I don't know whether they are used in NY waters but on the Chesapeake,
fishermen sometimes use pound nets along the shore to do their fishing.
They can stretch out pretty far into open water and looking at them
from a distance or even up close, they appear to be just clusterings of
various sized poles sticking out of the water. However, the poles are
holding up long nets underneath the water which are weighted and
attached to the bottom of the bay. Fish swim into them and get caught
in the nets. This is what they look like above the water:
http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/femad/fish...s%26Nets16.htm