I see your point that by snagging pogy for bait is taking the same fish that this would supposedly protect but on a very small scale. I am curious how much of the bait goes to the bait shops for rec. fisherman and how much is used by lobsterman.
I remember in the 70's we had some pots and would fill bait barrels each spring. We took unbelievable amounts of herring from the local rivers. Do you remember when you could go to Hamilton, Featherbed Lane, Gilbert Stuart, etc. and just net them like crazy. We took far more bait for the pots than I ever take for livelining.
I saw some guys in Wickford this summer taking buckets of pogy. They snagged about 3 - 4 5gal buckets and took them away. I asked if they were going to keep the alive to liveline and they said "why".
There was no way they were going to use all that bait that day. I actually use skipjack blues from the harbor as bait also. It is pretty resilient and readily available. |