On Saturday Morning we went out for a half day Striped Bass trip and had some pretty good success..We fished mainly in Durxbury and Kingston bays. All together we caught around 6 fish and four of them were around 37-38 inchers. Below are some pictures of the fish we caught.
A 38 inch Striped Bass which hit a live pogie
A fat 38 inch Striped Bass which we released back into the bay
Bill Mayo-Smith and his two sons came out for a half day of Striped Bass fishing trip on Monday. We were getting some good bites in the morning but with all the boat traffic a Sunday brings, the fishing died down around 9. Below is a picture of them with a few nice keepers they had caught.
A few Keeper sized Striped Bass taken out of Duxbury Bay
Jack Murphy landed this 79 inch, just under 300 pound Bluefin Tuna on our trip last Thursday. We had hooked the fish on a pogie about 10 feet from the boat on a free swimmer. The bite was down near the golf ball behind P-Town. The fish took around 40 minutes to pull up.
Jack Murphy with a 79 inch Bluefin he caught on board the HIgh Hook
Live bait fishing
Russ Pelham and his daughter landed some nice Striped Bass on our trip this week. The mackerel fishing was real slow. The only real way to get them was to spot them on the surface and drive right over them and get the lines full. We did that for about 30 minutes until we had the live well full. The Striped Bass bite was a little slow but we still managed around 10 keepers or so. I don’t plan on the Mackerel being here much longer as we might have to start chunk fishing or using live pogies.
On Thursday we landed a nice 300 pound Bluefin which we caught on a live Mackerel. We hooked the fish in the afternoon between the Southwest corner and Peaked Hill sand bar in about 180 feet of water. The fish are slowly making there way up to the corner
Tight with a 300 pound 83 inch tuna
300 pound Tuna on the deck of the High Hook
The Tuna have not really shown up at Stellwagen Bank yet this year. I have marked a few fish and seen a couple crash but that’s about it. Right now we are fishing down around Nauset and further to the South. After having a few fish miss the hook the day before we finally managed to hook one on Friday afternoon. The fish was 77 inches and weighed around 250lbs. I have been seeing some fish moving North around the Highlands area on the back side of the cape. It should be soon when those fish make it to the Bank. There is a ton of life out there with whales and seals everywhere feeding on the sand eels. Also, about ten minutes after we bled and gutted the tuna we had around an 18 foot Great White come up to the boat and do a circle around us. A little sketchy..
Fish On
We had a great day of fishing on Saturday during a Striped Bass trip where we caught around 25 keepers. The Mackerel were real easy to get right off of Gurnet Point. After about 20 minutes of fishing we filled up the livewell. Most the Striped Bass were in the low 30′s but towards the end of the trip we found some bigger fish. We were mainly using live Mackerel but had no problem fishing the dead ones as well. The last two fish we caught were around 30 pounds and a nice 35 pounder.
Charlie Sovik and his son with a 35 pound Striped Bass taken out of Duxbury Bay
The mackerel have finally shown up in pretty good numbers off of Gurnet point. Most of the mackerel are about 7-8 inches which the Stripers cant resist. We have been having really good success live lining in Duxbury Bay and the Kingston channel. Pretty much every mackerel that goes in the water gets eaten. Most of the fish are around the 30 inch mark, but we have been seeing some better size ones in the upper 30′s as well.
It is best to use the smaller mackerel or sabiki rigs right now with the size fish that are out there. They don’t seem to be hitting the big rigs as much. With the smaller size you should be able to fill up your live-well in about 10 minutes.
This time last year you couldn’t have your mackerel rig in the water for more then 30 seconds without filling the rig up. The Mackerel had just started to show up before the cold front came through this week. The steady wind out of the North forced the mackerel to head out into the deeper waters and away from the shallows off of Gurnet point. The Striped Bass fishing is also a week later then last year. The fishing should pick up again next week as some nice weather is in sight.
The new boat should be ready this week and it will be going in the water ASAP. We will running several trips out to Stellwagen Bank for Cod and Haddock at the end of April through late May. You can book your Cod/Haddock trip on the website or by calling 781-291-1304. The Bluefin tuna are still pushing there way up here and are still expected to be here in the last week of May.
