RI herring????????

[BrianT]

Has anyone checked any of the herring runs down in southern RI to see if any herring were starting to show? Last year it was about this time that we started netting them. Thanks,
Brian

[bdowning]

Nope, but it wouldn't hurt to check places like Gilbert Stuart real soon. Not that this has anything to do with RI, but I'll probably swing by the Middleboro run next week. I would not be surprised if there are at least some "scouts" in the pool by then.

-bd


<img src="http://world.std.com/~bdowning/fishing_lg_wte.gif">

[DonWil]

I hear in NJ they are just starting to show up. Last year we had an early run here in RI but I think the weather was warmer, we had schools of Herring behind the Point Jude lighthouse, that turned the water black, but not a damm thing was under them. See Ya Don

[RIBill]

All quiet at Gilbert Stuart (although I swear that it smelled like them!!). Plenty of cold run-off today and for the forseeable future.

The good news is that the calendar is now on our side. Its somehow easier to wait for them when they are "late" and the calendar "owes" it to us.

I remember Tom Meade, the sports writer from the Providence Journal, writing that March 10th is the traditional date for the herring and ospreys to return. When I lived in Barrington, I'd be able to monitor the osprey platforms at 100 Acre Cove on my way into work each day. Day after day, there'd be nothing. And then, one day on the way home, there'd be a bird. I'd do a double-take to confirm that it wasn't a gull. From that point on I'd be reassured twice a day as I commuted past. Sometimes the osprey'd be tearing into a herring or white perch on its roost. Within a week there'd be 3-4 osprey around. And they weren't back to beg fries at McDonald's, they were back only because the herring were back.

March 10th?, March 17th?... no matter, its time. I'll listen now for the first peepers (once we get rid of this snow). I'm thinking another 7-14 days depending on ole man winter. The evening music of peepers singing in the wetland next to my house will confirm, without doubt, that there are fish in the run. Then, we'll really get itchy!

Cheers,
Bill

[jettyjockey]

nada at oliver mill and wareham street runs, middleboro as of sunday, according to my buddy and his son who checked it out. the weather seems to have pushed the fish back a week or so...anytime now.

[ANDYN]

there have been reports of the herring showing up in CT already. Not sure what that means to RI but here we go.

[joelyons]

No Herring at Gilbert Stewart yesterday morning (3/15)
A biologist told me that on sunny days, early in the year, they tend to come up later in the day, after the sun warms the surface water that feeds the runs. In the evening they drop back into the headwaters of Narrow River. So, early in the year they are moving back and forth quite a bit.