Posts Tagged ‘Cape Cod Tuna Charter’

Cape Cod Bay Striper Report

Posted on May 28th, 2011 by captain

Striper Season in the bay is off to a great start.  The unbelievable 2 week blitz that occured in the canal got an aweful lot of press, and those fish have moved through and set up in their usual haunts in Cape Cod Bay.  All of the spring areas are holding fish – good numbers on Billingsgate and up at P-town, and lots of good fish feeding on the Mackeral Schools between Sandwich and Barnstable.

Friday morning we jigged up about 40 macs in 20 min right in front of the canal.  Made the quick run down to Barnstable for the outgoing tide.  The bite there has been very good, but we got chased out by all the schoolie bass (and a few small keepers).  We made the run out to one of our deeper water spots and found nice action with cookie-cutter 36″ fish.  Fun fishing, with the largest Bass of the day a tad over 40 inches.  Great morning on the water.

June’s New Moon is on Wednesday – look for the season’s first push of really Big Fish to come through mid-week.  The bait is there, and the timing is perfect for some great days.

Laura-Jay Striper and Tuna Report

Posted on August 31st, 2010 by captain

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.

Laura-Jay Weekend Striper and Tuna Report

Posted on August 3rd, 2010 by captain

Got a bit behind on the reports lately – here’s a quick rundown of the last few days:

Friday – Tuna and Striper combo trip.  Fun trip with a couple of our regulars who I think have been coming out 10 years straight now.  The north wind was cranking in the am, so instead of tuna fishing first we hit P-town for Stripers first until the wind calmed down.  Honestly, we were trying to find some Bluefish to take out and liveline, and we ended up in a ridiculous striper bite.  The bass were stacked up about 10 feet high in 18 feet of water and we had fish on every pass until the guys got tired.  Not sure the final tally, but it was very good.  Since we had Bass on board, we had to stay within the 3 mile limit and made a run down the backside looking for tuna.  We found good numbers down off the golfballs, with lots of mixed size fish airing out.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t buy a bite.  Overall, it was a really fun day with customers that made it seem like a day off fishing with friends.

Saturday – Another Combo Striper and Tuna trip.  Much nicer trip out, but we still had the north wind that got the tuna bite going a bit.  We got on a good spot away from the fleet and started marking fish pretty consistently just before slack tide. A couple of good boils on the inside baits, and then the long rigger got hit.  Nice Slot fish, that put up a great fight – taped out at 54″ and made for some great steaks.  Got the whole thing on video – I’m sure I’ll get it edited by January…The bite was all over by noon, so we moved back into P-town and timed the bass bite well as the tide was picking up.  I think we ended up with 10 keepers and some shorts – biggest fish was a little over 40″.  I know that was the guys first Bass, so he’s a little spoiled now.  Fun day, over an hour’s worth of filleting and steaking, but well worth it.

Sunday – finished up the weekend with a very productive 1/2 day bass charter.  Good fishing, again all on the tube an worm.  Seemed like we had to work a little more for the fish today than the last few, but we still limited out.  There were also a pile of bluefish that moved in and kept things interesting (where were these on Friday?).  Another fun trip as these guys were back from last year and we hope to see them next year too.

Very productive end to the week – looks like we have some weather coming in, but that should drop the water temp a bit, and keep the bite strong. 
Good luck out there.

Laura-Jay Midweek Striper Report 7/20

Posted on July 21st, 2010 by captain

Striped-Bass fishing on Cape Cod Bay continues to be excellent this week.

Saturday, we had the Glassman family out for a 1/2 Tuna, 1/2 Striper trip.  Last year they scored a big Bluefin, unfortunately we couldn’t repeat this year.  One tuna tried to eat our kite-bait, but didn’t get stay on the hook.   After getting frustrated by the tuna, we moved inshore and had great Striper-fishing.  We took 8 or 9 fish in about an hour with the bigger fish topping out around 38″.

Sunday, we had a group of guys from Connecticut that were vacationing with their families in Sandwich.  Very good fishing at Provincetown despite the crowds.  For the most part we were able to stay out of the crazy crowds and limited out on good size stripers.  All fish were on the tube and worm again.

Monday we fished down off of Barnstable, and had another good day.  The tube wasn’t working as well, as the fish were tight, tight to the bottom.  We switched over to jigging, and got quite a few fish.  Fun day, with a nice family that were very happy when we finished up.

Tuesday – good group of guys that won the charter at an auction to benefit the Jay’s kid’s elementary school.  The guys wanted to target some larger fish to torment their one friend that couldn’t make the trip.  There are areas of Cape Cod Bay that will hold less fish, but they are often big – so we hit a couple of those holes.  We only ended up with a few fish, but they were rewarded with decent size – the bigger ones were in the mid-20’s and one just over 30 lbs.  All in all a fun day.

Very busy this week which is a good thing.  Right now the Saturday afternoon trip is open, as well as a few slots in the middle of next week.

Good luck out there.

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