Herring have arrived

[moosh]

Mashpee herring run loaded with fish won't be long now .

[buckman]

Middleboro run was packed Sat.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[moosh]

There was a lot more than last year , I hope the numbers are coming back up I'd like to live line them again some day .
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[FishermanTim]

Maybe your kids...or your kids' kids might, but I don't hold any hope for us.
Now that there is a perpetual moratorium in place, all they have to do is claim that the stocks aren't rebounded yet and they'll "revisit" the topic in another 3 years

and so on, and so on and so on.....

Plus since the initial moratorium (which did absolutely NOTHING) they gotten us to spend more money on other baits and lures, so why would they have any incentive to change that???
Hey, we're "helping" the economy, right?

My comment is this:
They've gotten to the point where they can moratorium-ize us all they want, but if every other state along the eastern seashores doesn't follow the same law, then they are talking out of their arse!
Oh, and NO and I mean NO draggers/netters should be allowed to harvest any herring (because we all know that "legal bycatch" means they can catch all they want of whatever they want with absolutely no restrictions).

Until they can do something...ANYTHING to prevent the harvest of a majority of the herring that used to migrate up the coast each year, we will ALWAYS be the ones that will "do without" in the hopes of providing the southern states all the herring they can catch!

What will it take? A complete collapse of the striper industry due to falling fish stocks or failing YOY classes? Maybe a drastically stressed ecosystem caused by the removal of a prime spring migrationary food source of post spawning stripers will wake them up?

Nah, because if they can't tax it, license it, control it and destroy it they don't care!!

The soap box is now free!!!

[hq2]

The previous post may be a little extreme, but it does seem that in recent years the fisheries folks have gotten the issues backwards.
Herring have come back strong, and stripers appear to be in trouble
again. We need to fix both; namely, something like allowing maybe
5-10 herring a day to be dipped for bait (as opposed to the pre moratorium 25), while reducing the striper limit to one a day per person. That might get it about right.

[buckman]

Originally Posted by hq2

The previous post may be a little extreme, but it does seem that in recent years the fisheries folks have gotten the issues backwards.
Herring have come back strong, and stripers appear to be in trouble
again. We need to fix both; namely, something like allowing maybe
5-10 herring a day to be dipped for bait (as opposed to the pre moratorium 25), while reducing the striper limit to one a day per person. That might get it about right.

What do you need all that bait for if you can't keep the stripers ?
IMO bait fishing mortality is high
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[chefchris401]

the ones ive been seeing in RI, are some of the biggest herring ive seen in the last few years. runs were packed today.

[FishermanTim]

Originally Posted by hq2

The previous post may be a little extreme, but it does seem that in recent years the fisheries folks have gotten the issues backwards.
Herring have come back strong, and stripers appear to be in trouble
again. We need to fix both; namely, something like allowing maybe
5-10 herring a day to be dipped for bait (as opposed to the pre moratorium 25), while reducing the striper limit to one a day per person. That might get it about right.

I meant it to be a little "over-the-top". (A bit of rye humor)
Thanks for picking up on that.

[goosefish]

Do the river herring some good and please consider --

Osprey cull anyone? Bow only. I'll write to the Rhode Island and Massachusetts Audubon and Nature Conservancy chapters. I'm sure they'll go for it once they see the size of my donation. Stand back ladies. This thing can block a stream.

Actually truth be told, I like ospreys. But with each year there seem to be more and more of them.

[jonserfish]

ospreys are not even on the pie chart. although they are pretty awesome hunters. had one drop between two yaks last spring and almost soiled my dry pants. came up with a herring. Had no idea he was watching.

[FishermanTim]

The osprey are probably the last thing to be concerned about when talking about herring.
Now are you talking about the osprey that are taking herring from a pond, a river, the canal or the whole eastern seaboard? How do you manage a hunt for birds that don't acknowledge human/state boundaries?

Now if there were something that would control the netters that do more damage than every bird of prey combined, now THAT would be a worthy adversarial challenge!!!

Picking on the osprey is like picking the shortest guy in a gang to pick on....sure, it's an easy fight, but you WILL lose the battle!

[Raven]

good to hear
i always say....it ain't the air temperature
or the water temperature
so much as it's the SOIL temperature
that gets the BALL (Spring) Rolling
just came in from stickin the garden and worm pile with the
pitch fork ...shes ready/ done worms are AH Workin
feeding them NOW... frozen carrot pulp and purina Worm chow

[bart]

I have never seen so many osprey like I have in the past week.

[FishermanTim]

Originally Posted by bart

I have never seen so many osprey like I have in the past week.

This is the typical bird of prey breeding season, so they have little mouth to feed!

[BobT]

Elks run was full in the pool but none in the river. Saw an osprey fly away with one.

[goosefish]

I agree, the osprey don't even dent the population of river herring. Nor do otters. Or minks. Cormorants on certain runs can do some damage. Fry get pounded on by sunfish, pickerel and bass. . .

[Raven]

Osprey nests are way up High and away from most predators

they are a good tool when freshie fishin for determining where
the bait is congregating ... stealth Hunter/stalkers supreme.

[Green Light]

We have "smart" phones, "smart" TVs, etc., etc.

Why can't we have "smart" regulations? ;-)

[Raven]

that would require SMART politicians

those are quite rare

Occasionally one comes along
but they are Scoffed at with people muttering
what the hell is he doing here.....

[bobber]

yeah- a "smart politician" is one who stays the hell out of politics