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
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.
Great Charter today with a group of six guys from Barnstable and Sandwich. Most of these guys fish quite a bit but they have small boats and their range is a bit limited. Very nice to have an experienced group of fisherman on board.
Made the trip across the bay and found good #’s bass away from the crowd. The fish set up for the entire tide right on one set of lobster pots, so staying with the fish was pretty easy. It always takes the pressure off quickly when you get a couple of keepers on the first pass. Fishing stayed very solid for most of the morning – it started getting a little crowded after a while, but the fish turned back on once the boat traffic subsided. Ended up getting our limit, without anything that really even needed to be measured and some school fish mixed in as well to keep the action going.
This was actually a bachelor party, and since the guys were having a great time we forgot to look at the clock for a while and stayed a little late. The extra time paid off, as that’s the Bachelor in the photo with his best fish of the day.
All in all, great day, with a solid group of guys.
Nice group of people from the South Shore out with us today. Two Guys and 4 kids aged 9 – 14.
Fishing at the Race was a little slower than it has been, looks like this massive heat-wave has finally started to affect the fishing a little bit as the water temp got up over 70. That said, we were still able to find good #’s of stripers – we just had to work for them a little bit.
Not sure the final count, but we ended up with 8 or 9 keepers, and a bunch of schoolies. High point of the day was the 9 year old getting the largest fish of the day at almost 40″.
All fish were on tube and worm today – easy tackle for the kids to handle. Hot color of the day was Ruby Red, followed by Ruby Red, and some more Ruby Red – there’s been a trend this season.
Unfortunately, we left the camera at home – but hopefully the customers will email some pics so we can get the kids on the site.
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 tod
ay, 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.
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.
