Still no sign of spring mackerel migration


Thursday, April 17, 2008BY AL RISTORI
Star-Ledger Staff
The traditional spring run of mackerel has been missing for years, even though the National Marine Fisheries Service assures us the species is in good shape. Stocks that pass by far offshore do us no good, and those that used to migrate along the Shore seem to have virtually disappeared.

Other than some very small mackerel boated incidentally by bottom fishing boats in the Mud Hole, there's been no sign of the spring migration. The Miss Chris from Cape May used to be the first in the state to encounter those schools by sailing to the south as they migrated up the coast from Virginia, but the outlook at this point is so bleak that Capt. Fred Ascoli isn't even planning to try.

Delaware boats haven't found any so far, and Cape May netters seem to have given up on them, though they could just as suddenly appear out of nowhere.