Well, Striper Fishing in the Bay has been outstanding. Too tired to do a good job of updating the site regularly – but that’s a good thing. We’ve been fishing nearly every day for the last month and a half, and Cape Cod Bay has treated our customers very, very well. Will try to keep up with the pics and reports – check out our Facebook page as that is often easier and quicker to update.
Good luck out there.
Captain Don
June Striper fishing in Cape Cod Bay has been outstanding. Save one afternoon trip with a nasty east wind, it has pretty well been limits and lots of releases on a daily basis. We have been splitting our time fairly evenly between Billingsgate Shoal and Provincetown, as both areas are holding tremendous numbers of fish. The middle of the bay has also been productive, as one afternoon we found acres of migrating Stripers on Top near the Fishing Ledge. While most of our fishing has been trolling, we haven’t even had to break out the wire rigs once this year. We’ve also seen far more surface feeding fish than usual, and have been able to break out the spinning gear on many occasions. Monday, there were hoards of Bass on top, and seemed like they were fighting each other for 9″ sluggos on top.
There are no guarantees in fishing, but this is pretty darn nice right now..
Good luck,
-Captain Don
Friday’s good Striper fishing continued right through the weekend. Saturday we started out by jigging up some Mackeral in front of the canal, but unfortunately the live bait bite wasn’t as good as Friday. We ran down to Billingsgate and found good numbers of Bass right on the shoal. There was a very good bite on rigs, but since we had a family with four kids on board, we didn’t want to put out the wire. This probably resulted in less overall fish than we could have had, but with a little extra time and switching a few things around, all the kids got plenty of fish. Sometimes you have to give a little extra time, but you do what it takes to get the job done.
Sunday the bite on the Shoal was very good, and we got alot of fish with mini-rigs trolled on lead-core line. The troll bite was constant, and lasted all morning – not sure of the fish count, but it was solid. Right after the tide turned, all the fish came up and we put the troll rigs away for some light tackle casting. Grabbed a bunch of fish on the spin gear, and even got a couple of nice ones on 12 lb test. Just a great time with fish and birds busting all around the boat.
Back out there tomorrow with a morning and afternoon trip. Give a call for availability – right now we’re booked 20 of the 30 days in June, but we definately have some afternoon trips available.
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.
Big week of Striper fishing in Cape Cod Bay. We were out straight this week, so this will be more of an overall recap as I don’t think I can keep the individual trips straight. We ran doubles most days, and I believe the final tally was limiting out 7 out of 8 trips. Most fish were in the 32″-40″ range with a few bigger ones sprinkled in and more schoolies than we could count. For the most part, we fished Billingsgate shoals in the am, and then ran up to P-town for the afternoons. Snapping wire was the ticket on the shoals, where the jigs definately outproduced the tubes. However at P-town, the tubes were taking solid fish while the jiggers were stuck with mostly schoolies.
One noteable catch this week was by Mike Gonsalves’s 11 year old son – his first ever Striper was 40″ and he did a great job landing it without any help from his dad. Fishing was unreal that day, as we were marking schools 10′ deep that filled the fishfinder.
Full disclosure, the 44lb cow that Jay is holding was not taken on the L-J. Jay did an overnight trip with his buddy Eddie Gotovich on Ed’s Doghouse. When Ed isn’t commercial bass fishing or solo tuna fishing, he fills in as a mate for us. Whenever Ed decides to start chartering on his own, he’s going to fill up fast, because the guy catches.
Without being too specific, conditions are lining up for our local big bass run. For our customers that have hit this with us in the past, give a call soon, as this is usually the best big fish time of the year in the bay. No wire, just tubes, and lots of 40″ plus fish.
On the Tuna front, things have been slow. We ran 2 trips this week with only 1 bite on a livie to show for it. Last week we went long giving it a solid 12 hour effort with only the one hit to show for it. We did have a few surface shots way east, but didn’t convert. This past Saturday we had a 1/2 tuna 1/2 bass that turned quickly to bass as Stellwagon seemed like a dead zone.
Moving forward, the combo of this Noreaster and the Moon should get things turned back on, and we’re confident that the Fall Fishing will be outstanding. In the meantime, east of the bank is covered in sharks, so these are a great option for people that want to bend the heavy tackle quickly.
Overall, fishing has been extremely consistent. If this is the Summer slowdown, I can’t wait for the September runs.
Good luck out there.
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.
No charter today so we broke out the 130’s and went out east looking for Giant Bluefin.
Settled in out on the East Side of Stellwagon with good #’s of breaking fish around. Mixed bay of tuna there with 100lb – 200 lb class fish with some real Giants showing from time to time. Had 1 bite on a live bait pretty quickly, but we couldn’t stay pinned to him. Not sure on the size – could have been another one of the 70″ class fish that have been so prevelent this year. Makes me feel better to think that than having lost a market fish.
We got chased off the bank pretty quickly as the numbers of huge bluefish and Stripers there made it impossible to get to get a livie through to the tuna. Stripers are fun, but when they are eating live baits that cost $5 each, – not so much.
We went way out to the East where one of the Spotter pilots had been seeing good #’s of fish, but unfortunately there was zero visibility Offshore. It can be pretty hard to troll when you can’t even see your spreader bars.
Highpoint of the day was seeing a 4-500 lb class Bluefin come up and absolutely smash a dead bluefish that was floating on the surface. He took two good shots at it, coming all the way out of the water – I couldn’t hook him, but it was still fun to see
Good to be out there, back Striper Fishing tomorrow with another charter
