Posts Tagged ‘tuna fishing’

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.

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