A thought on herring

[ShaneY]

I was looking into trout fishing on the cape ponds today and each time I read about a pond that herring use as spawning ground, the documents would say that there are large trout, bass and other fish because of the herring forage. Many of these fish were introduced or stocked and are eating a bunch of herring fry. Call me crazy but if we wanted to help boost herring restoration shouldn't we stop stocking these ponds with more predators or maybe temporarily reduce the populations until the herring can rebound significantly?
Just a thought go ahead and light me on fire now or say I'm a genius your choice.

[Onshore]

That's an interesting idea Shane. You might want to run it past your Massachusetts fisheries folks.

[BobG]

I was looking into trout fishing on the cape ponds today and each time I read about a pond that herring use as spawning ground, the documents would say that there are large trout, bass and other fish because of the herring forage. Many of these fish were introduced or stocked and are eating a bunch of herring fry. Call me crazy but if we wanted to help boost herring restoration shouldn't we stop stocking these ponds with more predators or maybe temporarily reduce the populations until the herring can rebound significantly?
Just a thought go ahead and light me on fire now or say I'm a genius your choice.

Shane,
You're kind of off on this one. One of the main reason's the smaller runs have all but disappeared is, the local town have failed to care for their respective runs, and they simply died off. Many died off long before the present herring crisis hit.
Case in point. John's Pond in Mashpee used to have a massive herring run, and as a result was a pond that was famous for producing trophy trout. The Town of Mashpee simply allowed the ladder leading up into the pond to deteriorate to such a point where it just became unusable. The herring simply could not make their way up into the pond to spawn. After a few more years, the entire steam below the pond silted in, and the entire run died.:rolleyes:
The present state of affairs regarding our herring runs is due to a variety of reason, none of with include predation in the ponds IMHO, but overharvest out to sea by pair trawlers.:rolleyes:

[ShaneY]

Bob,
I agree that most of the problem is the condition of the runs and most definitely the trawlers. I was just thinking maybe this is one of the secondary issues that could or should also be looked at. If the runs that are hanging on have less predation it could lead to larger year classes helping the run rebound.
I just had a secondary thought to build on this what if we were to spend the money that is used on stocking and put it towards run maintenance and restoration. I know some people won't like it but there are plenty of other ponds that are stocked that don't have herring and we can always resume stocking after they make a comeback.