468 | Chesapeake Bay Oyster Reefs & Habitat Restoration with Jesse Howe (CCA Maryland)

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Good morning, everybody.

Welcome back to Fishing the DMV.

I'm your host, Thomas Sarons.

You guys know I pull everyone on my Patreon

and all of my fans about what I need to cover more and more

and the biggest thing ending last year

going to this year is I don't cover the Chesapeake Bay enough.

They want more and more coverage

and that's what I decided to do.

I listened to all of you guys.

And so here we are.

I am here with Jesse Howe,

the assistant director of the Coastal Conservation Association

for Maryland, the CCA.

To talk about the history of the organization,

a really high level view

and we'll get into the weeds a little bit more

about brackish water, salt water,

and just the bay in general.

So sir, thank you so much for joining me.

I really appreciate it.

Thank you, Thomas.

That's a heck of an introduction.

I appreciate it.

You're welcome, sir.

I mean, as always with new guests,

is this where you always saw yourself

when you were a little kid?

Like what brought you down this path?

That's a great question.

And it's definitely not where I saw myself per se.

Like many of us,

I came into the world of recreational angling

for my father,

me resting peace,

pop tank,

just a great influence on my life.

It took me out on the bay as a young boy

with my brother.

And we grew up in Montgomery County,

Paint Branch High School went to,

we would go down a point, look out,

at least once a summer.

And he would charter a boat for us.

And it was just really important.

Getting out on the bay,

being experiencing nature, catching fish,

teaching me how to filet fish,

how to cook fish,

everything that goes along with it.

And those are just really incredible core memories

that I have of my time growing up in Maryland.

And that has continued to influence me to this day.

As an angler,

you know, as an avid conversationist,

as a family now,

with my own eight-year-old son,

and bringing him into that world

as my father did as well for me.

But I didn't, my path,

you know, many, many different directions.

Now that I'm in my mid-40s,

I didn't think that I would be kind of helping to lead.

I'm a local nonprofit conservation organization,

along with executive director, David Sikorski,

who I gotta give a big shout out to,

and big props.

There's great things for the state of Maryland

and recreational angling

and just a staunch conservationist.

But actually, my path was through education, actually.

And I was in the classroom for nearly a decade,

but not here in the States.

I lived in Latin America.

I lived in Mexico, Colombia, in Chile.

Yeah, exactly.

So teaching in international schools down there,

my son was born in Medellín, Colombia, actually,

we're a bilingual family.

I speak Spanish fluently.

And that helps me influence my world view now

with local fish advocacy,

you know, outreach to the local angling community,

because there's a whole branch of anglers

that isn't getting the message,

you know, that's getting streamed to them in English,

unfortunately.

So that has allowed me to really connect

with different communities here locally,

because there's often a lot of barriers

when it comes to the Latino community.

You know, there are language barriers, of course, right?

You know, but there's also technology barriers.

There's cultural barriers as well.

So those are things that I'm always actively trying

to kind of really kick down those doors

and try to connect with that community.

That's something that's very important to me.

And then around 2020,

moved back to the States from Santiago, Chile,

a lot to do with the pandemic is late May 2020.

So you can kind of read between the lines on that.

And my mom was living on the western shore

of the Chesapeake Bay, I'm a mid-Calvert county.

And the plan was just to kind of come back for the summer.

You know, that goes, ended up, you know,

staying a little bit longer than that

and got a house, got a mortgage,

all the good things in Southern Calvert County now,

right in the Co-Point area, actually.

And it's been a blessing, though,

to get involved with CCA.

And my journey is probably similar

and a little bit different than most.

I know I came in as a volunteer,

just like David Sikorski did,

our current executive director as well.

And mine was on a trip.

I was out fishing with some friends,

some buddies in the summer of 2022.

And it was slow out on the bay.

And what do you do, you chat, right?

And one of my friends, Tim Rogers says to me,

he says, hey, have you ever heard of CCA?

He's like, nope, never heard of him.

He's like, well, you should check him out.

You know, it's a good group that could use your support

and it does some good things.

And I was like, cool.

So I went home after that day,

got on the Google machine,

you know, did my due diligence online.

And I was like, wow, yeah, he's right.

Like, this is a great organization

that does good things.

I haven't ever heard of them.

So, you know, bought a five-year membership on the spot

and started, you know, just trying to contact David Sikorski

and say, hey, how can I get involved?

I'm in Southern Calvary County.

What can I do to help?

So it came out to a couple of events,

you know, supported a banquet in DC,

supported another one.

And anapolis started to meet folks.

I'm gotten involved with the Living Reef Action Campaign.

First as a volunteer,

next as just kind of contract help.

And then that summer of 20,

basically late spring, early summer of 2023,

David Sikorski approached me and said,

hey, I've gotten you in mind

for this assistant director role.

I think it would be a great fit.

We'd love to bring you on.

You know, you've done great things already

in a volunteer capacity and a contract capacity.

And we'd love to bring you on full time.

For me, career-wise, it was perfect timing.

I was kind of at a crossroads between education

and looking for the next thing.

So it's been great.

And now I'm about to celebrate my three-year anniversary

with CCA Maryland in July this summer.

Congratulations.

Thank you.

For people that don't know,

and we don't have to go full in-depth,

but what is the CCA?

How does that group function?

I'll be honest, like we've been called

and I've heard this many times now

in those recreational angling circles,

the best kept secret in local conservation.

Which I agree with.

I wish more folks knew about the mission of CCA

and about the incredible work that we do

within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Looking out for the recreational angler,

our Habitat program, the advocacy

that David Sikorsky is able to accomplish

in Annapolis with the General Assembly.

He's tireless, the efforts that he's able to put forth

in that arena.

So CCA started in 1977 in the Gulf Coast of Texas,

a group of anglers got together and said,

we are seeing some unethical

and probably illegal guillinating practices

within our local waters that is negatively affecting

our specklet trout population, our red fish population.

And they formed the initial iteration of CCA,

of coastal conservation association in Texas in those waters.

And we're able to have some real success

on red out of the gate.

In the early 80s was able to expand.

I believe Florida was the second state that came on board.

And now in 2026, we have 19 member states,

all around the coast of the East Coast.

Maryland started in 1995.

So we've just celebrated our 30 year anniversary last year.

And we're on the West Coast as well,

California, Oregon, and Washington.

It's an incredible organization

that does really incredible things.

Much in the vein of ducks and limited trout,

some of those membership-based conservation organizations

in volunteer driven.

I can't emphasize that enough volunteer driven.

But in the sense that we have complete autonomy

within our state chapter and all funds that are raised

in Maryland by CCA and Maryland stay in Maryland,

which is really incredible for the conservation efforts

in what we're trying to accomplish as an organization.

So it's an advocacy group for anglers,

kind of like how the river keepers are an advocacy group

for whatever river that they're chaptered with.

Okay, interesting.

As Lenny Rudo says, the head of Fish Talk magazine,

the angler in chief, really well-known angling influence

or personality celebrity might somebody say

within kind of local angling circles.

He says, CCA is the voice of the recreational angler locally.

Like, we are it, right?

There's great fishing clubs out there.

And like we support theapolis anglers club,

the Frederick Saltwater anglers, midshore,

Kent Nero's fishing club.

There's loads of them, Pasadena.

But we take it that next step towards the conservation,

towards the advocacy, towards the Habitat program,

which we have the Living Reef Action Campaign,

which I'm sure we'll get into a little bit later.

But our focus is much more than just gathering once a month,

having a couple beers and swapping stories.

We do that, too, believe me.

We're not just all business, we like to have fun,

and we absolutely like to wet a line

that goes without saying.

But we are the voice of the recreational anglers.

So I'm gonna employer, employer, listeners, viewers,

everyone right now, like jump online, join CCA Maryland.

Hopefully Thomas can put a link in the show notes.

That would be really helpful.

We're talking about the cost of two dozen bloodworms

these days for an annual membership, right?

Bloodworms are running about 20 bucks a dozen.

These days, we're talking about the cost of 10 gallons

of non-ethanol gasoline to put in your vote

for an annual membership.

$40 will get you in the door that helps support

what we're doing.

And there is absolutely strength in numbers

in what we're trying to do.

When David goes to anapolis,

and he's talking to the legislators,

it's really important for him to say,

this is our membership.

These are the numbers that you can see.

These are the folks that stay in behind us,

not just in their voice, but in their wallets.

So that's incredibly important for our conservation efforts

and we're only looking to grow in 2026.

So join us.

Join CCA Maryland is the message.

Yep.

And as always guys, link in the episode description

whether you're Apple Spotify or HiRated

or YouTube, go check them out.

I mean, you mentioned it, great little segue.

Living reef program, what is the history with that?

And what is it?

Yeah, great segue.

10-year anniversary just celebrated in 2025.

So it's a habitat program at its foundation.

Without habitat, what do we have?

Hypothetical question, but a real question as well, Thomas.

What do we have when we're talking about the local fisheries?

Is it going to be freshwater or saltwater?

But what do we have if we don't have habitat?

Nothing.

I mean, yeah, we certainly don't have a robust population.

That's able to produce year in, year out.

We certainly don't have clean water, you know?

We certainly don't have reef sites

where your average angler can pop up

and consistently catch fish, right?

Because it's absolutely about water quality.

It's absolutely about a place for the fish

that to creating this ecosystem

in which these fish populations can thrive.

But it's also about us as recreational anglers, right?

So we're putting CCA Maryland works hand in hand

with the Maryland Artificial Reef Initiative or Mari,

M-A-R-I, to pre-select those reef ball sites

throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed

and either add to work, create incredibly, you know,

incredible new artificial reef sites

within our watershed that once again is going to promote

that healthy fishery that's going to promote

a diverse ecosystem.

But let me get into the weeds a little bit about

what the Living Reef Action Campaign is.

So once again, started in Maryland in 2015

and has since expanded, started with one trailer.

So now this is a mobile, this is a mobile operation.

So we bring everything to you.

So that could be our corporate partners

with which we do reef ball builds

throughout the calendar year.

I've traveled up to Gathersburg to work with some

of the well-known companies on the I-270 corridor

to build reef balls with their staff as, you know,

corporate team building.

I've traveled throughout Calvert County

in which CCA Maryland has a contract going

into our fifth or sixth year, I believe now,

with Calvert County public schools

in which every single fifth grader builds oyster reef balls

as part of their science curriculum.

I'll sink that in, let that sink in for a second.

I'm talking 1,200 kids annually,

just in Calvert County where I live,

I live in the co-point area kind of Southern Calvert County.

We partner with private schools as well

that don't have that opportunity

through the public school system.

We've traveled to DeMathau High School in PG County

to build reef balls the last two years

with Andrew Travers of their fishing club.

And he and I have a great relationship.

Hope to replicate that for a third year next September

or October, we've traveled to Broadneck High School

in Anorondal County.

And we've traveled in the Baltimore area.

It's in Maryland International School

and many other private schools throughout the region.

I would be remiss in not mentioning the tech program

in Carroll County public schools

is kind of where it all started as well,

which is really neat.

And they have an extremely robust STEM program up there

in which they produce consistently 200 to 300 reef balls

annually with their students.

So I talked about trailers.

And we've got two on the road, fully operational now.

And the cool thing about the living reef action campaign

is we bring everything to you,

whether it's your school, your youth group,

corporate headquarters, small businesses,

like Kelly Generators, Kelly Generators and Equipment

in North Carroll County

who has sponsored reef ball builds

for the last three or four years.

And anyone has to do is show up and cut a check

and support CC in Maryland

and what we're trying to accomplish.

And we bring everything to them.

So that means all the reef ball molds

in which we are constructing about hip high, 250 pound

kind of cylindrical, half cylindrical oyster reef balls

with holes in them.

I would encourage folks to check out, there we go.

There's some examples.

I would encourage folks that's a great picture right there.

Thank you for bringing that up.

So I would encourage folks, that's a reef ball.

All right, so about a little bit below hip high,

those, each of those weigh 250 pounds.

Wow.

They've got holes in them because

so fish can swim through, they've got holes in them

so that water can constantly be flowing back and forth

and promote that optimal oyster growth as well.

So.

And that's your artificial reef.

So we're not just putting one or two down or even 20

and we're putting hundreds down.

And this is what this is doing throughout the bay

especially in some of those dead zones

that are becoming more prevalent in the middle bay

where I live.

We are creating this mini ecosystem and allowing

the oysters to thrive.

And that is the base of the pyramid.

Once you get your oysters and your oyster populations up,

you're going to see an uptick in blue crabs.

You're going to see an uptick in forage fish.

You're going to see an uptick in predators

that are going to come in and start looking for those

like keystone species like striped bass

or other fish like black sea bass.

And it's just this incredible program

that we've been able to grow over the last several years.

And we have two trailers on the road right now,

one that lives in Calvert County

and one that lives in Carroll County.

And we recently purchased a third trailer

in the past six months that is not fully outfitted yet

and that will completely be completely dedicated

to the Eastern Shore.

So.

CCA Maryland is thriving.

CCA Maryland is expanding.

That doesn't mean we don't need your listener's support

and help, though, because every bit counts

and membership really matters.

And what we want to be able to do is we want this program

from the Western Panhandle to the Lower Eastern Shore

and everywhere in between the state of Maryland.

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How do you get oysters to want to cling or reproduce

on these artificial reefs?

The great question.

So it depends on a lot on the site,

the pre-selected site that we have where we're going to.

There are times where we will be adding

to a well-established oyster reef already.

So what's going to happen when we're adding

more structure within that habitat to a pre-existing reef,

you're going to have a natural migration

and a natural spat set of those oysters

onto those new reef balls that you just showed

within those photographs.

There will be other times where we're going to invest

more money, more time, and more effort

to have an artificial spat set.

So we would partner with Chesapeake Bay Foundation

who often leads our deployments really valuable partner

of CCA Maryland and they have an incredible vessel

called the Patricia Campbell in which we're able to deploy

100, 200 reef balls at a time, various times.

Those deployments throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed

are always live streamed on our YouTube channel.

So that's something to absolutely check out as well.

CCA Maryland YouTube, you can't miss us.

And so you asked about, you know,

however those oysters kind of migrating over.

So once again, there's a natural spat set

and there's kind of more of like a human assisted spat set

in which we would put those reef balls into tanks

and naturally circulate those with that oyster spat

prior to deploying them to the reef ball sites.

And for people that aren't in the know,

what is a spat set?

Absolutely, I should, that's important vocabulary.

Whenever I lead these with our fifth graders,

I am a former educator, of course.

So I'm always thinking about what are my key vocabulary terms

that I want students to be able to take away?

Spat, baby oysters, easiest way to think about that.

Gotcha.

It's just a baby oyster.

A spat set would be a baby oyster

of fixing to that structure, right?

Thriving, and then you'll see we have

really cool underwater footage of these oyster reef balls

that we put down that this is concrete folks

that we're putting down, expanding that first layer of oysters.

And then over time, all it's doing is just growing out

because oysters, you get oysters.

Once you have that natural population of local oysters,

other oysters, and that spat set, the babies

are going to have fixed to those shells

and just expand that population.

And diversifying the ecosystem once again,

that's food for many of our Keystone species.

And of course, improving water quality,

because I think most folks know that oysters are filter feeders,

and they're going to be able to filter the water

at this constant rate of which we, as human beings,

well, all the technology that we've created,

we've been in the moon for God's sakes, right?

But we still can't do what nature can do.

And the rate at which oysters are able to filter our water

is incredible.

There's a lot of numbers that are out there.

Sometimes you'll see one single oyster is 50 gallons a day,

and there's a lot of conversation

about what the exact number is.

But what I like to drill home for students

and for adults is that it's a heck of a lot.

And it's way more than we could possibly aspire to,

as human beings.

Nature is incredible.

So the living reef action campaign

is all about putting more oysters back in the water.

We, right now in this just to be vague,

we're at somewhere like one or two percent

of historic levels.

If you're a history enthusiast and a history buff as I am,

you can read primary source material

from the 16th and 17th centuries of European ships

coming into the Chesapeake Bay and striking oyster reefs.

We're talking about mountains,

shores of oysters.

That would cause real damage to these ships.

Let me ask you a question, Thomas.

When was the last time you heard about a ship hitting a bar,

hitting an oyster reef in our waters?

It's been a while because, well,

so I did do a little research before this

about there used to be oyster wars

in Tangier Island and stuff way back in the day,

which was, again, I am that nerdy guy that does that.

So that is,

it's preposterous thing about now in 2026

that it used to be like that, I guess.

It feels like such a distant memory.

Absolutely, absolutely.

Well, it kind of goes back to that historic population

that used to be incredible,

that was thriving once upon a time.

And New York has, I think it's called the billion oyster project,

with, you know, they're trying to get much more within

that kind of the Hudson and that local urban area

because they recognize the clean water value

of oysters, they recognize the economic impact.

We're not saying don't eat oysters, by the way.

That's not what we're saying, right?

I choose aquaculture.

I choose farm raised oysters personally.

I think that's, you know, that is a self-sustaining model

that has really thrived.

When we talk a little bit about aquaculture

and we talk about fish farming

and I don't wanna go down that path,

which is wanna mention it, people talk about,

a lot of the perils of salmon, right?

And a lot of the negative environmental impact

that they can have, and it's true, that can't.

But success stories have been on the mollusks side of things,

on the bivalves, on oysters,

and on mussels, on clams.

And there is a real side of things

where aquaculture has been incredible.

So that's what I choose personally.

But once again, back to the living right refaction campaign,

I'm gonna tie it all up when little tie it a little bit.

More oysters is a good thing without habitat.

What do we have?

So this entire program is all about putting more habitat

and structure back in the water,

creating that ecosystem that allows these oysters to thrive.

And along the way, educating adults

and most importantly, children

about the positive impacts of this program.

So within, whenever I'm leading a living refaction campaign,

oyster reef ball build,

and we're kicking off next week, folks.

Next Tuesday, I'll be at one point elementary,

leading, see, probably about,

250, no, actually excuse me, about 125th graders

on a two-day oyster reef ball building field trip.

The cool thing about these field trips

is they don't have to go anymore.

They don't have to get on buses,

like we bring everything to them,

which is really incredible.

But talking to the kids about the importance of oysters,

about why we need to be aware,

and we need to care about what's going on around us

from an environmental impact perspective

from a conservation lens is so important.

Because those are the lessons that they're gonna take with them.

I always encourage them to talk to their parents

about these things when they go home.

At the dinner table, tell your parents

about what you did today.

Tell them about Mr. Jesse.

Tell them about CCA Maryland.

Talk to them about why this work is important.

Ask them how they can get involved as well,

because there are a plethora of ways

that we can all get involved and have an impact.

And I hope that volunteerism is on the uptick,

I will say, because once again,

CCA Maryland can't do it without our core volunteer base.

The organization doesn't exist without volunteerism.

So once I'm going to,

that is a call to action to folks to get involved.

What does restoring the oysters to the ecosystem

due to the fish population?

Does it affect all of them in a positive way equally

or is it more the redfish, the specks,

or is it striper?

How does that all work?

Absolutely, so I would say yes, it affects all,

each species within the fisheries kind of management

ecosystem it affects in a positive lens.

Because once again, what are we doing?

We're creating habitat,

proving water quality,

and we're adding a food source as well.

So not necessarily the oyster itself,

but think about all this little algae

and those little barnacles, all the little things

that grow on the exterior of the oyster shells

that crabs are eating, that forage fish are eating,

whether it's bay and chovies,

or if something's flicking off,

that food source for local menorated population as well.

And that's just going to uptick route to food chain.

So when you have a strong forage fish population,

what that's going to do,

that's going to bring in our predator fish,

that's going to bring in your uptick

and your striped bass population.

Because fish are going to follow the food, right?

They're very simple, they're really only concerned

about two things, typically, right?

They're not concerned about building skyscrapers in AI,

like we are, they're concerned about food and procreation.

Those are the big things, right?

So we're adding that element

through the living reef action campaign,

through those oyster reef balls,

through that ecosystem that's allowing

the straight bass populations to have more of a chance

at success, the red drum population, the speckled trout.

Any of our game fish, right?

Bluefish, Spanish Macro, migratory game fish,

Cobia, anything that's coming in and out of the bay,

in which the vast majority of our species

that we target are going to be a lot of those migratory species.

Does this have any effect on SAV

and for people that are listening sub aquatic vegetation?

Does the filtering aspect that oysters bring?

Does that help improve the environment for SAV to take off?

So typically, when you're talking about SAV,

sub aquatic vegetation,

you're talking about two different zones

of the bay in general.

So a lot of your SAV is going to be not all,

but a lot of it is going to be kind of concentrated

in shorelines in shallower and shallower water

where it's going to be able to thrive.

And all of these filter the water.

Yeah, exactly.

All these filter water, absolutely.

So it's all going towards the big picture of things.

But the reef ball sites themselves

are going to be in much deeper water.

The reason for that is we can't have Thomas

is a lot of prop strikes going on on reef balls.

That makes sense, okay.

So we can't have Joe Angler going out

on Sunday afternoon with his family

and he's pussing through whatever,

four feet of water on a low tide

or three feet of water and all of a sudden,

it just stops and he looks down.

And what does he see?

An oyster reef ball, right?

We absolutely can't have that.

That's not what we're trying to do.

So those are going to be in deeper water.

So what you're going to have is a little bit of spacing

between the SAV primary zone and the artificial reef sites.

How does, we've again had one of those winners

that people will say it's one of the coldest winners

of all time.

I mean, ice on the eastern shore, it's pretty crazy.

What kind of effect does that have on the ecosystem?

Well, I would put it this way, you know?

There's a short term effects and there's long term effects, right?

This body of water, you know,

this ecosystem has been around for a lot longer than us,

a lot longer than you and I, a lot longer than the human kind.

So there have been, you know, these cycles,

colder winters, warmer winters, et cetera, et cetera,

you know, for eons.

So you're going to have long term effects

in which that benefits some species

and is a detriment to others.

When I think about the short term,

and I think a detriment to other, I think about fish kills.

So I'm fairly certain that because of this extremely cold winner

that we just had, which is not an anomaly, right?

Like I was born in 79 in the 80s in Montgomery County,

like we would skate on the ponds and play hockey

pretty much every winter, right?

I remember a time where, you know,

a colder winter was much more than norm.

It has been milder of late that goes without saying,

like the last decade, at least in Southern Maryland,

specifically where I live has been a much milder winter.

This past winter was what I was more accustomed to.

So picking it all back into kind of, you know,

what that could do in the short term.

There is the possibility of fish kills.

In North Carolina, it has already taken proactive measures

to restrict the catch on speckled trout,

because that is a population that is very susceptible

to those cold winters.

And there is the possibility of mass fish kills.

So what can an organization like DNR control, right?

Whether it's North Carolina DNR

or Maryland Department of Natural Resources?

Can't control the weather, that's for sure.

You know, can't control fish spawning activity,

whether it's a successful spawn

or whether it's not the last five or six years

for straight bass locally have not been a successful spawn.

Something we can talk about through the Y-O-Y,

the young of year index that DNR trots out annually.

There's a lot of things that they can't control

on putting it.

What can they control?

Angler take, right?

So, you know, harvest, basically.

So they can control seasons.

So that's something that can be restricted

within a given year based on what the science says

about fluctuating fisheries populations,

whether it's straight bass or red drum

or whether it's speckled trout.

They can control what size of fish

that we at the recreational angling community

will take home with us or even target, right?

As we know right now, there are certain times of the year

in which it's illegal to target straight bass, right?

And that is an initiative to give them a break, right?

To make sure that the angling community

is not out there kind of, you know,

catching for a catch and release or catching for harvest

in a time where DNR deems it very important

to kind of protect those populations.

And DNR can control the size as well.

We recently had a change of sizes where we went

from, I mean, trophy season for straight bass.

That's been a thing for years in the spring.

And even before my time with CCA,

I thought looking at that,

it doesn't seem like sound business policy

to continually target the biggest fish

that are going to produce the most eggs.

So that's something that DNR did proactively

just two seasons ago in which where we have

a slot limit now for straight bass.

So if you're going to harvest straight bass,

you've got a range.

It has to be greater than 19 inches,

and it has to be less than 24 inches.

So once again, these are a lot of different measures

that local government, excuse me, state government

can put into place,

troll the few things that they can actually control

because there are so many parts of the equation

that we cannot control.

Yeah, I think guys, I will be, Dave,

I know you're going to be listening to this probably,

so I'll be reaching out to you, dude,

so we can do a full nine hour stripper breakdown

on the channel as well.

And it's so interesting how everything is tied together.

So one thing I've learned after doing,

God knows how many episodes at this point,

it's not black and white.

There's a lot of factors that goes into every decision

that makes an ecosystem work or doesn't work.

Where do you see this program in the next couple of years?

The Living Refaction Campaign Program?

Specifically, it's expanding.

No, it's once again, I mean, CCA Maryland

is perhaps the best kept secret in local conservation,

as I've been told many times by some of our volunteers

and our membership,

but the Living Refaction Campaign

is on an upward trajectory,

just as CCA Maryland is just looking at the last two years,

what we've been able to accomplish

in the amount of reef ball builds

that we've been able to host,

reaching out to once again, corporate partners,

non-corporate partners, public schools,

private schools, youth groups,

people are extremely engaged in this program.

And David and I are extremely committed

to adding to the habitat of the bay.

That's an easy win for CCA Maryland.

That's an easy win for your local conservationist

or local recreational angler,

because that's something that we're absolutely committed to

in the present and expanding for the future,

but the sky's the limit for that program,

to say the least,

and it is absolutely on an upward trajectory.

Last thing I got you here,

just for whatever knowledge you have that you want to share

for the audience, how's the fishing been,

either in Brackers Salt or whatever?

That's a great question.

And I mean, I hate to say it,

but as cold as it's been this winter,

I haven't wet a line barely at all, man.

I know, I know, I took the family down to Guatemala

for a trip over the holidays

and we were able to get into some of the Pacific sailfish,

which was awesome.

All catch and release fishery.

Of course, prior to that,

I went out with a good friend of mine,

Joe Thompson's on the fish taxi.

I think it was Thanksgiving weekend

that we were able to target some bigger fish,

but that was kind of prior to when they'd really come in.

I'm talking to some local captains like Tom Weaver,

that December into early January

before it got really cold.

And the snow, you know, really ice things over

and made it very challenging, just access was a challenge.

Like getting out on the water was a challenge

for three or four weeks there.

I know that striped bass fishery was incredible

and really near water to Solomon's Island boat ramp

and the bridge down by me.

I haven't, I have heard of a few folks kind of like

being out and having some success,

but I'll be honest, we've had a really busy time

with CCM Real in the last month.

So that coupled with the cold weather

and the challenging access means, unfortunately,

as far as firsthand accounts,

first fan fishery reports, I can't give you anymore,

but we're talking about two weeks.

I think I'll be able to give you some good intel on that.

I mean, sir, I really appreciate you coming on this show

just to try to give people knowledge

of what your program does and how important conservation

is to any waterway,

whether it's the Potomac River or the Shenandoah,

the Chesapeake Bay and of itself,

which is the heart of our whole ecosystem here, guys,

like all roads lead to Rome,

which is the Chesapeake Bay in our area.

So one more time, just for everyone that's listening,

give it, where do people go to donate

if they want to help support you guys?

Yeah.

CCA Maryland is the easiest place to find us,

ccmd.org.

So that's going to be your landing page

for everything that we do.

There's going to be a donate button in the top right corner.

We would encourage donations, absolutely.

And once again, this organization does not exist

without volunteerism, without membership contributions,

without people, you know, like I did a couple of years ago.

You know, like David did 15 years ago,

saying, wow, these guys do really great things.

They deserve my support, whether it's, you know,

my muscle at an event, you know, my chick book opening,

but the bare minimum is membership.

I mean, that's the bare minimum as far as I'm concerned.

Join CCA Maryland, very easy to find.

It shouldn't take anyone more than 30 seconds, $40 annually.

We'll get you our standard membership.

And then that way, you're joining a base

of the recreational angling community here locally.

That is just absolutely committed

to improving the health of our waterways,

to improving the access for the local recreational angler,

to bringing in the next generation

through kids fishing programs,

like combos for kids, E.J. Harman, out of Annapolis,

anglers, runs an incredible program.

And we partner with combos for kids frequently.

That's somebody you should have on as a podcast guest,

by the way, E.J. Harman, I'll connect with you later.

He's phenomenal.

Yeah, phenomenal.

You guys don't know, this is how basically,

when you're running a local show,

the way you get to choose is just through people reaching out,

be like, you got to talk to this guy, this guy.

So, I'll plug this.

If there's somebody that's a local

that you think I need to have on,

guys email me, fishingindivigmail.com.

Yeah, absolutely.

I want to give you props as well, Thomas,

like this is such, I love to see over the last couple of months,

how you've been able to expand and really dive in

and go all in with the Fishing the DMV podcast.

I know you've got your Patreon up.

I would encourage folks to check that out.

You know, join as a member, fishing the DMV.

That's a great way to get in on a grassroots level.

You've referenced some sponsorships as well

and some sponsors.

I think that's great.

I'm sure you would love to have more as well.

So, I think the sky's the limit

for the Fishing the DMV podcast as well.

And I think that you are also on this upward trajectory

with CC and Maryland.

And I'm hoping that we can collaborate

in two more in the future.

Where are you located?

I'm located in Hagerstown, Maryland.

And I'm actually on the Black Bass Advisory Board

from Maryland too.

So, I get to talk to David every now and then

when he ventures into our stuff.

Yeah, it's really cool.

Our area is so cool.

And hopefully if I could become the MPR

of Outdoor Radio just so we can talk about these issues,

which are so important that you can't just do clips

and sound bites with.

Absolutely, absolutely.

I'm on the Sports Fisheries Advisory Commission as well.

And we get the Black Sea Bass reports

from your committee meetings.

So, we've got quarterly meetings at DNR headquarters

and in Annapolis.

So, that's another thing on an advocacy front

that our membership can do.

It's like there are so many ways to get involved.

What we shouldn't do is just sit back

and wait for somebody else to do it.

Yeah.

Because when I close out my reef ball builds

with the kids, you know, my call to action to them

is first off, congratulations.

You know, you've done a great thing

towards local conservation.

Second off, good news and bad news.

The good news is, and as I ask them,

I say, well, what do you want first?

You know, there's fifth grade.

It's like, ah, bad news, sorry.

I said, bad news, I said is that

if you think that you can kick back on the couch,

you know, and just allow somebody else

to do this important conservation work

in which you just took part in

via the Living Reef Action Campaign,

building oyster reef balls with Mr. Jesse.

The bad news is, ending an app.

I've been doing this long enough

and I'm old enough now that this expectation

that somebody else will do it doesn't fun.

Yeah.

And this is important, I don't know about your group,

but I'm the youngest member by about 200 years.

It feels like, and that is scary

that you don't have the advocacy

of that next generation.

It feels like at least now could be just,

I'm biased because of who I see.

So that's my own reality, but it would be nice

to get them younger involved somehow

because once this old guard does retire,

it feels like there's a vacuum.

100% 100% and that's why I close with the good news

for the kids is I just say,

you've just shown to me into yourselves

that you're capable.

Like the hard work that y'all have all put in,

you know, via this oyster reef ball build

and the Living Reef Action Campaign is proof itself

that you have the capacity, the intelligence

and the ambition, you know, to make a positive change

within local conservation.

And it all, everything's local, right?

It all starts with, you know, your local community,

you know, local government and then moving on from that

and that's where I really, truly believe

that we can have a direct positive impact

in local conservation.

And once again, it all comes back to fishing, right?

I'm an angler at heart.

Like my old man took me out fishing.

I love it.

You know, I'm teaching my son.

Like he's a heck of an angler.

So, you know, I want to be out there.

I want to be able to improve our waterways.

I, you know, for self-respect reasons

that is, is going to, you know, improve local,

you know, fishery management, right?

In fisheries conditions that we have here locally.

So, there's something that we can all do.

And the first step is just reaching out, right?

Saving an email to information at CCAMD.org.

If you don't mind dropping that in the show notes as well,

please Thomas, that's an easy way to connect with our team.

And just saying, hey, I live, Link, what can I do?

And I constantly having those conversations

with volunteers and prospective volunteers about,

hey, here's an opportunity in your area.

You know, maybe it's volunteering

at an oyster reef ball build with me.

Maybe it's, you know, manning a CCA table

at a local festival or something, you know,

some type of gathering within your community

and starting to help us spread the word

and bringing more folks in.

That's the most important thing.

Guys, as always, Link in the episode description

to everything we talked about.

So go check that out, go check out their website,

social media handles, and drop them a line.

Again, if you see something, say something,

get involved, don't just complain.

And yeah, if you guys have any questions,

please reach out to me, fishin the DMV at gmail.com,

go check me out on Patreon.

You guys keep the lights on,

and we'll see you guys next time on Fishing, the DMV.

Bye.

You're listening to Fishing the DMV with your host,

Thomas Arons.

Fishing the DMV is brought to you by Jake's bait and tackle,

located in Winchester, Virginia,

Tactical Fishing Company,

and Fishing Protect,

located just outside Williamsburg, Virginia.

That doesn't get you jacked up.

I don't know what will.

That doesn't get you jacked up.

I don't know what will.

That doesn't get you jacked up. I don't know what will.