Tribal Herring
 

At least the Vanderhoops on the Vineyard will have herring. Tribal spawning areas like menemsha do not fall under the ban. They'll be going off island every day business as usual selling to all the shops.

According to the original posting: "At a November 9, 2005business meeting, the Marine Fisheries Advisory Commission (MFAC) approved several Division of Marine Fisheries (MarineFisheries) proposals including a two-year seasonal cod prohibition in a portion of Massachusetts Bay and a three-year moratorium on the harvest, possession, and sale of river herring."

If that wording is correct, the indians won't have any shops to sell to.

Thats what they say, but they don't have the science to prove it. They only have observers on 2-3% of the vessels. That is not a respresentative sample. You couldn't go down to the ramp, ask 2-3 out of 100 fishermen what they caught and then multiply their catch rate by the other 97 fishermen. The NMFS admits that they need more observers, and they asked for a pile of money to do it last year. I don't know if they got the funding. I am guessing its a low priority.

Exactly.
There have been several herring management/ban threads posted over the last couple of months, and in every one, someone mentions that people from a state with a ban will take herring in a state that doesn't have one, or mentions the Native American Indian exemption issue. What sometimes seems to be missed is the fact that even if a person obtains herring legally in one state, it would still be illegal to possess that fish in a state With a ban. I think one problem is that poachers, by thier very nature, ignore/violate bans, laws, rules, and regs, and are willing to do things like take herring illegally, or possess short scup in the livewell. I will certainly obey any and all such regs, first, because I don't want to face the consequences, but also because it should improve the resource down the road.

2-3% can be a statistically valid sample, what percentage of the voting public do you think those presidential polls use? A small sample increases the margin for error (standard deviation) but even with a 2-3% sampling rate, all else being equal (i.e. times of year, fishing areas, etc) their current statistics do indicate little bycatch in the sea herring fishery. I'm not saying that figures are gospel, but even if they were double, it would indicate little bycatch in the sea herring fishery.

First it was menhaden, now herring & eels . . . .

Last summer I successfully livelined white perch I caught in a local pond. Thank god soft plastics can't be overfished!

I was wondering about bluegills.......:cool:

Seems to me if the fish are there, the BG's won't have to be in the water that long before they are inhaled there fore hardiness should'nt be a problem.

It would be interesting to see which are hardier. It would stand to reason white perch w/b because they are andromonous. I am sure white perch are also natural prey for migrating stripers at times. Their shape and color more closely resemble herring, pogies, scup or shad.

I clipped the dorsal on mine; not that a decent bass would have any trouble inhaling it. I would assume chunking these would also prove effective and easy on the wallet.

If you have ever tasted WP caught fresh you might not waste them on an inferior tasting fish such as striped bass. I tend to shy away from fresh water fish no matter where they are taken.

As with any larger bait, you would need a good high capacity bait well with aeration. Culling these panfish generally improves our fresh water fisheries as well.

Leave those herring alone for a few years!!!

restoring a herring run
 

I just moved closer to scituate herring brook -- thats right "HERRING" brook. There is even a fish ladder leading into the reservoir.

I have never seen fish go over it.
I have checked at all times of day over tha last years.
I have seen a handful of herring pulled out of the river/brook by birds and I even cought one on a two springs ago.

I would like to clean it out and rejuvinate it.
any suggestions for first steps?

Mike, you might want to contact these folks http://www.nsrwa.org/programs/third_herring_brook.asp

And contact Ma DMF here http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dmf/progr...htm#anadromous

well if they are closing off the runs, they should tell the russians in Gloucester harbor to take a hike and let all of them replenish. I just hate when its one thing for someone and something else for another.

my .02 is that there are some shortages. Behind my parents house there is a run and last year I only saw maybe a dozen fish. When I was a kid, thousands.........

Herring boats
 

If I did this right these are some of the many boats raping the herring and macks from ower sea.

Herring boats 2
 

More of the same

I've got an idea,,, lets all just give up fishing for bass and take up sewing or knitting hehehehe,,, just kidding,,, either way,us fishermen are screwed,,, the fish stocks are declining no matter what we do about it! it sucks!