Posts Tagged ‘striper charter’

Cape Cod Bay is absolutely filled with Mackeral.  I think it might actually be possible to walk on them from the Canal all the way to Green Harbor.  With that, there are serious #’s of  Stripers in all the early season spots. 

Cod fishing was solid on our trips this week as well with a good mix of cod, haddock and redfish.  The Herring and Mackeral are stacked 25-30ft off the bottom on the SW Corner.  If the water temps stay down, we are setting up for an incredible opening to the Tuna season on June 1.

Well, looks like we did a terrible job of updating the site with 2011 fishing reports.  I did try to keep up with the Facebook site, as that is alot easier to log on and post photos, so that worth a look if you want to see what we’ve been up to. 

That said, 2011 was a fantastic season for Big Stripers in Cape Cod Bay. 

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

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.

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.

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