Prior to the opening of Snappa season, I fished(8/5/18) the south banks/M2R6 drops and caught nothing but dogfish…moved to a deeper ledge > 120ft and 2 snapper/2 white grunts and nice black bass…no sharks/dogfish. There were good fish on inshore drops but only dogfish caught.
Went back 8/11/18 and there were small batches of fish hugging the bottom…thru out the tide…no dogfish were caught…scattered small black bass and small grunt. No good bottom fish caught from 120-80 feet…nothing on the commongrounds in 80 feet.
I know fish were caught that weekend cause the pics in the paper…were they caught North??? I haven’t found out yet…the question I have, can dogfish push bottom fish off their grounds???
My bottom machine is fine…there were a few fish there, but not the numbers that should have been …or dogfish caught.
Dogfish or Atlantic Sharpnose sharks ? We normally do not see spiny or smooth dogfish until late winter here
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PROUD YANKEE
Oyster Baron
NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
I hoped you would comment. I specifically showed my son the spike on the dorsal fin so he’d not get stuck. I agree I normally see them in the winter…I never seen so many in all spots this time of year.
Do sharpnoses have a spike as well? I don’t know. I appreciate your knowledge as well as your input. I never seen the banks cleared out like it was.
Atlantic sharp nose do not have a spine. Were they more of a brown back/tan color? I know the bottom gets covered with them during the summer off of New England. We caught plenty when we were trying to catch cod and Haddock.
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PROUD YANKEE
Oyster Baron
NMFS = No More Fishing Season
“Back home we got a taxidermy man. He gonna have a heart attack when he see what I brung him”
They were brownish with scattered white spots…the same shark I caught winter bottom fishing…just not as many…and moving to another area decreased the hook up.
The thing is I fished the spot a week before and caught sharks and the next week the whole area is scattered small pods of fish. I just wondered if the dogfish which pack up could drive fish from area/scatter into small bunches. That’s all. I’ll go look soon since I got to try out my mileage after raising the motors.