Black sea bass numbers on the rebound

With the NOAA marine forecast calling for very nice seas, the original plan was to run full-throttle offshore at 11 a.m. to near the break for a quick afternoon of trolling for wahoo.

Thus, Capt. Jay Sconyers spent plenty of time Tuesday night rigging up for wahoo in preparation for the weekly Wednesday excursion aboard Dr. Jason Rosenberg's 32-foot Contender, Pain Killer.

But when mid-morning Wednesday arrived, the wind was up, at least five to 10 knots out of the east, leaving Sconyers scrambling to get the bottom-fishing tackle together.

A little after 11 a.m. a five-man crew including Rosenberg, Sconyers, Rob Birchmeier, Jeremy Finger and myself headed out of Murrells Inlet and we made a stop at the jetties to quickly see what was happening there.

A 1- to 2-foot chop was rolling in from the east as we tossed cut shrimp right up to the rocks on a Carolina rig. About 20 minutes of fishing produced a keeper — a 16-inch black drum — and a pair of winter visitors — two tautog in the 12- to 13-inch range.

But with a live well loaded with 2- to 4-inch pinfish, Rosenberg and Sconyers had bigger fish in mind. Rosenberg set the auto pilot and cruised at about 30 mph toward the southeast.

The wind and seas slowly increased on the ride out and about 45-50 minutes later when we reached our spot, we were rocking and rolling in choppy 2- to 4-foot seas.

Once Sconyers anchored up on the spot, we dropped Carolina rigs down with circle hooks, using the pinfish for bait, in nearly 60 feet of water and quickly got bites from black sea bass.

The black sea bass came up regularly and we caught several dozen of the tasty members of the grouper family, but nearly all of them were in the 10- to 12-inch range — under the 13-inch minimum size limit. For approximately every 10 fish caught, one was a keeper. The daily bag limit for black sea bass is five fish per person, but we didn't come close to a limit on this day.

Sconyers toyed with a sabiki rig trying to jig up some larger bait for grouper, and wound up catching several nice white grunts and numerous ringtails.

A week earlier, Rosenberg and Sconyers had worked the same vicinity and there was a larger grade of nice 15- to 16-inch black sea bass in residence.

On that same trip, the crew landed a pair of keeper gag grouper measuring 26 and 30 inches, but the grouper in large part were nowhere to be found this time.

What a difference a week makes.

Meanwhile, the seas continued building and by time to head in at about 3 p.m., we were dealing with some 5- to 6-foot rollers.

In the end, the trip wasn't what we had hoped for, but there were enough filets for dinner and it was another memorable day out on the great, unpredictable Atlantic Ocean.

Black Sea Bass

Three years ago, keeping black sea bass wouldn't even have been an option on a December fishing trip off the South Atlantic Coast.

In 2010, the National Marine Fisheries Service stated black sea bass were being overfished, prompting the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council to implement regulations in an effort to conserve the fish species as part of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

For three straight fishing seasons, black sea bass were governed by a small recreational quota in the South Atlantic and the fishing season, which begins annually on June 1, was cut short.

The 2012-2013 recreational fishing season for black sea bass was the shortest, lasting only 96 days, from June 1 through Sept. 4, 2012.

But the next year, the stock of black sea bass was determined to be completely rebuilt and in May, 2013, the annual catch limit was raised significantly.

The recreational fishery for black sea bass has remained open ever since Sept. 4, 2012.

Wednesday's trip was further proof that there are excellent numbers of black sea bass on natural hard-bottom areas and artificial reefs off the South Carolina coast, especially during the winter when there are few other species to target.

The only trick is determining how far offshore the keepers are.

This story was originally published December 11, 2015 at 10:40 PM with the headline "Black sea bass numbers on the rebound."