Rodgers: Fishing is slow; also, how about those Eagles?
“If all the theories were correct, there wouldn’t be a fish left in all of our lakes and rivers and streams.” — Isaak Walton
“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.” — Joseph Heller, Catch -22
How about that? The Eagles are going to the Super Bowl!
Interestingly, while the Birds were riding high with (Carson) Wentz I didn’t hear much from folks I knew that were fans of other teams. As soon as he was hurt, BANG! there they were.
Then, after the Eagles ran the Vikings “out the gym” and blew them out of the NFC title game again, it was crickets!
Hope it’s plenty quiet again in a couple weeks. What’s that got to do with fishing? Well, let me tell you a little story about Uncle Bill.
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Uncle Bill lived in Pot Nets and had a boat that he fished with out in the back bays. Akin to Santiago in "The Old Man and the Sea," each morning the fishermen of the community would go down to the docks and head out. Afternoon found them sitting around commenting about each other’s catch.
On this one occasion, my great-uncle managed to land a “doormat” flounder (so called because their large size reminded you of a doormat) and returned to the dock to bask in glory only to find it surprisingly deserted.
Undaunted and, as no fishermen with a full stringer goes home the back way, he tethered that fish up and sauntered up the street with it.
Crickets.
Finally he stopped and looked at all the silent homes and could take it no more.
“Alright you (insert appropriate expletive), get your (yeah, another one) out here!”
They all tumbled out of their residences laughing where they had been hiding and congratulated him on his catch.
Speaking of catches, there is the chance that summer flounder regulations might change for the forthcoming season. There is the possibility that the size for summer flounder could drop back down to 16.5 inches but that’s hardly a done deal. There are a lot of hoops to swim through before then.
“We don’t even know if the 16.5-inch size limit proposal will pass muster so that it can be included as an option in the addendum,” said John Clark, DNREC’s Fisheries Section administrator.
“If it is included, then Virginia, Maryland and Delaware need to do hearings and, if the three states agree to go to 16.5, then the ASMFC Summer Flounder Board would need to approve it. The process is in motion and we should know shortly whether the 16.5-inch proposal will be approved for inclusion in the addendum.”
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Other than that things are pretty slow on the old fishing front. However, this goes to dedicated reader John Robinson of Lewes, with some luck this warmer weather will have some actual fish news soon!
Reports, comments or questions to captjackrodgers@comcast.net.