Laura-Jay Charters 7/2 Cape Cod Bay Striper Fishing

Posted on July 3rd, 2010 by captain

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.

Laura-Jay Charters Striper Fishing

Posted on June 26th, 2010 by captain

Wow.

Plain and simple – it’s on and we’re getting spoiled this week.  Not sure the #’s for the day, but we limited out in the first 40 minutes and had doubles all day long.  Largest fish was over 40″ and all the fish looked well fed – most all were in the 16-20lb range with a few better ones in the mix.  It really seemed like we were doubled up for most of the day, and quit when all of our anglers were exhausted.

All fish today were on Tube and Worm – leadcore line that is really easy for the customers to handle.  This is also a great way to fish when we’re releasing as many fish as we have this week.  Virtually all the fish are lip-hooked and landed quickly, ensuring healthy releases.

I don’t want to create unrealistic expectations, because this is just phenominal fishing, and it’s not always this hot.  But we are certainly going to enjoy this while we can!

Didn’t take any pics – but the crew had an I-phone, hope we get a few shots in the email.

Cape Cod Bay Striper Fishing – Fantastic

Posted on June 24th, 2010 by captain

Just and unbelievable day on Tuesday.  Both the morning and afternoon trips had outstanding Striper fishing.  Both trips limited out in less than an hour, and then spent the rest of the day releasing 20 lb Stripers.

All action was on the tube and worm – no wire, no hassle, and easy fishing for both the kids and the adults.  A huge body of fish moved into the bay this week and it was undoubtedly the best fishing so far this season.  Not sure if these were the Bass on Stellwagon or the giant schools on the backside, but these should be our resident fish for quite a while.

Looking forward to Bass trips the next 3 days – get out there, it’s on.

Cape Cod Bay Bluefin Tuna and Striper Report

Posted on June 18th, 2010 by captain

72" Bluefin

June fishing is really going well right now in Cape Cod Bay.

This past Friday we had our first Tuna Charter of the season and got off to a great start.  We were fishing live bait on the South West Corner of Stellwagon and had great action from the beginning.  We had two hits and then scored on the third bite of the morning all in the first half hour.  After a 2 1/2 hour battle with one of the most stubborn bluefin I’ve ever seen, we landed the 72″ 200lb+ Bluefin above.  Great day as we started the season with the same customers that had our last Tuna charter of the 2009 season – and they brought all the gear for a mean sushi lunch back at the dock.

Striper fishing has been very consistent in the bay – Saturday we fished Provincetown, and Sunday Billingsgate Shoal – both had good numbers of fish making for fun days.  A big run on monster bass pushed through the canal this week – should make for some great fishing on a bigger class of fish.  There is a ton of large bait in the bay right now – this should keep these big girls happy and local for quite some time.

Inshore and offshore the fishing is great – give us a call as we have openings now before the tourist season gets in full swing.

Good luck,

Captain Don

Laura-Jay Cape Cod Striped-Bass Report

Posted on June 8th, 2010 by captain

Well, after having 3 trips blown out this weekend due to thunderstorms and heavy winds, we rebounded nicely today.  Started the trip late today to let the last of the weekend weather pass, and left the dock at a leisurly 11:00.  The plan worked well, as the seas flattened out for the trip to Billinsgate Shoal, and the Stripers were waiting.  Solid action from the start, and we limited out in about an hour.  Plenty of releases after that, as we had a good mix all day of schoolies and 30″-34″ fish.  All the fish today were on tube and worm – probably some bigger fish in the deep if we’d gone to wire, but the people were having fun just fishing leadcore.

Great fishing – June is always alot of fun in the Bay.

Laura-Jay Weekend Striper Report

Posted on May 24th, 2010 by captain

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

Spooling 50’s for Bluefin Tuna and the Oh Sh*t Mark

Posted on May 20th, 2010 by captain

I spent some time on the linewinder at the shop the other day getting ready for tuna season, so I thought I would share how I spooled up.

My caveat as always with these things – this is how I do it, there are lots of right ways, this is just what I’ve found to work well on the Laura-Jay.

First I spooled 2 Fin-Nor Santiago 50’s – these are the 50 standards, not the wides. Each reel took 450 yards of 130lb Jerry Brown Hollow core, this is connected via 7ft of chinese finger cuff spice to 100 yard top shots of Momoi Daimond 80lb line (Brillinat Blue). 130 JB is cheaper and easier to spice than the 80 and capacity isn’t an issue.

Next I spooled 2 Fin-Nor 50 Wides – I also spooled each of these with 450 yards of JB 130, but I put a significantly longer top-shot (approx 300 yds) of the 80 lb Diamond (Daimond significantly overtests, so I think of this as essentially 100lb mono). With the extra capacity, these are generally my long rigger rods – the standards have Plenty of capacity, but I like to put each rod in the same position in the spread each day.

Finally, I rigged my Kite Rod – this isn’t this line that controls the kite, rather a separate 50W combo used just for fishing the live bait. Braid flies much easier than mono (less wind resistance) – so I set up 1 50 Wide just for this.
I backed the reel with approx 400 yds of 80 lb Cortland Dacron, and then top-shoted the reel with 300 yards of JB 130lb braid (connected via loop to loop – with slices on each end). The terminal end of the line has a spliced loop where I can change short wind on leaders (30′) and then crimp on my hook for the bait.

I’ve got a couple more to do, but that was enough for 1 day.

Finally the picture is what I call the O Sh*t mark – I constantly hear stories of people “getting spooled” – but in reality it just doesn’t happen very often. Many anglers, (myself included) start getting nervous when they see the spool getting thin with a hot fish running off – but we normally have a heck of alot more capacity than we think.
So the Oh- Sh*t mark is simply a 6 foot section on line colored in with black sharpie – marked off 100 yards from the end of the spool. If you see this, time for some evasive maneuvers – but you still have room to save the day.

Hope that helped somebody getting ready for the season.

-Jay

Interesting Trip today with the BBC

Posted on May 6th, 2010 by captain

We had a very different sort of charter today.  A film crew from the British Broadcasting Company flew “across the pond” to film a piece on the New England Fisheries.  The 3 members of the film crew started out on one of the Mass State Fisheries Research vessels, while we had the rest of the crew.  They filmed several haul-backs both from the vessel while we shot the operations from the Laura-Jay.  Really interesting process and a fun day.  Definately different than our regular trips.

Looking forward to getting a copy of the video as well as the still shots.  We got right up under the doors of the dragger for the haul-backs – I think those are going to be some great pics.

Last season we had a French travel show shoot a segment on Striper fishing, early this year the BBC, –  wondering what’s coming next?

Good Luck,

Captain Don

SaltwaterEdge Cod Trip

Posted on April 19th, 2010 by captain

The guys from The SaltwaterEdge organized a trip for some of their customers and staff yesterday – good time and a group of really good fisherman. 
Everybody went tight on the first drop and it stayed that way all morning.  Stayed a couple miles outside the fleet and had ridiculous fishing all by ourselves. Limited out early on cod, and had 15 or so good sized pollock in there too.

Pt Jude Joe of Pt Jude lures sent us some prototypes of his new tuna jig to try out – good stuff. When my father (who pretty well defines “old school”) says those things are working better than the pipes, – I figuere it’s a winner.

Don’s out there now with another group – good luck all.

New for 2010 – Night Bass trips with Jay

Posted on April 15th, 2010 by captain

We’ve decided to roll something new out for this season – Night-time Striper Trips.

In the past, we’ve only run our charters during the day and left the night-time fishing for ourselves (especially during commercial season).  But we thought we would try these trips on a limited basis, as the fishing is often fantastic, and its a great opportunity to target some truely special fish.

So here are a few of the details:

These trips will be done with Captain Jay, as Don says he has no interest doing a 3rd trip each day (j/k dad).  These trips will leave Sandwich at 7:00 pm and return at approximately 12 midnight.  Trips will be limited to only 4 anglers, and we will using primarily live bait (I will have the boat fully stocked with eels).  All tackle will be provided, and we will have a mate on board as always to assist in every way.  Alcohol will be extremely limited on these trips – no more than 2 beers per person – night fishing is not the time to mess around.  We will also be extremely vigilant in watching the weather, and although the captain will still make the determinations on weather cancellations, we will not be sailing in any rough conditions.

I’m excited for these trips, as I think it will be a great time for experienced anglers who are looking for a new challenge this season.  Give us a call and check your moon schedule, as the new moon nights in June are open right now – but I’m sure they won’t be for long!

Good luck out there,

-Captain Jay Cianciolo