Is like cheating:)...... best way to cull the bigguns out of the crowd. Pogies are around in force. And the fishing has been good up this way. Makes it worth getting up at 0400.

Ive fished the keys for cuda and tarpon, pike in NY, largmouths all over CT, NH, VT, fished sharks in FL, yet.....

Live bunker for bass is the most exciting and fun fishing experience I have ever had. I can do it every day and never get bored!

Live Bait from a Boat is EASY

cheating? don't say that to #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&! just kidding!
you boat guys have all the fun.....:D

Ross......you're killing me.

I'm beginning to forget what a striper looks like

this is my first year ever getting a chance at fishing with pogies and i definetley agree that watching a big bass chase your bait to the top and after it while it trys to get away is the most exciting fishing ive ever done big bait + big fish = big fun

yes it is cheating and it doesn't count, so stop fishing them

Wait till PETA finds out and takes on defense of pogies

I love live lining just like eeling etc. I was out last night and they wanted no part of the pogies at all There was alot of other bait in the water non of which I had. There were fish breaking surfeace and lots on the bottom with the other bait. So I will tell you there are times when they are so full they just pick at the little stuff. If it is cheating I guess I am cheating but I do not know what I am cheating at as I was out fish with live bait so I did not cheat myself.:confused::confused::confused:

Dr3

I like live lining pogies from shore snag em' up and cast them out. If that doesnt work just snag them and bring them somewhere else. As far as keeping the smaller fish away im not sure about that as I have had a few schoolies on live pogies, some as small as 25".

it reminds me of livelining herring but more exciting because lots of times you see the hits on top. It's the same rush and same addiction as herring, but now we are lucky to have pogies around once again, soon the herring will make a comeback and we'll be going mental again over them too. One big difference though is the time of year, herring is pretty much a spring thing, and pogies go all season :D

I prefer jigs and plugs but it is a blast having your bait nailed and a freight train takes off line from your reel.

those poor pogies









THROW WOOD save the pogies :hee:

If the seals find'em or FW open up the inshore fishery, we'll only have wood to throw.

I use live Scup, they great also, and easier to get , and are there all the time for the bass. ;)

I use live Scup, they great also, and easier to get , and are there all the time for the bass. ;)

And if you don't catch a bass you can eat the scup!!

What's a pogie ???
:huh:

cheating? don't say that to #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&! just kidding!
you boat guys have all the fun.....:D

Cut the tail off so the pogie can't out run the bass...Now thats cheating...:hidin::hidin:

My biggest beef with it is that some guys dont go through the effort to transfer the pogie from the snag hook to a large circle hook or some other 'friendly' hook that inst going to disembowel the bass when it swallows the bait.. At that point its no better than yo-yoing..

Back to our regular scheduled programming. Keep it civil please. Zero flames. Thank you

So if we can all take a view into the crystal ball and see what the bass stocks are like in say 10 years if the menhaden cycle stays like it has the past 2 years, where do all of you see the bass stocks??

This is the way I see it- JohnR, I hope you own the rights to www.blue-fish.com :(

i don't get it.....

first the problem is that we don't have enough bait.... fishery is in trouble....

now we have too much bait and the fishery is in trouble.?..?. :huh:

So if we can all take a view into the crystal ball and see what the bass stocks are like in say 10 years if the menhaden cycle stays like it has the past 2 years, where do all of you see the bass stocks??

This is the way I see it- JohnR, I hope you own the rights to www.blue-fish.com :(

Just my uninformed opinion... right now, the bunker are in the worst possible position. There are enough of them so the bass are feeding on them and geting fat and healthy. BUT, the schools of bunker are not vast enough to spread out and spread the bass out. Therefore, they make it as easy as shooting fish in a barrel to kill ALLOT of big bass. For the basses sake, more (or less) bunker is in their long term interest. Due only to man's greed and foolishness.

So if we can all take a view into the crystal ball and see what the bass stocks are like in say 10 years if the menhaden cycle stays like it has the past 2 years, where do all of you see the bass stocks??

This is the way I see it- JohnR, I hope you own the rights to www.blue-fish.com :(


the way I see it we should be able to take a number of small ones and leave the large one there to lay more eggs!
from the shore is the only way to go with artificial's now I consider that
fishing in the true sense of the word.
now don't you all go crazy on me thats the way I see it ! my .02 :humpty:

slot slot slot slot slot slot slot

Just my uninformed opinion... right now, the bunker are in the worst possible position. There are enough of them so the bass are feeding on them and geting fat and healthy. BUT, the schools of bunker are not vast enough to spread out and spread the bass out. Therefore, they make it as easy as shooting fish in a barrel to kill ALLOT of big bass. For the basses sake, more (or less) bunker is in their long term interest. Due only to man's greed and foolishness.

I think the situation is exaggerated. For a few weeks, people were getting a lot of bass in the 20s in one very, very small area, in a very, very small state. Is that really an indication of the entire bass population? This year it was Providence, last year it was somewhere else, the year before somewhere else. JF - the bass populations IS spread out. I have been doing very well this year and fishing NOWHERE near the bunker schools. I get bait and go a few miles away to fish, no bunker around at all except in my livewell.
People used to slay bass on Herring in the canal for years, did that cause a major issue in the fishery?

I truly dont know, but I think opinions are being formed on a small sampling of a large population and geographic area.

Jim;
I think to some extent you are right; but a lot of other harbors up and down the coast (CT, and Ma are seeing similar events)

As always in this topic
I say 1fish 36"
end of story.

I think the big bass slaying is only going on in certain spots and pretty much only a boat game. From what I've read about the years leading up to the moratorium, a lot more people were into big bass from shore and boat. Plus, there were less comm regulations and such too right? And wasn't a keeper 16 inches for like a lot of years before that too?
I just find it hard to believe we are headed down the same path as those days.

back then there may have been say 2 thousand guys keeping 2o bass a day.. now there are 20 thousand people keeping 2 a day. you cant ccompare then to now.. its all skewed.

And then there are days like today. Very different than yesterday.... NW wind was up early, no bunker finning = no bunker snagged = no bass caught with bunker, even fresh dead bunker. Did hit on a school of small fish that were feeding on bait identical to the 2 oz. crippled herring lure. So I'm seeing healthy representation in all sizes of the stock here.

If the bunker are there, the fish will be there. I'm snagging the bunker to get them, as are 90% of the recs I see. And IMO the majority of the recs with live bunker immediately head out, away from where they got the bunker, and away from the fish.... (I do laugh when I see those boats steam out of the harbor, because they seem to get maybe one fish for every five bunker they fish.) And snagging them is not an efficient way of gathering bait. But it is part of my 'quest' in the early hours before the rest of the world gets up.

Comm season gets going on the 13th. (I do not hold a comm license BTW) Then it's a different game out there. But I'm not seeing any slaughter being done by the other recs. I like to think I've just been lucky so far.:bl:

yeah thats a good point Nebe, but I still think what's going on in the bay down there isn't neccesarily happending everywhere and it sure as hell ain't happending from the surf up and down the coast (just read the reports in the fisherman) Athough some here are saying it is happending everywhere, so who knows!

I don't think it is that bad. Is it good? I don't know. But I do know that for a while we were all claiming how malnourished these fish were because there were no bunker around (the supposed super meal for a bass) and not there are considerably more fat and happy bass out there eating fat and unhappy menhaden And there are a lot more of those bass getting fat and happy then getting caught in Providence. I don't think that a season in Narragansett Bay holds a candle to one big net boat in the drop at the inlets off the Outer Banks or one week in the Great South Channel.

It sucks for us shore fishers that the bass aren't hanging out along our beloved rocky shores but it is good for 95% of the bass that feed up on a summers worth of bunker and elude the bunker chunker in the bay. I don't think it is a slaughter of epic proportions going on. I really don't think that 20 thousand (or 1 thousand for that matter) people are keeping two a day.

The biggest problem is that the shore fishing sucks, however I really like the fact that the bass are feeding well.

The biggest problem is that the shore fishing sucks, however I really like the fact that the bass are feeding well.

So get your Seacraft in! Seriously, is that project still moving forward? Or taking a summer hiatus?

Whether the situation is exaggerated by the presence of pogies or not.
I look at charts like these as scary.

1fish
36"

Couple that with certain recent year classes hit hard with Mycobacteriosis, and I am worried... FWIW, the 1996 year class would be ~38-39" now, and the 2001 year class is ~28-30"...

1fish
36"

There was no rec data available from before 1982; I dont think it is nearly as high as today....

1fish
36"

I didn't live through the before years, but I remember the mid-late 80's as a kid well. Bluefish were the main game in town....

1fish
36"

I can live with a few slow seasons in local surf due to a shift in bait patterns. I am worried about 5 years from now....

1fish
36"

Dont forget to add the ~8% release mortality to the the landings.....

I think the situation is exaggerated. For a few weeks, people were getting a lot of bass in the 20s in one very, very small area, in a very, very small state. Is that really an indication of the entire bass population? This year it was Providence, last year it was somewhere else, the year before somewhere else. JF - the bass populations IS spread out. I have been doing very well this year and fishing NOWHERE near the bunker schools. I get bait and go a few miles away to fish, no bunker around at all except in my livewell.
People used to slay bass on Herring in the canal for years, did that cause a major issue in the fishery?

I truly dont know, but I think opinions are being formed on a small sampling of a large population and geographic area.

The only reason you are catching fish is because you bought a boat, and boat fishing is easy

This link has the explanation of how it is done.
Simple explanation is they net in the same places every year and quantify the results (sort of like keeping a fishing log) After a while you can see the trends.

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/juvindex/index.html

The only reason you are catching fish is because you bought a boat, and boat fishing is easy

when I go out at 3:30am, my marina is full, when I come in, my marina is mostly full. The reason I am catching fish is because I am trying. There are lots of boat guys not catching squat.

RIJIMMY I agree with you all the way and boat fishing is not as easy as everybody thinks. I am not going to start a controversie on that but I will say the same get the bait and go snag for two hours get bait keep alive in tank find fish control boat look out for others not crashing into you etc. That is alot of the reason I fish at night. Live pogies rule. I am glad they are back anad yes they are breaking up also not all the bunker were in the big city all year it just appeared that way.

Peace
DR3

Where'd the bloody ell did my post go? state the truth and get :cens::huh:

I agree with 1 at 36. However, I hate to see anyone( including #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&) get skewered for taking the legal limit. I don't care if it's for fertilizer.

Dar3 is correct. Boat fishing for bass with bunker is not as easy as every one thinks. Some are better than others. Billy is an outstanding bass fisherman who does decidely better than most whether he is in a boat or the surf. In a boat he does well with eels after dark when he goes, but why bother because he does so well during the day.

By the way, live eels after dark , surf or boat, is effective as bunker just not as visual. Nobody complains about live eelers.

Quote; eels are just as effective at night as bunker


Steve you hit that nail right on the head. I love hearing the truth. Peace

Dr3

I don't care if it's for fertilizer.

You really don't care about the fishery do you?

:doh:

when I go out at 3:30am, my marina is full, when I come in, my marina is mostly full. The reason I am catching fish is because I am trying. There are lots of boat guys not catching squat.

Maybe they catch fish while you are gone and come back before you?
:laughs:

Just my uninformed opinion... right now, the bunker are in the worst possible position. There are enough of them so the bass are feeding on them and geting fat and healthy. BUT, the schools of bunker are not vast enough to spread out and spread the bass out. Therefore, they make it as easy as shooting fish in a barrel to kill ALLOT of big bass. For the basses sake, more (or less) bunker is in their long term interest. Due only to man's greed and foolishness.

JF:
I agree with you that it was that way a month ago. It's no longer easy to find bass. The water is over 70 degrees in the Bay and the bass have headed for deep water. You can still get good fish but it's no longer a sure thing.
I am glad the bass spread out. I was fed up with them jamokes snagging and dropping. Now you need to get your pogies and then figure out when the big girls are hiding.
....and another thing. I am sick and tired of hearing all this whining about live lining is cheating. If it is (and IT ISN'T) then live eels are cheating and chunking mackeral is cheating and Tube and worm is cheating and clam bellies are cheating. Come on give it a break. It's all fishing. If you don't like it, don't do it.

My original comment was a sarcastic joke, that it was ALMOST like cheating, due to the thrill this particular type of fishing gives me..... bunker goes down, then realizes he is on bottom of food chain, surfaces like a submarine in an emergency, chase, swirls, pops, jumps, then drag screams like it's hooked to a freight train! Just my take on it. And the hunt for the bunker are just as important and satisfying. All this before work!


Might be coming to a quick end up here though. Two more pogie boats in th harbor today, both from Gloucester, trawling or seining as much in aone set as the local guy was doing in a month...... sux.

Fun while it lasted, but it will be time to change gears within a couple of days. Back to fooling them with plugs and rubber!

Ross:
My commets were not directed at you. I know you well enough to be able to read "tongue in cheek".
Sounds like you are having a great year. Us also. You get to little RI, ping me. You know you are welcome on my boat anytime.