Posts Tagged ‘striper fishing’

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.

Striper fishing in Cape Cod Bay has continued to be excellent.  We’re riding a nice streak here, limiting out every charter over the last two weeks (knocking wood while I write this).

While that’s been fun, Saturday’s trip gave us reason to brag:

Kate and Jack (Captain Don’s Grandkids) age 7 and 9 made their first trip looking for some keeper Stripers.  Fishing was great and the Bass cooperated.  Each of the kids got 6 or 7 nice keepers, with Kate leading the day with a 38″ fish and Jack following up with one a little better than 36″.  We are also fishing in the Canal Bait and Tackle Striper Tourney this week, and to make their day official we went and weighed up the fish.  Although I’m sure they were knocked out within the hour, the kids did rank 1 and 2 on the leaderboard after their weigh in – and to a couple of little kids, that might have been the highpoint of the summer.

On the tuna front – they are all over the place.  Don took a group out whalewatching today, and just for kicks put one line out when the tuna came up smashing everywhere.  They ended up losing the fish they hooked, but it was just some extra fun while checking out the whales.

Laura Cianciolo has a knack for finding big fish whenever she gets back to the Cape from her home in Florida.  Two years ago she showed up for summer vacation and nailed 5, thirty pounders her first day back.

Well, today she waited around until we finished our morning charter, and hit the water at the around 2:00.  We trolled for about an hour, and Laura started off her season with a nice 34 lb Bass.  About 2 hours total on the water including travel time was all she needed.

Some people just have the knack.

Great trip this morning with a family in from Rye, NY.  Three kids on the trip today, I believe 13, 11, and 3 – whole goal of the trip was to get the kids their fist Stripers and maybe learn a little about fishing while they were at it.  Jack, the oldest, figuered out the process really quick, and in no time he was taking care of the trolling rigs on his own and landing fish like he’d been doing in for years.  Not to be outdone, his sister Jaime had the biggest fish of the morning at about 36″ plus a bunch of otheres.  Even the 3 year old got in on the action as she “helped” her dad reel one in.

Overall, a great day with a great family.  Hope to see them back again next year.

Saturday kicked off Striper season with our first Bass Charter of the year.  Great group of guys in from Hartford.  New schools of Stripers are pushing into the bay daily.  We had good action on the shoals Saturday, lots of schoolies on top and good #’s of 30″-34″ underneath.  Cape Cod Bay is filled with Mackeral and Whiting right now – the big fish should be moving in on these any day now (although there are already some ones here already).

Sunday was a fun day, as we took the next generation (Jack and Kate) out for some Mackeral fishing.  The kids had a great time bailing macs, and they liked the fact that they were helping to get ready for tuna season by catching the bait. 

And yes, the rumors are true – a Giant Tuna was taken on Stellwagon this week, and many more have been seen.  Should be a great June fishery this year.

Good luck out there,

Captain Don