squeteague - what's your opinion on this fishery?

[Nebe]

heres my opinion-

I thought they were extinct???

[spence]

Only Squet I ever saw was in a fish box at Sakonnet Seafood

-spence

[Pete_G]

I've caught 5, all were incidental catches. 2 from the boat that I spotted on the depth finder were over 30ft deep in the middle of a school of stripers. The other 3 were all near or after blue fish blitzes from shore.

I've fished several of the "known" weakie spots around the area pretty hard but I've never actually caught one when I was trying to.

[striprman]

Back in the 70's and 80's we caught many nice ones up to 14 pounds in the........river. They may still come there and with the return of pogy schools, one can hope.

I really enjoyed catching them

They must be kept on ice as the meat turns soft, mushy real quick. The fish in the picture were pulled from an ice filled cooler, immediately filleted and the fillets bagged and put back on ice. The meat is very good, kind of like cod or black sea bass.
I think I would be more conservative if I catch any more, might keep one or 2. Those were the days of "100 pounds + one fish", no commercial fishing licence needed to sell fish.

[Finlander]

We had one 7-1/2 lbs while fluke fishing two years ago in 30 feet of water near the pink house. Greating looking fish, tasted good as well, the family keeps asking me to catch another one?

[MakoMike]

We used to be able to fill an igloo 168 in a night of fishing off the north bar at BI, sometimes in one tide! We are the the northern extreme of their range, so we only see the bigger "tiderunner" fish. They are heavily fished commercially from southern NJ to NC. The ASMFC is supposed to be doing something about it. They are definately cyclical in nature, on an approx 10year cycle. But the current poor showing is far below what it should be at this point in their cycle. Lots of small ones are bring snared in Gillnets in MD and DE,and, so far, teh ASMFC has done nothing to stop it. The abundance or lack of pogies has nothing to do with thier abundance, In fact one of their favorite foods is grass shrimp. Oh, and I agree, they are delicious, how anyone can compare them to bluefish is beyond me. Their meat is white!

[slow eddie]

there was a 4 day blitz 4 or 5 yrs ago in pt. jude pond and vicinity, from what i,ve learned since last nite. this happened just before the trap,s went up in the spring. they do taste delicious, not unlike tautog.

put them back alive slow eddie