Strange year so far
 

It has been a very strange year so far in Narr. Bay. One day the upper reaches of the Bay have so many bunker you can walk on them. The next day, zero. Also no bunker in any of the coves. They seem to be in one spot and then gone from even there for days.

One day, I have big bass, up to 25#, in good numbers. The next day, zero. Now, these are not hit or miss spots. These are spot that held bass for 2 days and have always been " go to" spots then have been going cold for the next week. All the while using live pogies. Not like anything I have encountered before. In past years, if you had live bunker, you could get some action. Maybe not hook up but at least some chases.

Are the bass in trouble again like some of the guys have been preaching?

or
 

conditions have made it necessary to stay on the move.....

I fished live bunker at some of my spots with zero action. A few chases but no takers. On the other hand some great topwater action for bass 30-35". I think its late. One more week and the big ones show up. but thats a guess, WTH do I know.

As much as any of us right now. If the thread about NJ is true then the big fish are still coming because they don't stay in NJ all summer.

if any survive!!

They better hurry Arch Bait was working north of Conimicut light today,Manny bunker gone.

Could be changing water temps?

pogies here one day ,gone the next? wonder why...


they made three sets last thurs too

some of that fish by product goes to cattle and chicken farms
as a food supplement... believe it or not... so when your
eating that burger, steak or roasted chicken in reality your eating
(in part ) some oily fish like pogie too. :faga:

Saw 2 pogie boats hauling back yesterday afternoon in Mt Hope Bay.
They were practically on top of each other.

I personally like the fact that the pogies are a little hard to find.
Last year any donkey in a rowboat with a snag hook could get themselves a 25lb bass.
Having to work some is a good thing.

True Jay, we got fish with ahd without them

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...c/CIMG2437.jpg

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k2...c/CIMG2433.jpg

Great Pics Jeff!
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I posted earlier about the boats. There's 2 from Gloucester, one a big red one that looke like Ark and a smaller one that can get up inside where the big one can't. They're pl#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g every pogie they can find.

I was WAY up the Providence River one day last weekend and there was a boat from Glouster MA called the Ugly Duck setting nets 100 feet from the hurricane barrier. I called RIDEM Enforcement and they told me I was nuts!

I convinced them I was 10 feet from the boat and they said they would send someone. No one ever showed up and no one got any pogies except the Ugly Duck. Also I noted with disgust the fact that the nets were also full of bass and the crew on the Ugly Duck kept all the bass.

I have given up pogy fishing. Too much work running up to Providence, putting up with idiots in "speed boats" roaring around trying to snag the few pogies that are left. Gone to eels and nights. OUT!

Paul, my source said they are known %$%$%$%$%$%$%$s, but can fish there...
the bass thing, next time take pictures!

thats all you need this time of the year... gonna pick some up on the ride home tonight. went out last night on the south side of MV and got some smaller fish but nothing of size over 28" maybe. maybe a big fat eel will entice :drool:

That red boat was netting inside Salem harbor last year too. He even set inside the mooring field in no more than 4 feet of water..... On one set he hauled 96 boxes!

Every pogie boat in the bay is not ARK BAIT CO. As a matter of absolute fact Ark has not even set yet, soon, but not yet. The red boat is not Ark, no more red boat. If the pogie biomass in the bay increases you will see an expected SIX different companies catching bait this year. Art

Yeah..
Ark doesn't look so bad any more, huh? :faga:
(thats rhetorical, not directed at you inThearpy)

Before all this RISAA/Legistaltor pogie fuss it was a quiet little one boat operation.
now up to half a dozen. I'm fully convinced the hoopla of a few years ago brought the Bay pogy stocks to the attention of northern neighbors...

Pandora's box I suppose...

I thought they had made rules that the pogie boats could not fish the northern part of the Bay? I forget the landmark between the north and south not allowed/allowed line but I thought that had all been worked out?

My source close to it said they could fish all the way up if they desired, w/ some closed areas.
http://www.dem.ri.gov/pubs/regs/regs...ild/rimf16.pdf

wow thats impressive....mike is "actually" fishing the vineyard this year. :claps:

...kidding man lol...

Question on this...It states that it is illegal to take menhaden for rendering. Yet they are allowed to take 120,000 pounds a day.....What else can they be doing with the catch. That can't all be for bait.

The only good part about the pogie boats is that for 10 bucks, you can get a net full of live bait from them.

Then ipso facto you are supporting them. Which is fine if you weren't one of the vocal opponents of all commercial pogy fishing.... but...

sooo many of the people against the pogy boats were still taking live or dead bait from them. Where I come from that is called talking out both sides of your mouth.

TDF:
bait is what it says, so I'd have to assume it is unless they have the documents it is being rendered.

IMO you've hit the bulls eye with this comment and with the "both sides of your mouth comment." I have witnessed "blatant disrespect for the law" ( a little Smokey and the Bandit ) from the other boat but nothing seems to change.

Personally, I don't take pogies from the commercial boats but I saw guys doing just that. Then they bitch about the commercial boat. Just as Bryan said "both sides of your mouth".
I also know that there are guys buying totes of fresh pogies and chunking and doing just as good as live lining. It's all in what you want to get out of the sport.
I've gone to nights and eels. I have never chunked. Not even when I was it the surf. I will not get as many large but I will feel better about the way I fish.

I have come full circle and I admit it. Any nitwit can catch big bass with a live pogie. The Providence River has turned into an absolute zoo and I just won't do the run anymore. The last time I went there was this %#$@*& in a red "speedboat" who would run full throttle right in between boats that were trying to snag. The guy would just flip people off when someone complained. If you think that's what fishing for Stripers is all about....you can have it.

Back 30 years ago in the heyday of the commercial rod and reel that guy would have had his boat shot up.

Well after the first time he pulled that, I think I would snag him on his next pass.

Which 'other boat'