i sure miss them, thats really what i learned to fish for first, besides flatfish....and i miss those too !
my grampa would bring me to gooseberry island at dusk, and we would cast swimmers, or use squid. as i remember they were soooo pretty.
the rule was; blues on top and 'teague down low......
guess i was a lucky kid..........!

:fishin:back in the day ><><><><><><><:wall:

Absolutely one of the prettiest fish in the world. Use to watch this kid fish for them just off of Tashmoo at sunrise with live bunker with a balloon attached to the line. When the balloon went under for ten or twelve seconds the kid would start reeling. I have never caught one.

That's how I started in NJ weakfish. 10lbser's. Outgoing night tide.

Anyone ever cook/eat them ?

If they are cyclic they've been in a down cycle or a while now :wall:

In my entire life,I've seen only two.Caught on successive casts at Ctown.(not by me)Maybe 15 yrs ago?:confused:

I caught my first weak way before i caught my first striper......as a kid we would get them on the Cape..some big ones too...now they just happen every once in a while. The last weak i caught on the cape was about 5 years ago. We actually got into a good school of them, but they were all about 10-15inches long. At the time i thought it was a sing they were coming back......I guess not.....its so sad...I miss them very much

Anyone ever cook/eat them ?

squeteague are great eating fish but they freeze badly.......eat them fresh or let them go.......I use to catch some big tiderunners just outside the w end of the canal when I was a kid......I really miss that fishery......:(

i caught 2 at the s.k. town beach about 6 yrs. ago. bought them to ronnie at breechway bait for a wiegh in and the were both at 8 lbs.
they were the first ones for me in 20 yrs. delicous fish to eat. and very preety fresh caught. greenwich bay use to be loaded with them in the spring.
alas, no more.

in the 70's and early 80's we used to catch loads of them up to the high teens. the bay, barrington and warren rivers were loaded with them...

Growing up in NJ in the 60s and RI in the early 70s there were plenty of weak fish. They would often be inter-mixed with blue fish. Fun fish to catch and good to eat.

Now there listed as depleted and the stock is at it's lowest level, yet ASMFC still allows both recreational and commercial fishing for them.

I have only seen them in fish markets.I would to see one fresh caught.What I would like to ask the masses here....I have read of the cyclical nature of this fish and as John said they seem to be at the bottom of the cycle for awhile now..Yet no one seems too concerned about them..Can anyone tell us what biologists have to say about them?

We get a good run of BIG Weakfish in the Spring in Raritan Bay, NJ... The Weakie mixed with the bass is 18lbs... Ate a whole Pogie!

They are awesome eating if Bled, Iced down right away, and eaten fresh... They did not freeze very well and the meat goes soft fast....

remember catching good size squeteague in mount hope bay early 80's. they have a very soft mouth and had to play them instead of horsing them in. flesh not as oily as blue and not as dry as bass. think the RI state record was 17 lbs in the 80's, had a couple back then that would have pushed the record. no idea what it is now. they are a very pretty looking fish with a bright yellow mouth.

FISHPART ;
who,s on this site /put one in my boat 6 - 7 years ago //about 7# plugging for bass ;:fishin:

The last two I caught were 12# & 15# while snagging pogies way back when ::::confused:

We get a good run of BIG Weakfish in the Spring in Raritan Bay, NJ... The Weakie mixed with the bass is 18lbs... Ate a whole Pogie!

They are awesome eating if Bled, Iced down right away, and eaten fresh... They did not freeze very well and the meat goes soft fast....

that is one beautiful fish, Ken ! i've never seen one that big.
the largest ones that i have witnessed caught took a snag/drop pogie.
once i saw an awesome sight on the outer banks-NC, corolla beach maybe... a massive school of blues were pushing these "trout" right up onto the beach...for @ 500 yards. all were like 12-18 inches. thousands upon thousands were up on the sand, dying.

......a moderate Northeast storm in September......live lined adult pogies....totes of gutted 16-19 pound squets off to Steve at RI Fish Providence....spring fishing with rubber Touts 6-10 pounders all of outgoing.......BI North Rip....eel head jigs with English rubba sand eels..double headers every drop............fresh squets fillets baked with vine ripened tomatoes with a "Gansett".......awe days of old......low impact rod n'reel.....................love the fang marks on live/cut bait....talked to biologists....mid Atlantic netting of adults combined with voracious appetites of well established populations of striped bass and bluefish(eating young squets) are part of the problem--with squet abundance cycles-hi/lows spanning decades...............:fishin:

I only caught one back in the 90's out in front of Barrington Beach during a Bluefish blitz. The fish took a Kastmaster with a yellow bucktail single hook in the rear. I still have the picture attached to my frig. The funny thing about that day, I took a nice fluke on a windcheater casting at breaking fish in the Warren River a few hours later.

I use to see big fish in the 15 lb class caught under the Mt. Hope Bridge in the late 70's.

TRAPPER;;

Steve & his brother were two crazy bastards / we filled his schoolie s & white perch supply /// except on the nights the guy from Swansea set his net in the New England Power Plant Discharge ...... then the y would f $%^&*( us & we would have to peddle the fish :wall:

...nothing to do 400-800 lbs a tide at BI North Rip in late 70's, early 80's on jigs....or similar numbers at Pt Jude Light/Scarborough..jigs...late 70's.

At that time large numbers were caught by seiners in Peconic Bay....even though the commercial pressure on this fishery is minimal these days, the cycle has still not caught up. There were similar cyclic drops in the late 30's/early 40s and I believe in the late 19th century....as with most fish cycles, no real answers.....whats funny, is that there were a large amount of small (6 inch) squet everywhere in the upper Bay late 80's to mid 90's....haven't seen them since.....

Also, we would get them back in "old days" under the pogies...I'm sure Clammer and Trapper remember that.....

Jmac ;;

Mu uncle would rell me storis about them when I was a kid ............ so it had to be 30/40,s .he had a flyrod / with a float .that they only used for squetaeague .. & all they did was fish grass shrimp /

In the seventies we started catching very small ones in Mt hope bay ...... I din,t even know what they were til we kept a couple & showed them around ..............that was beginning of the last cycle ......... we started to smoked them in E/G bay on yellow uppermans // as they got larger /the numbers got smaller ... we than would catch descent size commercial tubing /but they were a by-catch ;

they end came when they were being caught on pogies .
But there still must be a few around because B/M who is a shore fisherman in RISSA had the RISSA record a few yesra ago & I think it was the very next year he broke his own record. probably the largest from shore in RI .. I think its 16+ # ..

I few years ago I had a early summer where they were potting in my minnow traps .I guess that was going to be the start of the next local cycle / but the amount of bass, blues, fluke .add the seals & commarants . probably ended it befor e it really had a chance to get going ;;

never in my life I,ve I seen a fish si soft // if you caught in the morning / ya better have kept it on ice or in the water ......... even if you stacked them in a cooler & it was a long day .they were history ;;

Jmac ;;


they end came when they were being caught on pogies .
;;
:devil2:

Squeteague were pretty much absent from RI from the 1940's until the 70's. We're on the extreme northern edge of their range, and when the population is in an up cycle, we more or less get the spillover as long as conditions are favorable here. They've never been consistently plentiful here in my lifetime. They might be around for a few years, then they're gone again. I started surf fishing in the late '50's and I saw my first squeteague in 1974. They're a great gamefish, but I doubt we'll ever see them with any great regularity. There were fair numbers of them in Quonochontaug Pond in the late '90's, but I haven't heard of much since then.

I had a dream this morning about catching a squeteague, d'uh. Maybe they will start swimming further north again.

Kept a bass this past spring loaded with 7 6" fish that I'm 98% sure were baby weaks... the teeth and everything matched, just a bit too digested to see colors

Connecticut sees some weakfish in a narrow window in May. In one famous 3 day period in 2006 was it?-- some guys from the CT surfcasters from the shore had a 13 pounder caught by Billy D. and 4 or 5 over 10 pounds. But the next year not much. Its very erratic. Most of the big fish that year were caught on mag darters.

On the Great South Bay as a young kid I got one and I recall my dad's face...he was in shock, he said he hadn't see a weakfish in 20 years...within a few years (early 70's) it was gangbusters of weaks in the bays on LI. Lots of quality fish in the 10+ lb range.

They use to spawn in the flats on the bay, I would watch them swim in circles in 3' of water among the eel grass. Commercial Gill netters would pound them. Once I saw a fellow fill his cockpit to his knees with fish he caught during the spawn (I was probably 13 or so at the time). I approached him in my boat at the dock and asked him why the took so many...what he said was he needed to take all he could because he was getting just ....15 cents/pound.:wall: I told him that I would pay him more than that just to keep them alive. It was a shame to see the row-filled females slaughtered like that. Wish I took a photo.
Now, I hear it is pretty thin these days, nothing like those days.

Caught good numbers in the surf on BI in the early 80's. Now on MV I think one or two come into the local tackle shop each season with a "what is this?"

I am sure bass eat them too, there is noting else for them to eat.

Very mild and tastey fish, as a kid my mom would cook them with eggs for breakfast

So, the questions are......

Are the Weakfish stocks down because of overfishing? Does it have commercial value? Has the weakfish become a major source of food for other predators now that menhaden are not as plentiful?

I have no idea and I have never seen or caught a weakfish. Just curious if anyone has any ideas.

Probably all of the above. But IMO it's also due to a lack of understanding of the species by the fisheries management groups resulting in poor regulations across the board.

So, the questions are......

Are the Weakfish stocks down because of overfishing? Does it have commercial value? Has the weakfish become a major source of food for other predators now that menhaden are not as plentiful?

I have no idea and I have never seen or caught a weakfish. Just curious if anyone has any ideas.

I don't know anything about commercial pressure on them elsewhere, but like I said before, they've never been what you'd call plentiful this far north except in short bursts. There were none at all in RI in the 1950's and 60's. I didn't even know they existed and I fished just about every day back then. When conditions are favorable here and the population is up they might appear for a year or two, but otherwise, they're just sporadic visitors. Cape Cod is probably the extreme northern limit of their range, even in good years. I've caught more jack crevalle in RI than I have weakfish.

They use to be a species included the MV derby.

Again that was back a few years, that was when the bass population was lower...perhaps that was the reason???? who knows.

Great fish though, wish they were around more. Maybe global warming will expand their northerly range:biglaugh:

We get a small annual spawning group in my local area, although that too has really started to get thin.

Clammer......Steve at RI Fish was wild dude......those 16-19 pounders(squets) were gutted weight.......pay'n the bills not think'n of records.....as for white perch---in the 70's--I would shore fish the Palmer near the rt 6 bridge....fill up bushel baskets(yea-wooden ones)and go down to see Steve---while perch'n on rt 6....a channel 10(TV) Prov reporter interviewed me...the reporter was Meridith Viera---the host of NBC Today Show(now).......while she is attractive today-she was smok'n hot back then.......oh the days of perch.................maybe start a pollock thread:fishin:

damn ;we probably hid from each other ;;:love:

but to tell ya the truth . we had a few places much better than that ///////////maybe at as many / but we had those huge one that were black & bronze ..:fishin:

your right .she could/ can sit on my F ace all the time,, all day ;;:jump1:

WTF was his brothers name ??? Pete ?? :confused:

the stuff I saw him do & sell in there /must be one of the underlying reasons I don,t eat seafood <><><:confused:

Adding to wader dad reply, 2005 was a year short lived of big Weaks. In a 3 day period Weakfish 5-13lbs were caught. Following tide cycle HI dusk all gone. Remember slamming big Weaks in 1981/1982? North Rip B.I. on 6 oz Crocidles.

All my catches in Narragansett Bay have been incidental over the years.

One at Gaspee Point from shore, one at Colt State Park from shore, one from Greene Island from shore, and two by boat near Prudence Island. All while fishing for blues or stripers.

Heard wild stories of a weakfish blitz somewhere in South County a few years back in the fall.

There are those who target them (B. Moeller as Clammer mentioned) and they do catch at least a few every year. Certain areas are known producers.

In regard to the commercial value:
It was in the Fall of 1989 and Larry Tremblay and I were fishing the Block. We went to dinner at Govenor something hotel and were sitting at the bar. Met a commercial dragger captain and got to talking about Bass, Bluefish and he brought up Squets. He said his nets were full of them the last few days about 12 miles SE of the Block. He was getting $4 a pound! He wasn't dragging speciafically for them but it was a by-catch on which he was making a ton of money.

were sitting at the bar
.....uhh, that sounds like "bar" talk from a BI dragger; back during the years you mentioned, we had a great buyer for our squetegue (he was up here from MD)....for top quality iced, rod/reel caught fish, our price was 85 cents/lb...which was considered a real good price. we were selling the fish in Galillee....take what the dragger said "with a grain of salt"....

The West Haven Sand Bar (West Haven, CT) had dependable spring runs starting around 1995 that lasted several years (I'd love to know why, because I grew up there, and the fishing was never anything special). It was the only place I knew where you could go there, target them, and catch them. As others said, awesome fish to eat fresh, doesn't freeze too well.

The West Haven runs have really tapered off lately...

.....uhh, that sounds like "bar" talk from a BI dragger; back during the years you mentioned, we had a great buyer for our squetegue (he was up here from MD)....for top quality iced, rod/reel caught fish, our price was 85 cents/lb...which was considered a real good price. we were selling the fish in Galillee....take what the dragger said "with a grain of salt"....

Thanks Mac. You never know what to believe in a bar but he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Anyway, Larry and I "crushed" the bass that week. I think is was late Oct.

The ASMFC technical committee has no idea what is responsible for the decline, and they admit it. The fish are successfully spawning but something is going wrong between the time they hatch and the time they mature, the young ones are just disappearing. They were a commercially valuable species, but now the ASMFC has effectively shut down the commercial fishery. The stock has always been cyclical as far back as records go. If I recall correctly its a 20-year cycle.

lets blame the dogfish and seals. :hihi:

Clammer(correction "white perch=beverage")........not sure of name for Steve's brother(had to be as wacked as Steve to work there)......the "white perch connection. circa 1970's".........:fishin: for white perch(one time bonus of eye candy Meridith Viera)....RI Fish for green(beverage money)....compose oneself a bit....hit Senate Cafe for extended stay :buds::smash: maybe if we don't croak..another boom of squets in our lifetime:uhuh: ...as for seals & commie birds(those ugly prehistoric remnants-destroyer of small fish with an oversize population) are part of the squets demise(winter flouder too)..........

Booze

Portuguese Club / Manny Almedia,s / Corner Cafe, & Babe,s on wickenden street /all true fox point [bars]:gh:

as a kid I would vist family @ the outer banks,NC. one thing i remember seeing was guys setup w/ a small boat they would launch from the beach, and set out a reallllly long gillnet. later the pulled it in w/ trucks, and there were thousands of speckled trout in it, usually 18-24".......
the fish were sold commercially(not knocking com. fishing here !)
and i was just amazed at how many fish would fill the backs of pickups.......i don't know if they were the same exact fish, but i thought they were squet's.....this was a pretty common tradition,
and not unusual to see on a calm day in november.
that might have hurt a little bit over the decades.

I-24

not the same fish ><><:fishin:

two falls ago i was fishing a few spots on the south shore of LI,if you saw all the little weakfish that the blues and bass were eating you might have an idea were they went before maturing.i also grew up on the south shore of LI.in the early 60's you had to fish the peconics if you wanted to catch weakfish.by the early 70's the bay was fully of small 18 to 24 inch weakfish.by the late 70's there were no small weakfish for the most part but 8 to 15lbers were pretty common.sure the gillnetters caught alot but that doesn't explain why they didn't come back for years.the old timers always said when there were blowfish there weren't any weakfish,what ever happened to our beloved blowfish?

ILIVT

I,ve only seen 1 in RI in the last 25 years & that was in a dealers lobster tank .some lobsterman caught it in his traps .but that could have been anywhere

as a kid......in the late 50's handlining for fluke and chogies off George's Short Wall.........blowfish where a common catch...our fishing gear & bait came from old lady Ms Fish bait & tackle....with the perfume of the pogie processing plant adding to the charm of the adventure......hey that was a half a century ago.........and my brother and I -age 10 & 12..would cod fish coxes on Lou O'Donald's head boat NAUTICAN-the mate would keep an eye on us............we'd catch 20-40+ pounders .......got B+W photos of cod as big as us..............."Granny" would bake a whole fish with bacon strips on top of the cod,,yum..................Dan Head would be barking tuna tourney winning weights......giants a nickel a pound for cat food......Ashaway line was the benchmark on squidders......Pt. Jude Tins and Atom reverse 40's...........brought a Mitchel 304 reel/rod to fish off the short wall...people would ask what was it I was fishing with...........................Days of yor............................:uhuh:

Mike the last one that i caught was in 97 fishing in Topsail island NC.when i was a kid i had a 50ft seine that i used to catch spearing for bait.quite often a pull of the seine would have hundreds of tiny blowfish in it,maybetwo inches long. from the dock you could catch bigger blowfish all day long with just about anything on the hook. a piece of bologna was all you needed.

trapper,when i was 11 years old,mid 60's i had a 56lb cod on the Viking out of montauk,the day after thanksgiving.did quite a few trips out to coxes with my father on either the Victory or peconic queen in the 60's and 70's,boy did i eat a lot of fish

VTer.......corker cod was a commonplace catch back then....not just one 40-50+ cod being pool winner........and..........bro & I would take one large one for oven bake(with head & tail removed would literally fill the oven) and a good size metal sided cooler brimming with filets......I can't remember ever get'n skunked.........I would violate IGFA fishing practice by resting the solid glass loooonng harwood handle rod on the rail.........to inch/crank these monsters up:rotf2:......and..............It would be nice if the squets would cooperate and give another cycle run of big numbers:soon:

:uhuh:YOU TWO OUR LIKE INSTANT REPLAYS ;;;:uhuh:

..........memories and hope for the future in one breath........don't hold ya breath though...:wall:

damn I quit trying to hold my d ick :fishin:

Hey Trapper..remember dropoff at Buttonwoods? Yellow upperman..a fish every third cast..usually started April 10 or so...even before the schoolies; in the little whaler.....by the way, none of that Senate Cafe talk around here...

WTF are you ;

3/8 yellow upperman drop off @ Bakers creek on the drop ><><:hidin:

......JMAC.........O.K. on the wagon......and stealth...hehehehe:grins:

........can still see the "Trickster" group using yellow half ounce "Touts" off Nausauket and catch'n squets by the dozen.....#^&#^&#^&#^& S Bob S. &George S...............I even see a E.G. Oil truck......:grins:

Did he get back in time ?

GS ..use to be out there when he was on call .................... you would see him go in & then back out ;

I guess helen must have passed by now /she was arching all over last time I saw her .

......last time I saw George & Helen was at the crows nest many years ago.....George had on his funny fish hat.....the whole trout coming out of his @#$%&*head.................:jester:

he had a fight with Nick [helens] son on who was going to drive him to the hospital ;;
he drove ,he died that day ;

they had a G S day at the apartment complex where he fed all the ducks & trapped the snapping turtles .. there is a plaque there ...where they actually changed the name on the pond to george,s Pond ;;

They had his service right in the funeral palor ......... the place looked like retired fishmens day ....... most were dressed up but you wouldn,t know it cuz ya couldn,t tell the difference in their clothes .
He was laid out in his plaid shirt. red serpenders [sp] / the fish hat you mention ed ;
& Helen had the talking largemouthbass on the coffin ... & everyone had to squeeze it when we paid respects ;;

He was one in 10 Million & everyone has a dozen different George S, stories ;

without trying he was really a character & I consider myselk lucky to have known & fished with him ;;:fishin:

Clammer/Trapper...

Remember GS in his little green boat with live pogies/50lb mono in tight at the corner of Norton's...amongst the sailboats.....many good times in there...we would be laffing our a$$ off at all the commotion with volkswagon sized boils everywhere....

...

Jmac ;

when I see you / I,m going to run that Alcar [fisherman] over ;

you don,t return PM,s ;wtf we are the last of that group ......... ya got a couple of youngins in your crew Rays kid & Billy B. & they ain,t kids RJ bought a new truck . so that may keep him working a little longer / & a lot of wanna be, s in your wake ;;

thrifty crew / was george & his bunch . we would be jin erickson,s & they would buy 6 -10 hooks at a time .
One day George saw my truck at a yard sale .. the next time he saw me on the water / he stopped & told me to quit buying [his] sinkers .... I don,t think I ever got a sinker @ a y/s :wall:

Check your PM's..didn't realize U sent me 1

...I dont' run with nobody....I "associate";
...i liked the old days better.....if you get my drift.

George was one of of kind....if you think about it, they were all one of a kind....Goda, Roland, Tom D. (who recently passed), Ding and Dong brothers, your buddy Earl,,,we could go on and on....

Last blowfish I caught was from the rocky shores of "Sequest Point" or at least that's how my father pronounced it way back when. That's when you could drive your car off the point if you had too much shine in ya.....and if memory serves me right, they'd make quite the racket after being kicked around the rocks too....:fury:...that's the price they'd pay for wasting $$$sandworms....they'd bounce pretty good too, not that I ever tried it.


btw....you guys are OLD. :blush:

btw....you guys are OLD. :blush:

Hey, Gilly - if you remember driving around "Sequest Point" it's definitely a sign that you're on the road to Geezer City...:hihi:

Fun to read and fun to remember but it's sorta sad sometimes to think of what once was and is no more - and not so very long ago, either...:hs:

I'm glad I grew up around here when I did in the '50's and '60's - in a lot of ways we had the best of it, I think...:)

..... fun to remember but it's sorta sad sometimes ....

Chuck, it TRULY is sad. Especially up your way...Just to think of the amount of shore-access that's been taken away in your area :smash:

It's very depressing that my own son will NEVER stand on many of the rocks that I was first taught to fish from. :( this is a depressing thread.

Gotta leave it be.:wall:

Booze

Portuguese Club / Manny Almedia,s / Corner Cafe, & Babe,s on wickenden street /all true fox point [bars]:gh:

manny almedias ringside lounge :) - used to serve us when we we're 17 yo :)- they liked our $$$ and we liked their beer! we were known as the white kids from barrington...

Don .

that,s after the original Manny Almedia,s // you would have never got served in the original / matter of fact / you would have never gone into the original ...


Jmac ...... JD Teddy saif it was a H/A

whatever happened to Bennie P.:confused:

Bennie P? he would be 100 by now.....

Manny Almeida's Fireside Lounge ...also his other one in Warwick-would watch Bruins/Espostito/Orr/Sanderson back then
Another Ulphostered Sewer-McGoverns(?) on the old Canal St...you wiped your feet when U left....

Where did the Squeteague thread go ?????????????:confused::fishin:

.....days of yor...............only a compass & ranges(ask the nube-thinks range is old time name for kitchen stove)..........Earl B adding lead in bow of Lema 19(with fall manuvers ON Patience Island)...Manny's old tyme....go with 2 thugs from Senate Cafe(worst dive in Prov then)for protection(Met, Armondo's, Pirate Den, Oscars)..Roland asking "has the fog lifted yet" then goes back to sleep in his vehicle.........ole man Howie C(catch'n too) tied in bow of Whaler Bunkie Dunkie, by son Barry C......the underwear raking clams off of Rumstick....decoy runs to fool followers.......:rotf2:......the memory list is endless,,,,,,and we lived thru its a......miracle:buds:

,,,,,,here's hope'n that the squets invade RI waters........:smash:soon

Barry old man was screwed if barry didn,t get something for him ........ he couldn,t see for s $%^&* but the fish didn,t know it /

yeah earl had some serious lead up front .. otherwise it probably would have flipped ..... that was a wet ass boat ;

#^&#^&#^&#^& s still slips the fish into the side of the boat / when he tought no one knew ......... oh he doesn,t have a boat .. it must be his oxagen tank ;;

Jackie B / cold cocking the warden with a one punch knockout ............ then dropping depth chargers on divers ;;

riding alon black face @ top end / shooting deer into the water & WTF was the name of the gribby guy that would buy them all / he was the same guy that bought over 3000# of chowders from . earl, me & WTf,s name / & said .. see you guys tomorrow ....... he shucked them by hand in his basement ;;

I,d almost drink to those days again :buds:

Had an 8 lber while fluking off "M" 6 or 7 years ago, that is the last one I've seen, that same season did hear of a school of then along the south shore anda few other were caught.

Clammer and Trapper who burnt Dave from LI boat to the ground during the clamming fiasco of the early 80's,i think he still has a 10,000 dollar reward for the answer.

one of the underlying reasons I don,t eat seafood <><><:confused:

what? no brain food?



Clammer i can tell you need ZINC
it helps you think

SEE veggie thread in scuppers

FISH IVT
trapper don,t know .he wasn,t a digger ;;

who burnt the harbor masters boat boat to the water level last summer ><><:confused::devil2:

hey, did you guys ever make it to the lobster raffle at the lincoln, in riverside ? man they had some Huuuuugee lobsters !
my dad would bring me there in the morn. to see them, many over 10lbs.

.........when 'haugs were thick,,,,.tonged B Beach etc...........bought tongs from the guy in East Providence...near Crecent Park....Emile Coreavasue(some kind of Frenchman),,,,can still hear the clatter-in the fog off Bullocks,,,,,,,,oh yea, Jack B was on submarine patrol........fall bass'n naval activity near T-wharf hhehehe....and..uh oh.............here comes Al Judge......+ Green,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,sure hope the squets return(this is a squet thread....)I think:confused:....now--name dropper.......Joe Hathaway from E G cove...............:rotf2:

.......maybe make a run over to LI for squets...........this spring:biglaugh:.....with all this squet talk

.........when 'haugs were thick,,,,.tonged B Beach etc...........bought tongs from the guy in East Providence...near Crecent Park....Emile Coreavasue(some kind of Frenchman),,,,can still hear the clatter-in the fog off Bullocks,,,,,,,,oh yea, Jack B was on submarine patrol........fall bass'n naval activity near T-wharf hhehehe....and..uh oh.............here comes Al Judge......+ Green,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,sure hope the squets return(this is a squet thread....)I think:confused:....now--name dropper.......Joe Hathaway from E G cove...............:rotf2:

Holllly Molllly !!!!!!! i knew Emile aka Tex, he was a really crazy guy !!
B beach was our main spot for flatfish, and everything else in the 70's !

I just saw the commercial for centerville bank .

thats Rick Rego / back then he ran from allen,s harbor as a digger :confused:.................... I think he had the re cord for RI boat division for squeteague / I remember he caught two by mistake off the north end of Jamestown .. I believe he held the record cuz no one else bothered to make the effort to fill out the form ......... I,m not sure but I think it around 13 -15# / too long ago


Damn Smitty is a fu ckin icon out of bullocks cove ... little gray skiff & 20' tongs .always off the hill S/E of Rocky point dock . I,m not sure but it was last year or the year before I saw him still doing the same thing ;;;

since this thread is about weakfish and now a little clamming added in,the best weakfishing i expierenced was around 78/79 while tonging off my 34ft otto tong boat.with all the tongers turning up the bottom in the shellbeds the weakfish were feasting on worms and whatever else was stirred out of the bottom. lots of 10 to 15lb fish. always keep the spinner with a salty dog on board.

Believe it or not South Shore LI does get a short glimpse of weakfish/squeteague each year but it's never pronounced. I have caught them the past few years off of bucktails , shiners, and of course squid. But they only have been in the 15-20" range that I have seen. If anything, Florida's "Sea Trout" population probably is higher than the weakfish here now. I do see blowfish each year but they are tiny yet people have the nerve to keep them which i want to beat them for. But the only run-ins I have gotten in with weakfish are incidental except once, its usually when I am after snappers (yes, I snapper fish. they are good eating and are great bait as well which people use for livelining for fluke and weakfish do eat them like candy)! When ever there is a slight rumor of them around here I go and try to track them down, its like trying to catch bigfoot sadly. If I manage one I'll be sure to get a photo of it before I release it!

Oh and for cooking them my mother would grill them. Dear Lord they are delicious.

Oh and the reason why they aren't really reported is because the one's caught are rarely keepers! Usually they barely miss the keeper mark for me but again, as long as there is a wiggle at the end of my line I am happy as a pig in poop! Summer usually is their cycle here, used to be Fall for the "Tide Runners". All of my weaks have been always caught in the summer (june-august typically because they are chasing down dredgers and the sand worms) off of docks, Surfcasting never. It's either by boat or by dock early morning or dusk as they have a short window of being active around those times if you run into them.

Glad I am not the only one who misses those gorgeous fish, people around here tease me about going for weakfish even though I usually am the one who does walk away with the experience of "yes, they are around!" Be honored that you guys are the only ones I have actually told this all to!

Btw, the bucktails that worked were white and red with squid for the tail instead of rind, pink bucktails with squid tipped also were really hot a few seasons ago, by boat live-lining snappers got some big ones but those were far and few, and sandworms. Funny though, a bobber with a stinking shiner at dusk or dawn always landed me one for a long time. Drove everyone nuts who couldnt do what I did and fascinated those who never knew what they were.

And yes, blues on top teague on bottom. But also teague behind! Bluefish panick eat and run hehe. But the only way I know they are still around is that with a bobber and hook setup for snapper, the bobber gets yanked underwater so hard it makes bubbles! From experience, the only fish that do that when snappers are around are in fact weakfish, just pray the hook on their is trusty enough to hook it! HINT: USE FLOUNDER OR SMALL BLACKFISH HOOKS FOR ANY CHANCE OF GETTING ONE WHILE GOING FOR ANYTHING ELSE.

If you guys ever get one surfcasting please tell me. I'll be sure to get a photo before releasing a weakfish to ease some of the nostalgia here :)

Oh and Sea Trout in Florida are literally half weakfish and half trout. They have the signature fangs to prove it!

Seen a few taken out of the Hudson a couple years back around 125th St. in NY. Never have I seen or heard of taken around the harbor.