I observed an interesting techinque used to catch herring by the Possession bait house crew on Saturday.
We were fishing a large bait ball SW of Possession, and the tender boat from the bait house darted right into the center of the diving birds. As the birds scattered, the tender started dipping away on the ball which was obviously less than 2 feet under the surface. He was pulling up netfuls almost too heavy to carry. Then the larger boat that obviously carries the fresh bait back to the house started circling the outside of the ball to contain it. They probably netted 100-150lbs of herring in three minutes. So many his boat was listing pretty good.

Anyone else ever do this themselves? Seemed pretty easy. I have jigged a ball for herring but if I just had a small dipnet....hmmm. Can you say year long supply?

Here is a shot of the ball and then the two boats transferring the fish right afterwards. I didnt get too many good shots because we hooked a diving bird that had to be released right as it all went down.

Sky Guy- I also witnessed that over at possession, what boat were you in? I was amazed at how easily he got those herring geez they were everywhere our fish finder was going crazy. Did you get any fish during that big herring feast?

Skeets

Skeets-
I fish out of a 16ft aluminum Gregor with red,white, blue decals on the side. There were two of that type boat out there Saturday. We fished the Tin can and Horseshoe without any bites. All fish were around the corner by the bait house to bait box.

I'm thinking a smelt net would work pretty well.