Whats with this net mesh thing and the squid. i thought the nets were supposed to be larger inshore to protect the inshore fish ie stripers.Ron

Not to Hijack your question But I have seen what I thing were squid boats off Narragansett beaches and was curious if you could jig up squid if it would even be effective

I've had several shops n people from Mass contact me about a new law or updated rule that would allow squid boats to reduce their net size from 2.5 in down which will catch more by catch in inshore waters. not a good thing for stripers and bait.

Mesh size changes every trimester......


Minimum Mesh Size
Trimester I
2 1/8 inches (54 mm)
Trimester II
1 7/8 inches (48 mm)
Trimester III
2 1/8 inches (54 mm)

Draggers don't catch Bass, that's illegal.

Ok then what is this petition thing that came from Fishers tackle on Nantucket.Thats my question. as far as draggers not catching stripers well anything that drags along the bottom pretty much pulls up anything the drag encounters. wether its still alive when it goes back in is a different question.

Appears to be a movement of some type to repeal the allowance of the draggers to come inshore

https://www.change.org/p/division-of-marine-fisheries-massachusetts-repeal-of-the-amendment-cmr-8-07-1b2-which-currently-allows-fishing-vessels-to-use-small-mesh-nets-to-target-squid-close-to-our-shores-resulting-on-a-negative-impact-on-our-near-shore-coastal-marine-environm
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Ok then what is this petition thing that came from Fishers tackle on Nantucket.Thats my question. as far as draggers not catching stripers well anything that drags along the bottom pretty much pulls up anything the drag encounters. wether its still alive when it goes back in is a different question.

Otter trawls only have about a 30% efficiency rate. The myth is that they catch 100% of the fish they encounter.

I was just surprised to not see something on here due to all that pops up about by catch n all. When I was a kid we had clams an scollops all over the place on the sandy beaches. now they're rare to find as they dragged for everything they could catch till it was gone. they wiped most things out.

Nantucket fisherman are blaming their poor squid run for another bad season, but the overall squid run was phenomenal from what I heard and saw. Almost every time out in the boat we'd be surrounded by squid. You could hear them shooting ink on the reef in the dark. The boats were working off Gansett for months. Hardly any bass on them, though. Heard the same north of me.

I'm sure the draggers have something to do with it, but I think there are just less fish around and that's what Nantucket is experiencing. Unless of course you're fishing 3+ miles out illegally. That's a different story, though.

See the mass maritime thread in this forum. Patrick posted the meeting agenda, that includes this squid/ small mesh/ dragger issue
http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dfg/dmf/marinefisheriesnotices/pubhearings/dmf-publichearingnotice-january2015.pdf

Thanks. I hadn,t heard a lot up this way