hi scott, how was winter? that herring run in bournedale is a real source of concern for me. as i'm sure you already know, it takes 3-4 years for the herring to return to spawn. that run was hammered 3 and 4 years ago. the town takes 50,000 plus, the states takes 12-15 truck loads, untold thousands are snagged, many more die as a result of snagging. thousands are poached, even with stepped up enforcement. then, and we always forget this. there are major fry kills which occur. it happened a couple of years ago in mashpee. i've noticed the past several years not nearly as many herring are dropping back as say 15 years ago. this has a major impact on the early summer fishing in the canal. less herring dropping back, means less large bait in the canal precisely when the larger fish begin to arrive. if they don't find ample supplies of bait, they seem to move on through the canal.