Butterfish??

[kitebuz]

So I was out w/ a buddy on Sat. (along w/ 3 of our kids) w/ a plan to castnet some pogies to stock up our bait pen and liveline a couple.

We are in an inner harbor of buzzards bay where we usually do ok for pogies - even when they are not showing. It's a small channel about 10' deep. Not much for suface action, but the 1st throw nets a handful of pogies & we are off to a good start. We are marking good bait on the bottom of the channel, so the next throw targets them. The net comes up heavy, but it is loaded with butterfish.

This was a first for us. The next throw gets more of the same. First time I have caught butterfish, and we figure what the heck - give them a try. The kids had fun helping get them all in the livewell. We ended up landing a bruiser bluefish & one big run off lost to an anchor line on pogie chunks, and a couple hits on live butterfish.

I was wishing we could have made a run south to feed mahi, but no time. We ended up releasing a bunch of them when it was time to head home.

Is it common to net butterfish up in Buzzards Bay, and do people ever use them livelining for stripers like pogies?

If we had more freezer capacity set up, we would have taken a bunch home to freeze, but not this time.

[Fortunamate]

i cant answer your question but i know the man who can. I work at buzzards bait wich is right in buzzards bay and i will ask our pogie man. he is rediculous i dont know where he gets them. like for instance 2 weeks ago we went through 1500pogies in a single day at the store and he cought them all in one morning!!

[kitebuz]

That'd be great - I'd be interested to hear if he sees them much, and also if he is able to tell the diff. between butterfish & pogies on a sounder. Thanks.

[rarhomes]

Did you get any pics ? I would like to see what you are calling a butterfish.

Capt Rick

[Verbal]

We netted a bunch of them in that area about a month ago. They are usually there for the month of August and the first couple weeks of September.

[cappyD]

they are excellent bait for bass and tuna...even giants. Unfortunately they dont do well in captivity. Ive thrown on some schools too...next time save them for the freezer!!! They make incredible hook baits for chunking tuna or bass...even while chumming pogies.

[Fffiisshh0]

Ive netted them all season in Wareham. Nothing unusual, although I havent come across big schools like you mention, I always get a few .

[canyonjunkie]

i cant answer your question but i know the man who can. I work at buzzards bait wich is right in buzzards bay and i will ask our pogie man. he is rediculous i dont know where he gets them. like for instance 2 weeks ago we went through 1500pogies in a single day at the store and he cought them all in one morning!!

stan the man?

[Fortunamate]

only stan the man. the guys is like a hulk he can pick up a cooler full of 200 pogies and ice and toss it around like nobodys buisness and his hands are like shoe leather

[canyonjunkie]

only stan the man. the guys is like a hulk he can pick up a cooler full of 200 pogies and ice and toss it around like nobodys buisness and his hands are like shoe leather

yea hes a big guy and there are none better than him in the bait department. hes just as good at catching bass as he is bait haha