North Shore – September 30th, 2007

 

Would not even post this except that Nelson felt that he had a good day on the water. I enjoyed getting out and practicing on my cast with the 8 wt as well though Nelson did well from the start.

Last minute decision to go and last minute decision to not bring the boat. The thought was to come back early and get some more work done on the shed – yeah right. Anyways, I headed down for some shore fishing and told Nelson to go to the 1st spot while I went to another (since it was on the way). I ran into a fellow that I have seen at this spot before and went over and said hello. We talked for a bit and I picked up on his accent that he was Portuguese. He mentioned that the tide was really low and it was. He also said someone got a 35 incher here the week before.

I headed down to the spot to fish and took a bunch of casts on my new 7′ spinning outfit I bought just for shore fishing. My only 2 pc setup and this one is a saltwater version. No fish but did stumble on a nice lure stuck in the bed of spent shells. Hooks a little rusty but otherwise looked like new. Score.

Headed over to meet up with Nelson and called him on the way. He said, yep the birds are here and fish are surfacing (Salem Willows).  I arrived and ran into a painter on the shore. He was doing a painting of a nice oak tree overlooking Beverly Harbor. I stopped and complemented his painting. He thanked me and said that there were birds working the water down below and fish jumping. OK, time to go find Nelson. I finally see him in the water with his waders. I did not have mine on but in the truck. He said he got a few and before I could even cast he got another. I started casting out and had a couple of hits then decided to go back up to the truck to get my waders so I could use my fly rod for these schoolies. By the time I got back Nelson said they were still on. I entered the water and must of had the get-away cologne on as the fish stopped. We fished a little further down and I almost exclusively threw a fly for the next hour or more. Nelson picked up another fish but the tide was on the way in and the holes in between us and land were a concern. We headed in to go find another spot.

As we got back to the truck we ran into a couple of guys that just got back from diving asking if we knew of a weigh station for their lobster. He showed me a pretty decent lobster in a bag and wanted to weigh it for a possible record caught while diving.

We hit several spots in Beverly along the beaches and all the way up at West beach we saw some birds working after we were there for a bit.  We waded out to them but could not hook up. Saw a person in a kayak come along and get one of them though. Small but still on a fly. Se later came into the beach with a friend and we chatted for a bit about the fly pattern she was using and the activity on the water. She even gave me a fly that she tied. Pretty cool to meet people like this.

We headed back towards the river only to pick up one small schoolie to break in my new rod. That was it. That is my story and I’m sticking to it. 🙂

-Brian

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Cape Cod (South side), September 16th, 2007

Joined some old friends on a team of 3 boats down to the south side of the cape Sunday. We were in search of False Albacore tuna. For myself and my partner for the day (my nephew Nelson) we were complete newbies. I remember targeting them years ago but no catching any (or seeing any that day either).

It was an early start and I of all people was running a late. For no reason at all but did keep things going or tried to. Seems like I had so many little challenges along the way. I won’t get into them but let’s just say it could have been a better start.

Trying not to let my cranky side out, we finally got to the boat ramp and launched. Headed out of a fairly long no wake zone to find the other two boats that already made it out. We got outside of the channel area and did not see them. A quick call confirmed that they were not too far away and near some very heated fishing action. I asked, how will I know where to find you and he replied that they were near a bunch of other boats. Indeed he was. I’ll be there were 50-60 boats in this area by 6:30 AM. It was silly. However everyone seemed to behave for the most part.

We saw massive schools of bait fish being fizzed to the surface. WOW!!!!! we were pumped up now. I was like, hmmm should i through a sluggo or a fly or a spoon or a ….. I was confused. Tossed the sluggo out a bunch of times then went for the fly only to find out the line was spooled on opposite to the direction of the drag – wrong!

After hours with no fish and several phone calls from my buddy stating that he was catching them. We were doing something wrong. We did not see a lot of people catching fish either. One break off that Nelson had and I had maybe a tug? Wow, we sucked.

Then my buddy says, you have to stay upwind of them and drift into them ripping the bait back as fast as you can and then some. I thought, OK I will try it. We did that a few times with no luck. There were just too many people out there. Every time we would see a bait blitz there were like 5 boats on it. Toooo many boats. Nobody was being mean or anything just crowded.

We headed into some bay area for bluefish for a short while and by the time we came back out the boats had thinned out by more than 75%. The fish activity too. So we all split into different directions. I went east and they went west. I found a good rip that we just started working for stripers when I got a call. Spot UDL was on fire and there was not another soul out there. Come on down. Cool, so we blast off (I think this is when I lost my jacket as it must of blew out of the boat).

As we were heading over there we notice that there were blitzes along this one spot. Not more than 1-2 boats nearby and one of them was the sea tow boat. OK, can’t pass this up. So we check it out. Within the 1st couple of casts I hookup. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ my reel said to me. I said what? It said ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZzz ZZZZZZZZ. WOW, this thing was a toad. It must be 100 pounds Nelson exclaimed. I said, no way it must be good but it sure did feel big. It was taking on drag and had my rod bent completely in half. I was half focussed on landing the fish and half not breaking my rod. Then the fish stopped. So I started picking back up some line and it did a 180 and this time circled the boat. By this time we were drifting off into deeper water and the phone rings. It is my buddy. I had Nelson answer it for me and relay the message that we were on fish and to come join us. Got the fish to the boat after a fairly long battle for a couple of pictures. 8.5 pound Albie. Not heavy but hearty. Wow, that was so cool. Now it was Nelsons turn.

Nelson had to watch me catch two more before he caught one. Well, actually he was a little bit challenged as his line kept snapping and he broke off I think 4 fish for the day total. Finally he had one on and the drag set correctly 😉 that is key right Nelson? He was so excited. I started the boat and followed the fish a little as it was taking some serious line and there were other boats nearby that this fish was running to. We landed it, got some pics, and sent it back off to kick someone else’s but.

Nelson then caught two more from various pods of busting bait. He landed both. Great job to him and I’ll bet those fish were the gravy after the 1st. I know mine seemed that way.

Several of the fish puked up the bait they were feeding on, often times it still completely alive. So we had these little fish flipping all over the boat after catching them. See the picture below.

Later the fishing died down and we were all hunting for new spots. Nothing doing though. Nobody was on anything. We slowly were trolling the shoreline when all of a sudden a bunch of fish out of the blue just starting busting all around us. Like we walked into the candy store. I stopped the boat and ran to the front with my sluggo rod to pick up what would be our last fish of the day. We called my buddy again to invite him into whatever action he could get out of the spot. They went down and he instead came over just to take some pics. That was cool of him.

We found more fish late into the day in different spots but I don’t think anyone hooked up after that. Headed in for a long drive home from a day well spent on the cape. What an awesome day, fish, and experience that was. I will never forget it and can’t wait to do it again.

-Brian

North Shore, September 9th, 2007

Took my nephews out today. Anthony joined myself and Nelson. We hit the salt for this one in search of the elusive striper. They should be on bunker this time of year and we were in search of the fattier ones.

Weather was nasty to start. It was raining hard up here in NH at 3AM and as I headed down to Salem, it was not raining yet but very humid and windy. That’s right, thunderstorm weather. Watched the flashes of lighting the whole way down, thinking we may not be able to go out in the boat until that calmed down.

Picked up Nelson and Anthony and headed for Kernwood Marina to launch. With the lightening I wanted to wait it out. Plus, if we did that we could use the Winter Island ramp. We staged our fishing efforts at the Salem willows where we took a few casts for an hour and watched the lightening. It was near but not over us. I caught two and dropped one schoolie. Nelson also had one on and it broke his line. Anthony also had something on for a second.

Went to Winter Island as soon as the lightening was gone. We headed out for one of my go to spots and nada. So we then went to Nelson’s favorite which he calls “The ACE in the hole”. shh, don’t tell anyone his secret spot, it is Bakers Island. Hmmmmmm. We anchored (which I hate to do) and started chucking our sluggos at the rocks. BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. We were on sub-legal stripers for a little while there. I thin most of them were 25-26 and one of the ones I had was 27. Still not bad. Was choppy though and hard to stay out there.

Wanting to drive and not swim back we saved my boat from capsizing and drove up to some beaches in Beverly. 1st spot, I’m all excited and these two guys were sluggishly getting their gear ready. Then I said, he look at that. The water was boiling. Anthony got to see his 1st blitz. It was small, short lived, and probably a bunch of bluefish on bunker. Still neat even though we did not get a bite.

Anthony had to go to work. After dropping him back off at the ramp, we headed back out for hopefully more fish. 1st spot produced nothing. Then we hit the beaches again. Wala! There they were. I tied into a nice 26 inch fattie. Then another then before you knew it Nelson was on them. We worked that pile of fish for about 15 minutes and then they were gone. Then nothing for the rest of the day. 😦 Oh well.

Was a fun trip.

-Brian