Creel Checks?

[twisted1]

Is it me or is my math bad? I count 27 fish coming out of area 9 in the month of Feb. That's including all fish coming in to the Everett ramp and the other ramps in area 9. Does this add up to fishing being soooo hot that we had to go to a 1 fish limit? Just wondering

[Smalma]

Twisted -
There is little doubt that angler success dropped off in February. That of course is due in at least part to a significant shift in the weather (a return to more normal amounts of wind etc). Before February it would be fair to characterize the weather much better (at least for time on the water) than normal with a lot more potential fishable days.

You are correct the February catch dropped of significantly. Just looking at the Everett ramp checks to date 46 boats were checked with 12 Chinook (0.26/boat). By way of comparison in November 314 boats were checked with 138 Chinook (0.44 fish/boat). The January after the opener for MA 9 January 16 at Everett a total of 100 boats were checked with 99 Chinook (0.99 fish/boat).

Remember that regulation change was based on the catch through 2/2 as measured against the season expected catch. On legal size fish by that point 91% of the legal size catch had occurred. The combination of more fishable days and some very good fishing led to that increased catch.

Remember as of today we still have 2 months left to the season.

Curt