Why do we allow this to happen?

[Saltheart]

I can't ebleive they stiill allow them in the Bay. I thought RI made some restrictions a couple of years ago like they can't go above prudence Island or something???

[Offshore24]

We used to have pogies in Maine. I remember late 80's we had massive killoff in the rivers due to them using up all the O2 and killing themselves. Then there were the Russians with their processing ship hanging off Harpswell. They'd hang out and send net boats out for weeks. Catching them all. It has never been the same. They are all gone now.. And the blues went with them. I used to catch blues that were 3-ft long. Now the blues should be looking over their shoulder for the mackerel to come and bite em in the butt.

[BrianS]

I remeber 10-11 years ago fishing in the Taunton River with pogies from shore to shore... and this was WAY up the river in sight of the TMLP plant..

Neat to see seals that far up the river.


About that same time, my uncle was about to put his boat out of plymouth and inside the jetty there were hordes of pogies being chased by hordes of big blues... the water was red in alot of spots... lasted for quite awhile...

sad we may never see that type of stuff again... or at least a long while.

[jettyjockey18]

Originally Posted by bjs

About that same time, my uncle was about to put his boat out of plymouth and inside the jetty there were hordes of pogies being chased by hordes of big blues... the water was red in alot of spots... lasted for quite awhile...

sad we may never see that type of stuff again... or at least a long while.

i haven't snagged a pogy off the plymouth jetty since sept '95...and it aint from lack of effort...used to know when commercial striper season started becaused there'd be 20 boats all with gill nets stretched across the channel...

[DZ]

IMO there are adult pogies "Somewhere"- just not here. How can we explain the massive amount of baby menhaden we have seen the past few years? - more than I've ever witnessed in my 35 years of chasing stripers. There may in fact be a decline in large menhaden - but these babies have been spawned by a significant population of adults.
A bigger question may be "Why are adult poigies not coming to northern waters in any numbers?
Could it be water quality, temp, food source? Or is it just cyclical?

[JohnR]

One of the RI Marine Scientists indicated that the large menhaden might be offshore and prefer not to move inshore. But we get the nuts every year strong. Would it be that these couple hundred thousand pogies that come into the bay every spring leave their eggs before getting sucked up by Arc bait? Or would a couple years of a commercial no take policy inside the bay be enough to develop a large returning menahden population. Who knows, maybe if they were left alone here for a few years a local reocurring population would be resident here.

I seem to recall a deal made a few years back that Arc Bait had made an agreement, perhaps with some people from RISAA that they would not go into certain proptions of the bay to net menhaden. But then I heard that the agreed on areas not to net were not big netting areas anyway. I'm very vague and that is a combination of both hearsay and bad memory, so take it for what it is worth

[MakoMike]

Just a question from a relatively newbie to the area. Who does Arc Bait sell them to? Us? Recreational fishermen, or are they catching lobster bait?
If its the former, maybe we only have ourselves to blame?

[Raven]

being able to go out in buzzards bay...striper fishing....and the schools of pogies were so thick - my pram would get caught up in their migratory drift...or current from them swimming...and you could cast a bare hook 200 feet in any direction on the compass and snag a pogie every time. Mostly to see just ...what in fact they were ..as i trolled for stripers and blues.

[redlite]

I got an adult pogie tangled in my line while eelin in the canal the other night. I live lined it for 3 hours and didn't even get a touch.
I almost didn't even know what it was when I pulled in my line. Been so long since I've actually seen one alive. A truly lucky catch. Too bad mamma bass was around to eat it.

[fishweewee]

Ah. Kwit yer bitching and go hire some bored Navy SEALs to attach some limpet mines on the hulls of those bunker boats and blow them to smithereens.

Would make a hell of a chum slick.