herring numbers
 

is it me or are they bouncing back nicely? i've stopped by a few runs lately and they seem to be thriving. was at one today and a lmb snatched a herring up in front of us, he was pretty fat

Compared to what? The sign at the Weymouth run said they used to get a million fish each year. Recently, it's more like 200,000, with one year down below 100,000.

compared to 5 years ago

The Falmouth runs have been way off this year. Scary off, although I've not checked in a week.

I know the runs in RI have been really healthy and full this year.

More than last year from my records.

I've even seen them at two runs I've never seen them in before.

One is a newer run, that was built about 5 years ago and the other is a very old run, both had fish in good numbers.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Saw a lady with a clip board counting at the steps at Veterans Park on 139 today, not sure if she was counting herring or what.

she's counting herring. that run seems to be in horrible shape sadly.

lmb???
 

Niko,
Please don't speak in code. You
saw an lmb snatch up a fat herring
at the herring run. Help us amateurs.
And no sazz mouth please.
:smash:

dat = L.M.Bass

Not a ton around down here, but I think it is a bit early relative to last year. Maybe the ones here now are alewives and the blue backs show up in a couple weeks? Last year they were heavy around May7. Definitely better than 2004-2008 during which I can't confirm seeing a single one.

large mouth bass was fat from eating herring. from some of the responces it sounds like a mixed bag as far as improvement. can herring be transplanted into weaker/dead runs?

They can...though how effective it is, is another story. Essentially, they take the fish and put them in the headwaters (pond) of another run and hope that the herring that are then born there will start returning there. It's usually done when they restore ladders to try to get a jump in the numbers. Also it generally is 3 years before herring will return to spawn so it takes a while to start to see the effects. They use the Nemasket (Middleboro) and Town Brook (Plymouth) runs a fair amount to perform these stockings.

The Bournedale run in the Canal started very late this year.

Last year they showed at the end of March, but the numbers were abysmal.

Since the herring moratorium started in 2008, in only one year (2009) did they record more than 100,000 herring.

So this run isn't bouncing back.

Oak Bluffs run had a few but I counted more cormorants than herring.

Seems to be hit or miss. One run that I am aware of that usually has little to no herring has produced a pretty large amount this year. So much so that cormorants have shown up. I have seen the herring messing all around in the nearby harbor. Pretty cool

The water is black in the run in Plymouth, they were so thick.

Up and downstream as far as we could see.