Interest in Fishing Is Sinking, but Diamond Jim Stays Afloat

By all measures, interest in fishing in Maryland is declining, which is bad news for everyone but the fish. It's bad for charter boat operators whose vessels sit idle most days and for the Department of Natural Resources, whose revenues fell with the 15 percent to 20 percent decline in license sales over the past few years.

It's bad news for stores that sell bait and lures, for motels and inns by the river or bay, for marina operators who rent slips and sell gasoline and diesel and for boat dealers and trailer salesmen. People are losing money! What can be done to stem this calamity?

Five years ago, DNR came up with the idea of reviving Diamond Jim, a short-lived 1950s promotion in which a rockfish (striped bass) was fitted with a tag worth $10,000 to the angler who caught it. Inflation and boom times being what they were, the price on the head of the revived Diamond Jim in 2004 was set at $1 million, a ridiculous sum that forced DNR to make absolutely sure no one ever got anywhere near it.

The public soon doped that scam out and Diamond Jim has since evolved. These days, the prize tagged fish is worth $10,000, $20,000 or $25,000, depending whether it's caught in June, July or August. Maryland also added $500 prizes for other tagged stripers. By August, 150 rockfish will have been set loose around the Chesapeake sporting bright green spaghetti- string belly tags, each worth $500 except for the blessed one worth much more. If past records are any indication, a handful may be caught. Last year, not a single one was.

But wait, there's more. Other prizes will be awarded to anglers who catch citation-size fish of various species in salt or fresh water, statewide. Last year, top prizes for this contest were a Toyota Tundra truck and a boat, motor and trailer. Boater's World, the boat donor, has since gone bankrupt and Toyota is struggling and declined to give away a truck this year.

Bass Pro Shops popped up at the last moment last week with a $15,000 boat, motor and trailer for the grand prize, so Diamond Jim lives on in a scaled-back, recessionary way.

DNR officials seemed relieved to make that announcement Thursday at the Rod 'n' Reel Dock in Chesapeake Beach, where 30 charter boats sat idle, bobbing in their slips on a perfect day with spring fishing near peak. I asked Capt. Ed O'Brien, president of the Maryland Charter Boat Operators Association, about bookings this year. "Terrible," he grumbled. "Just terrible. And fishing's been great."

O'Brien and four or five fellow chartermen volunteered their boats to catch stripers for the tagging operation Thursday. Several of us from the media and the DNR manned the rods. O'Brien was not exaggerating about the fishing. It took only a couple of hours trolling with bucktails and umbrella lures a few miles off the Rod 'n' Reel for the fleet to boat 50 keeper-size stripers over 18 inches long. Each was fitted with a tag and released.

While we trolled, I chatted with Tom O'Connell, head of Maryland Fisheries. We'd previously fished together on Allen's Fresh during the yellow perch run, which he said was the highlight of his fishing season to date -- catching a half-dozen or so little fish on light tackle, then organizing an ad-lib fish fry on the riverbank.

O'Connell is a plainspoken Midwesterner who is as concerned as anyone about declining interest in outdoors sports and what it says about modern culture. He also was open-minded enough to acknowledge that putting $500, $10,000 or $1 million price tags on wild fish may not be sending the perfect message.

Still, he said, "We've got to do something to get people interested."

Putting our tiny little heads together, the head of Maryland Fisheries and I deduced that while Diamond Jim may boost the fortunes of some charter captains and corporate bigwigs, what the fishing community also needs is some fresh, young blood coming up. How might we seduce kids into taking up the sport?