The other day, (pre earl) I was off Nantucket trolling around and checking out who was home at all the rips around the island. I came cross two draggers working bass rip and old man shoal. They were really pounding the area. I am sure their nets were scraping the bottom.

What the heck are they going for there? Bass season is closed. Fluke??? I am sure they were getting bass. I was.

This inshore dragging has to stop it is going to ruin sport fishing.

Mr. Sandman,

Are they allowed to get in that close?

Sounds like its time to make a viral YouTube video to create awareness and expose the raping of the ocean's inshore species.

-Fish360

I suspect they are after sand dabs.

I don't think inshore bottom draggers get a lot of bass, the fish just swim out of the net (or so I have been told). Offshore mid-water pair trawling is a very different story.

Next time push out to Rose and Crown, it always was my favorite place to fish (just don't keep the bass obviously).

When I was spending time on nantucket several of the guys there spoke of the Rose and Crown, They said even though they are outside the EEZ they bite is fantastic. Also they said a lot of comm guys run out there load up and return, it is too far out for it to be patrolled and they get their limit so fast they don't need to hang around very long. They said even some of the Hyannis guys are out there.

I just looked up where it is and we have driven thru it several times on the way to fish the shipping lanes and the Regal Sword area east of Nantucket. I recall the confused seas there but I never stopped. Next time...

Sand dabs? your kidding, right? (when was the last time you ate a sand dab?)

Used to fish Rose and Crown several decades ago. Pretty much had it to ourselves back then (although in later years offshore guys would sometimes stop to load up on bluefish for bait).

There is a V shaped section on the S end of the rip that is fantastic on the ebb. Would bounce metal (diamond jigs/crippled herring/DH sand eels) over the ridge from in front of the rip. All C&R. Had a 15kt boat so it was 3-3.5 hour trip. McBlair shoal and Duck rip are also well worth hitting in the fall on the ebb. There is also a deep gully (100ft) between Bass Rip and Rose and Crown where we often used to mark bottom fish (?cod).

There are lots of sand dabs out there, would snag them often, and I'm pretty sure there is a commercial market for them (they used to list their price in the Globe). I actually got some large bass working a Petri-fish rubber fluke over those rips on one trip. A bluefish finished that quick, however.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIhTuYwTpEQ