Thursay – Saturday Report
This week’s Noreaster was a bit of a pain in that we had to cancel/reschedule a bunch of trips, but there were some good parts about it as well. One – we needed a break, and as much as you don’t want to cancel any trips during the busy season, sometimes you just need sleep. Second, a good noreaster can hit the “reset” button on the ocean by turning the water over, and getting the fish back on the feed.
The combination of the full moon and the Noreaster did just that as things picking back up and the Fall fishing conditions are just starting .
Thursday – we ran a 1/2 day Striper trip with a fun group from California that are spending the week on vacation in Orleans. The week of North wind pushed a ton of bait onto the beach between Sandwich and Barnstable so it was nice to have good fishing with a very short run. We ended up fishing the outer Channel at Barnstable, and there were big schools of Bass stacked up on the edges. They were tight to the bottom, so we had to jig – but it was well worth it. Customers got their limit and we released a bunch as well – overall a really fun afternoon.
Friday – We headed offshore with a 1/2 Tuna 1/2 Bass trip. Commercial Striper season is over, so our bait guy is back in business. It was nice to come down and have a keeper trap filled with live Pogies. Got set-up on the Bank in an area with alot of bait and big marks on the machine – this was the best the Bank has looked in about a month. On our second drift, we had a minke whale swim right through our balloons. In the middle of telling the customers that’s a good thing, the tuna hang with the whales, the long balloon went off. Long story short, the Fish was a freight train, and dumped 2/3 of an 80 Wide with 40lbs of drag on the first run while we were backing down at about 6 knots. Unfortunately, the fish chafed off on the leader. Live by the light leaders – die by the light leaders – it was a heck of a ride while it lasted, good to have a real Giant on for a bit.
That was our only tuna for the day – they guys really just wanted to bend some rods, so we headed in to the shoals to Bass fish. We jigged up a few keepers, shorts, and big blues – overall not great fishing, but we made a day of it.
Sunday – Great trip with one of our favorite customers. The Ruch family came back again this year on their annual trip from Buffalo, and we had a great day. Last report I mentioned things lining up for the big bass run close to home, and they definately have. We fished tight to the beach at Sandwich, in less than 20′ of water, and despite the crowd of knuckleheads, we had a great day. 10 good fish, and 4 were between 25 and 30 lbs (on a real scale – all the guestimates at the dock were alot more). We also broke off 2 will keep me up at night for quite a while. Overall the bite was slower than we expected, and alot of boats went home skunked. But given the number of fish on the screen when they turn on for real, it will be insane.
