I was just told that commercial bass closes tmr? Is this true?

yup.

Its open all day tomorrow.
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Just excellent..... Havent had a good year by any means, just dumped a pile of $ in the boat and got it going today and now.....

why don't you get a real job :rotf2: - professional student is not a career. go get me some pogies

Hey, hey, hey I'll have gradumacated in 3 years! Just getting smaaat... Yes I have the pogies :grins:

Only 17 days this season (4 of which were 5 fish Sundays).

$4 gas and lower prices than last year kept many guys home, yet the quota was caught faster than ever.

Check the numbers, as of 5 this morning the quota was only at 65%! Could be that they want to get an accurate count???

Check the numbers, as of 5 this morning the quota was only at 65%! Could be that they want to get an accurate count???

Bingo
Quota not close to full and behind schedule compared to most years.

Just asking, what percent of the fish taken so far do people estimate came from Chatham?

Just asking, what percent of the fish taken so far do people estimate came from Chatham?

100% I know that's an exaggeration but I would bet 75%. I know not much came from areas 13 and 14!

it would seem the chatham fishery did a tune on "small" fish

Figures, was fishing 3 days nxt. week. Seems the plug has been pulled very early given the current quota percentage.

This was most likely stopped to get an accurate number due to some delay in dealer reporting. Would say it is much more than 65% right now, again due to report delays. As is years past you may see it open for a day or 2 in a couple weeks.

At least that biomass of fish off Chatham can take their helmets off now. Can you imagine how hard it was to forage with 5,000 diamond jigs raining down from above?

I thought Chatham was seal and great white territory now? :huh:

R-24

Kelly Clarkson has been V E R Y quiet lately ????:confused:

Just asking, what percent of the fish taken so far do people estimate came from Chatham?

When I was on vacation last week, I went in to a fish market on the Cape to pick up some stuffies and steamers. I ended up speaking with the owner about the bass coming in from Chatham. He took me in the back room and showed me a few totes overflowing with 34 to 36" fish, all from Chatham. He said that was the only place anyone was getting them, but by last Thursday it had slowed way down.

Nothing but 34 to 36" fish

sounnds exactly like the Providence River in early JUne in2007,08, 09 &&&&&&&&&& then there were none ><>><><:wall:

definatly a lag in reporting somewhere... it's up to 86.9% now...

Fishing at Chatum has taken its toll on more then small fish and not only diamond jigs have been working, but Sabiles,tube and worm and jigs dragged along the ocean bottom.

In order to sucessful out on the water one needs to be able to adapt to what is occurring beneath the surface.

Just asking, what percent of the fish taken so far do people estimate came from Chatham?

Dan and I were just talking about this last nite.
Chatham has always been the land of the 33 3/4 inch bass.
But based upon Dan's work visits to the empty New Bedford fish houses and here, we estimate about 75% of the quota came from Chatham.
Do the math.
That means about 750,000 lbs. With the average fish there about 15# (though there were a lot more bigger than normal fish mixed in), that's approx 50,000 bass from one mass....Sick.
That's why it slowed down. they were decimated.
The other 25% prob from Block..........
Worst comm season I can remember having from shore in the 17 yrs I've had a comm license........

One would be correct in regards to the average weight of the fish out of Chatham, but as been stated many fish were also in the higher 20 pound range.

When one considers that all of the bait is grouped in one area, it only stands to reason the fish will remain , especially if the water temperature is condusive to the species like striped bass like to swim in.

Sand eels have been the main food for bass in this area of the cape for a long time, but when you add in mackerel that are leaving there nursery areas in the protected estuarys you have a food chain they will not leave.

We have not seen any problematic changes to the numbers of bass in this area, as long as you have a boat the bite is on all day long.

The question should be, why did so many bass find Chatham inviting overall and can the resource handle it? That is the number of fish being removed from one area in the State?

It will be interesting to see how the DOMF handle this next year from a species in trouble allready.

I was told by an employee of the guy I use they weighed in over 20,000 lbs on one day from there. Don't feel bad Mike I only made it out for one trip and didn't even pay for my license. They really weren't in my neck of the woods this year, unlike last year. Every year is different.
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It will be interesting to see how the DOMF handle this next year from a species in trouble allready.

That it will, because the ASMFC is floating talk about a 40% across the board reduction in bass mortality after these much ballyhooed "stock assessments" coming up, and if that doesn't come to pass, I predict that we'll see a huge groundswell of support for gamefish status.

Yep. My sources say they ripped it up down there. Many many guys limiting out, every day. Flattened out the market price here, then sold to NY and flattened the prices there too.

Dan and I were just talking about this last nite.
Chatham has always been the land of the 33 3/4 inch bass.
But based upon Dan's work visits to the empty New Bedford fish houses and here, we estimate about 75% of the quota came from Chatham.
Do the math.
That means about 750,000 lbs. With the average fish there about 15# (though there were a lot more bigger than normal fish mixed in), that's approx 50,000 bass from one mass....Sick.
That's why it slowed down. they were decimated.
The other 25% prob from Block..........
Worst comm season I can remember having from shore in the 17 yrs I've had a comm license........

Let me see if I understand this, you are saying that75% of the qouta came from Chatham and the rest of the million pounds came from Block Island area. Is this correct.

That's a lot of fish.

Let me see if I understand this, you are saying that75% of the qouta came from Chatham and the rest of the million pounds came from Block Island area. Is this correct.

That's a lot of fish.

The last time I checked, Block Island wasn't anywhere close to Massachusetts territorial waters. :confused:

The fish that came out of Chatham averaged about 18-19lbs. I havent seen that healthy of a fish stock for a long time. 33" inch fish were 17 pounds. Buttrer balls. If the bait is there they will come. I was pulling in 20 lb pollock on almost every trip. Looking at a fish when it came out of the water with the top of its head all beat up from pounding sand for sand eels. All the fish from Ptown to Nantuck have come there to feast on all the bait. Dont want to forget to say loaded with macs out there to. A buddy of mine who flies his plane out there told me that he saw a 15 mile stretch of bass out there. Cool water temps and bait === fish. The highlite of the season for me is that i see lots of people have put the gaff away and adopted the net.:buds: If we want to see fishing like this in our neck of the woods we need to fix the bait isue.

On my way in from the canyons we stopped at handkerchief shoals off Monomoy. The biomass of big bass is staggering there. It's no wonder they were limiting out every day.

The last time I checked, Block Island wasn't anywhere close to Massachusetts territorial waters. :confused:

I'm only going by redlites statement of where the other 25% came from on the commercial market. If Chatham sold 75% of the quoter and Block sold illegally the other 25% that means north of Chatham did not cotribute to the commercial catch.

I'm also :confused:

I'm only going by redlites statement of where the other 25% came from on the commercial market. If Chatham sold 75% of the quoter and Block sold illegally the other 25% that means north of Chatham did not cotribute to the commercial catch.

I'm also :confused:

Oh, I'm not confused at all. I was being sarcastic. It's an open secret that a good part of our quota gets filled with fish from RI/NY waters, and, shocking to say, from the EEZ. ;)

To be, a dead fish is a dead fish no matter where it was caught, but legally, you can't possess 30 fish in RI, CT or NY waters with a Mass commercial license. As a guy who only fishes Mass, and only from the shore, I'd prefer that 25% of the quota comes from out of state. As long as there's a quota and the season shuts down when it's filled.

FatCow Every one that we saw with a fish on except on a rare occassion, were sticking a hook into the fish. Then they would throw them in the box with out even measuring them. That is a factual account over the past three weeks.
Now do you suppose that some of these fish are not being added to the quata?

Again the lack of enforcement has resulted in a few bad apples to get away free and clear from paying a penalty.

That is except in one case on the upper Cape where a resteraunt was busted for having severel hundred pounds of short fish. They made a mistake in showing the size of the fish when they advertised the special they were running

That it will, because the ASMFC is floating talk about a 40% across the board reduction in bass mortality after these much ballyhooed "stock assessments" coming up, and if that doesn't come to pass, I predict that we'll see a huge groundswell of support for gamefish status.

I've heard the idea of them making the striped bass a game fish being thrown around by quite a few people. But, I am wondering what would that mean? Slot limits? 1 a day? close of commercial? Or is it different for every game fish? I am really curious what it would entail.

I've heard the idea of them making the striped bass a game fish being thrown around by quite a few people. But, I am wondering what would that mean? Slot limits? 1 a day? close of commercial? Or is it different for every game fish? I am really curious what it would entail.

Gamefish = no sale = no commercial fishery at all. Maine, NH, CT, NJ and PA are all currently "gamefish" states where there's no commercial striped bass fishing allowed.

FatCow Every one that we saw with a fish on except on a rare occassion, were sticking a hook into the fish. Then they would throw them in the box with out even measuring them. That is a factual account over the past three weeks.
Now do you suppose that some of these fish are not being added to the quata?

Again the lack of enforcement has resulted in a few bad apples to get away free and clear from paying a penalty.

That is except in one case on the upper Cape where a resteraunt was busted for having severel hundred pounds of short fish. They made a mistake in showing the size of the fish when they advertised the special they were running

I launched out of Ryders Cove the whole season. If u did not make it back to the dock by 1:00pm u were checked by not 1 but 3 epos waiting at the dock almost daily. I sold most of my fish to Atlantic and i have a great relationship with the the people that work there. They would check every fish that looked short. I also seen them measure hundreds of fish and reject plenty. Those fish are not put on the limit unless they get by. I seen the epos write at least 20 tickets this year:uhuh:. I also seen way less fish floating this year. Maybe a dozen all season. Those who brought in the shorts and got caught by the truck just brought home dinner. The trucks got checked daily also down there. If the epos found a short on the truck they would of kicked them out of there. Resulting in alot of lost revenue for the company. Why lose $$$$$$$$$$$$$ for a short. Thats why the truck was checking all the fish and the epos were down there daily because traditionaly lots of shorts come from down there. Hats of to them for smarting up and going were the problem lies.

Fat Cow you have made some very good observations in regards to the selling of fish at the trucks . They have become more diligant since the bust last year that resulted in some problems for them.

This does not address the many who do not sell to the trucks, especially on the lower cape area. Many still find a way to circumvent the process and sell them to other sources. Such an example was brought to light in the town of Dennis a week or so back.

You are right about one thing, we also did not see many floaters as well, why do suppose that is????

You know how many little docks an landings there are between the outside and inside beyond the ramp at ryders ...my goodness you could fill tractor trailers full of fish an no one would say boo...I know of 3 who putt by the ramp and unload in that small pond and no one has a clue...Thank the lord these folks are on the up an up, otherwise they could fill their pockets with much $ from shorts.

I like fatcow launched out of the same ramp and he is 100% on there was always 3 epos there checking fish...and an FYI the epos also spread out to just about all the other ramps. I had numeriouse buddies state that they where checked at the small ramps...and there they had every fish measured before they where allowed to leave the ramp.

bigbuck28 I hope you took your father along for some of the fun on the water.

He must be tired of catching those small fish over at Peter's Pond?

YOU KNOW IT... he was out there a few days with me and he DIDNT even puke. He had his patches and braclets on..:biglaugh:

bigbuck29 Does pops get sick??? If so he may want to try some ginger capsules before he goes out on the water.
This is an old seafarers remedy, that when ever we used to go out into the deeper water we found to have some merits. It can be bought at most drug stores. For me It worked a whole lot better then the pressure point application approach or the the behind the ear med.

Then again with all of your background ,
Maybe you could work up an emergancy shot ???

ll have to have him try that bc he makes a great chummer....:rotf2:

Chumming is a critical part of fishing , especially when the bite is slow. Then again if you have the magic bullets any thing can happen.

I can vouch for the fact that the EPO's assigned an extra officer to the area making it three. There were some very dramatic and serious law enforcement actions taken this year. They also had a boat out with the fleet as well. Did that eliminate the cheaters...hell no. I hope everyone with all this experience is ready when the next time we get a hearing to clean out the bad apples from the rod and reel fleet.

Also....there was a pretty significant commercial bite on Scorton Ledge (as usual) over the last two commercial weeks...just saying it wasn't all Chatham.

Good to hear the epo's are doing a great job. We did watch a few smaller bass get gaffed and wondered what they planned on doing with them. The net use seems to be catching on for most bass fisherman. It's next to impossible to figure out if a fish is 33.5 or 34 inches while swimming beside the boat.

Passing on the comm season this year for me was the best move. I think pin hookers end up with a conversation piece and never a dime to show for it. .95 a lb for scup and bumped it up to 800lbs a trip...still not worth it. just ask mike who's shopping for a motor.


The money, time and aggravation in exchange for actually enjoying what you do,, you can't put a price on piece of mind.

Perhaps the EPO's were at Chatham, but at the several other areas none were ever seen. The Coast Guard did have a plane out doing some picture taking, where the three mile limit line is. Perhaps they spotted some of the poachers and that would be a good thing if were able to identify the boats. You can always look to next years season, where the talk is about going to a 36 inch min. limit. The use of nets would seem to be the way to go, during the period of time, but then again how can you enforce another regulation that up to this time still has not been fully implimented.