Department of Natural Resources officials said yesterday that they propose to expand the recreational and charter-boat fishing season on Chesapeake Bay waters for rockfish to include June and September this year.
While the proposals still must get final approval from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, DNR officials said the expansion of rockfish seasons in the state are within ASMFC guidelines.
Rockfish (striped bass) reached recovered status as of Jan. 1 -- 10 years after a five-year moratorium on fishing was declared in Maryland waters.
Pete Jensen, director of Tidewater Fisheries for DNR, said yesterday that the rockfish season would be separated into three sections, with different size limits for each. A $2 rockfish permit would be required to fish any or all of the sessions.
A spring trophy season would run April 28 to May 31 with a 32-inch minimum length and a limit of one keeper per day and five for the season.
During the trophy season, which in previous years had been limited to mainstem Chesapeake Bay waters below the Bay Bridge, the fishable area would be expanded to include the bay proper from the bridge to the Brewerton Channel cutoff off the mouth of the Patapsco River. Bay tributaries would continue to be closed.
From June 1 through July 4, a new session will be added, with a 26-inch minimum and a limit of one per day. During this part of the season, the entire bay and spawning rivers will be open to fishing -- with the exception of the Susquehanna River from Deer Creek to the Conowingo Dam.
The fall season would run Sept. 1 to Nov. 19 with an 18-inch minimum size and a creel limit of two per day for recreational and charter-boat fishermen.
Overall, Jensen said, the proposals represent an 80 percent increase in the number of days for recreational and charter-boat fishermen in bay waters.
"If I were to sum up the proposals," Jensen said, "I would say it is generous to the fishermen and generous to the state."
The season for Atlantic Coast state waters and bays would be 240 days with a minimum size of 28 inches and a limit of one per day. Exact dates for the coastal season have not been determined.
"I suspect that it will look pretty much like we see it now," said James Peck, assistant secretary of the DNR. "But is it not in stone yet."
Jensen said a series of meetings with ASMFC board members and biologists will be completed March 30.
Public hearings on the proposed changes will be held in Annapolis on Feb. 27 and in Easton on March 1.