Anyone building wire Herring pens?

[capndave]

I was planning on having Narragansett Lobster Trap in Pt. Judith build me a large oval wire mesh holding pen suitable for hanging off the side of my dock.
Discovered they went out of business.
Anyone know of somebody else in the area that builds or sells Herring pens?
Any leads or info would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Dave

[BigFish]

A couple of my fellow MSBA members make and sell some fine oval herring pens, just what you are looking for. They were displaying and selling them at the MSBA show. I will pm you their phone number.

[beamie]

A friend of mine Mike Johnson was one of the guys at the Mass Bass show selling herring pens.

Palm Isle Bait Pens
617-840-8080

They are by no means inexpensive but the quality looked great and hey...people aren't in a business to loose money.

Prices range from $225 to $600 The big one was impressive an oval of 8' x 3' x 3'

Jon Behm, Marshfield MA

[BigFish]

Thats the guy, I gave him Danny Graftons number though as I did not have Mike's.

[fishsmith]

I saw those pens at the show and last Sunday coming back from the show, they were heading toward Marshfield.

[capndave]

Thank you guys for the help.
Much appreciated.

Dave

[Goose]

I agree thats the way ta go but not everybody's got that kinda a doe.

Any make shifts ideas??

[thefishingfreak]

i build one every spring, for about 40 bucks at home depot, and a little labor..
not to bash the other ones, but some of the big ones go for 600 bucks?
the thing gets nasty as heck after bieng in the water all year,so i just make a new one and throw the old one out every year.
all you need, is 1/2" thin walled pvc pipe, green 1" square mesh plastic garden fence, a ton of zip ties, and either a pool noodle or aurmorflex pipe insulation and your good to go.
and you could fit two of those 600 dollar pens inside mine.
mike

[jettyjockey18]

careful with "wire mesh"...i did the 1" chicken wire experiment one year that ended in a herring holocaust in my pen...the fish cut up their noses and then infection sets in...wasn't pretty...switched to woven minnow seine netting with much better results...

[thefishingfreak]

well,
i went down to my slip today and hauled up the old herring pen that was in the water since last year.
i blasted the crap out of it with the pressure washer. and put new noodles on.

total cost to rebuild last years $40.00 pen =$11.00 for two noodles and a bag of zip ties.
mike

it aint pretty, but when there's 300 livelys in there, it's freakin' beautiful!!

[thefishingfreak]

all done, beer break

[thefishingfreak]

neatly tucked away

[beamie]

Fishingfreak,

Nice, very nice. Thanks for the idea. For that kind of dough no need to get the $600 model. I tend to think along the lines if someone decides to steal it your not out alot of money.

Do you find that that size mesh is a bit too small if the herring are on the small size???

Beamie

[thefishingfreak]

for those little tinker herring you can catch all year, about 3-4 inches, and the peanut bunker. i have a 55 gallon plastic drum that i just anialated with 3/8" holes and put a noodle around the rim.good for eels also.

that big pen i use for the larger herring and even bluefish.
no need to put a cover on it either, unless your worried about someone stealing your herring. i don't know why but the fish won't make the one inch leap to freedom.
and when it's under the dock the flying rats won't get at em.
mike

[Krispy]

Nice pics, Ive been looking into making a similar one that I can drop underwater and outa site, for holding shad and bunker. The 55 drum aint a bad idea either

[thefishingfreak]

if you do the 55 gallon drum idea,
drill from the inside out, so you can grind the burrs off.
pain the butt to get the burrs off from the inside of the drum

[Krispy]

FF, thats a great point!

What kind of loss do you have on tinker bunker in the pen? Can they hold for a couple weeks?

[thefishingfreak]

depends how messed up they get from the cast net.
i've had herring in there for two months.
i dont feed em' but you can see from the pic's the penn is right under my fish cleaning table. so i think they get scraps from there to survive.
i put a couple crabs in the pen to keep things tidy.
and remove the dead ones as soon as possible or they start to rot in there and stink, and that aint going to sit well with your dock neighbors

[Slipknot]

no, I don't build pens, I build cabinets, the herring are very comfortable in them.