Chester River.


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## Baybum (Dec 18, 2018)

Are those high-top Chucks?


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## Guest (Apr 15, 2019)

I bet the trout back then were fun. Was it just weakfish (gray trout) or were there speckled trout too? I've only caught one weakfish in my entire life, hard to believe they used to be common in Maryland.


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## andypat (Jan 7, 2004)

MillerLitehouse said:


> I bet the trout back then were fun. Was it just weakfish (gray trout) or were there speckled trout too? I've only caught one weakfish in my entire life, hard to believe they used to be common in Maryland.


 They were big sea trout that came from the ocean. Not speckle trout. I think they call them weakfish. Wish I had a camera back then.


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## andypat (Jan 7, 2004)

Also people came from all over the USA to fish Delaware Bay for probably the best large trout fishing in the USA. The boat ramps had lines of boats on trailers for a mile. We fished it. Everyone was catching and keeping them. That was for a few years, then it was over, and it was never the same. I think we cleaned them out. Was no limit back them. Be careful you striper/rock fishermen. It could happen to you.


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## Jerry Norris (Oct 14, 2016)

I would have to look up the date on the certificate, but back in the day, I caught a 36" 13 plus pound bluefish in the Gunpowder River and lots of 5-6 pounders as well. Also scooped up several catfish as big as my forearm that were bitten completely in half.


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## andypat (Jan 7, 2004)

Baybum said:


> Are those high-top Chucks?


 Don't understand high-top chucks?


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## andypat (Jan 7, 2004)

Jerry Norris said:


> I would have to look up the date on the certificate, but back in the day, I caught a 36" 13 plus pound bluefish in the Gunpowder River and lots of 5-6 pounders as well. Also scooped up several catfish as big as my forearm that were bitten completely in half.


 Jerry it was great fishing back then. Glad you were around to see it. Good to see someone was around to see it on this fishing site. 13 plus bluefish, WOW! I would have liked to seen that fight.


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## Pajigging machin (Oct 3, 2015)

I don't remember Blues that big on the Chester River and Rock Hall area but I do remember lots of 15-24in blues and nice size spots as well. Of course it was cut up spots to catch Blues. I don't remember any Rock being caught then guessing I was in the 9-12 age range then


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## Gorge (Jun 13, 2017)

One night out of Fortesque, drifting in the DE bay with bucktails I had three weakies at 12 -13 pounds. The two bigger ones had egg sacks the size of corn cobs. I gorged myself on the roe for a week. Good times.


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## Baybum (Dec 18, 2018)

https://www.shoes.com/converse-chuck-taylor-all-star-high-top-sneaker/415612


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## andypat (Jan 7, 2004)

Baybum said:


> https://www.shoes.com/converse-chuck-taylor-all-star-high-top-sneaker/415612



View attachment 59969


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## Jerry Norris (Oct 14, 2016)

andypat said:


> Jerry it was great fishing back then. Glad you were around to see it. Good to see someone was around to see it on this fishing site. 13 plus bluefish, WOW! I would have liked to seen that fight.


It took a while to land. To top it off, I didn't have a net or a gaff. I had put a live menhaden on a hook with a steel leader about a foot long. There was about six or eight inches of leader outside of the fish's mouth so I got the fish coming down alongside the boat, reached out, grabbed the leader and used the fishes forward momentum to bring it up over the gunnel and into the boat.


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## FishDE (Nov 22, 2018)

*Delaware bay... Weakfish capital of the world!*

Remember when they called the Delaware Bay the Weakfish Capital of the World. That is all I knew the bay by. Everyone called it that. We even had the World Weakfish Tournament in Delaware Bay. It was common to catch the trout in the 7 to 10lb range every time you went out. And then... they disappeared. I definitely think the trout were overfished. We really did not have restrictions back then including the commercial netting. 
We never saw a Croaker in Delaware Bay, but as the Trout disappeared, the small Croaker started to show up. No keepers, but each year the Croakers would get bigger & the Trout would be harder to find. It is frustrating to see these captains and mates on head boats measure your barely legal weakfish of today & keep them. Just so they can say they caught a limit of fish on the boat. A 13" inch weakfish doesn't have enough meat to serve a child. Let it Go!! Let's try & rebuild the weakfish stock... Please! Like it was in the '70s & the early '80s.


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## andypat (Jan 7, 2004)

FishDE, Yes it is a shame what we did to the trout. Here is an example. Me and my friend went on a head boat on Delaware Bay at night. The boat had bright lights all around the boat to drawl in the trout. My friend made his first cast of the night and hooked a trout. As he was reeling it in a lot of trout were following the hooked trout to the boat. The mate had a very large net and made one scoop and dumped a lot of trout on the deck and said to my friend, there's your limit, your done. Every one thought that was funny at the time. It is not funny now. Fishermen came from all over the USA and We over fished the trout. Sad! I think they might be doing that with the rock fish/stripers in Md.


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## 9 rock (Nov 30, 2008)

andypat said:


> FishDE, Yes it is a shame what we did to the trout. Here is an example. Me and my friend went on a head boat on Delaware Bay at night. The boat had bright lights all around the boat to drawl in the trout. My friend made his first cast of the night and hooked a trout. As he was reeling it in a lot of trout were following the hooked trout to the boat. The mate had a very large net and made one scoop and dumped a lot of trout on the deck and said to my friend, there's your limit, your done. Every one thought that was funny at the time. It is not funny now. Fishermen came from all over the USA and We over fished the trout. Sad! I think they might be doing that with the rock fish/stripers in Md.


The problem was or never will be recreational fishing by charter boat or what ever , its commercial fishing by light yrs the problem 

9


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## andypat (Jan 7, 2004)

9 rock said:


> The problem was or never will be recreational fishing by charter boat or what ever , its commercial fishing by light yrs the problem
> 
> 9


 I only went on a head boat one time on Delaware Bay. We fished it a lot for years in my boat, and us Rec. fishermen where a lot of the problem. Maybe most of the problem. 9 rock, did you fish Delaware Bay for trout back then?


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## Pajigging machin (Oct 3, 2015)

As for seatrout aka weakfish my 2cents says comm fisherman with those huge nets supplying restaurant, grocery store and meat markets were the major problem. Us rec fisherman may have contributed a small taste but comm did the heay damage. Remember you could buy weakfish smaller than what we are allowed to keep


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## andypat (Jan 7, 2004)

OK PA, That is your opinion, not mine. And there was no small trout/weakfish the time we are talking about. All 8 to 10 Lb by the thousands. Fisherman coming from other states. Believe it or not.


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## Gorge (Jun 13, 2017)

Not my opinion either Andy. There used to be a flotilla of private and party boats drifting the ice breakers, flat top, and 14 foot light every day from Memorial day through July, and we coolered up a lot of fish. The stupid 13" size limit sealed the deal. They will never come back without years of closed seasons. Just like the rockfish. We did a bad thing back then.


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## andypat (Jan 7, 2004)

Gorge said:


> Not my opinion either Andy. There used to be a flotilla of private and party boats drifting the ice breakers, flat top, and 14 foot light every day from Memorial day through July, and we coolered up a lot of fish. The stupid 13" size limit sealed the deal. They will never come back without years of closed seasons. Just like the rockfish. We did a bad thing back then.


 Thanks! X2 on that.


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## Guest (Apr 22, 2019)

I would venture to say it was probably a combination of both. There are times when regulations are sorely needed. And if they do close down the season for years they need to come back with regulations to keep the population thriving. Right now I hear grumbling about allowing people to start keeping trophy sized drum again... I just shake my head. One leads to two, then to three, and so on. Pretty soon everyone will want to know what happened to all the Drum.


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## jay b (Dec 1, 2002)

Big Grey Trout have the same problem as big Striped Bass, they don't taste much different than the small ones so if you can only keep a couple per person per day of course you're going to target the largest ones that are the big breeding females.

Drum are the total opposite and I know some will say different but to me they just don't taste good past the 30" range so Puppy Drum/Yearlings for me !! Before anyone calls foul for poaching I am old enough to have been able to catch and legally keep them before the size limits were invoked. 

I personally haven't heard a request to keep the big Red Drum and I hope that never happens. That species has to be hands down one of the best success stories for fish regulations and management, they are everywhere !!


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## Guest (Apr 23, 2019)

Some of the poachers we all know and love who keep baby stripers apparently kept a giant red drum last fall at Point Lookout. If I had seen it with my own eyes I would have been pissed beyond any level of reason. To kill a bull red, one at a size that doesn't even taste good, is insane. But apparently they just dragged it down the pier and threw it in the back of a truck and drove off. 

I also personally think big stripers have a rubbery texture, so I don't keep them. The only fish I keep now are basically snakeheads, blue cats, and flounder. I'd keep speckled trout too if there were enough legal sized ones in MD waters, but I only caught one legal speck last year and threw it back.


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