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.

......days of yor
 

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.

.....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...

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:

Squet=beverage
 

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

Days of yor blowfish...........
 

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

common catches of yor.....
 

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 & hope
 

..........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:

O.K. on the wagon...stealth
 

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

Dick, Bob & George
 

........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: