Awesome Cod Fishing and Inshore Striper Fishing Continues
Capt. Roland Lizotte
August 24, 2010
Stellwagen Bank - Saltwater Fishing Report
What a great day we had today. John and his crew made the drive up from PA and boy were they treated with some awesome fishing for the day. All John was looking for was to have his guys have some "fun" on the water and I think they had that pretty much all day.
Our day started with leaving Brewer's Plymouth Marine around 6am today. Our first stop, the giant tuna grounds with some live bait. John and his crew had their minds set on getting into a tuna today. I explained that the tuna action had slowed down quite a bit in the last few weeks but we would give it our best shot. We started our run out to the bank and as we made it out about 3 miles from Plymouth, we were greeted with a pretty good chop for the rest of the way out. Honestly, it was not what I expected and the water was a bit rougher than they predicted but we made a good go of it running at 25-30mph most of the way out.
When we hit the bank, it was like a parking lot out there. With the South Shore Tuna Tournament taking place and all of the weekend guys out, it was tough to set up in the spot we wanted to. We got the gear ready, the baits in the water and we were tuna fishing. The kite was stubborn for me today but after about 15 minutes of adjusting, we got it up high with our bait underneath. It was perfect, slight chop on the water, the live bait fluttering along the surface under the kite and a few down deep...all we needed was the tuna. We made several drifts and did not see or mark one fish. The radio chatter was more of the same, it was quiet and no one was on any fish. The guys threw down the butterfly jigs while we drifted and managed to hook into a couple of big bluefish and stripers, which we released as soon as we could. After a couple hours tuna of fishing, we decided to pull the lines in and head out east to find the cod.
We ran up to a spot where we have done well in the late summer months and man, the cod were there again today. The first jig to hit the bottom would tell the tale for the day. As soon as it hit, the rod buckled over and we were on. When we got the fish up to the boat, there were 3 nice cod on the line. The Qualia Q12 high speed reels paired with the Ugly Stick Tiger Lite Rods made short work of pulling those fish up from the deeper water. Within a few hours of fishing and some long drifts right over the same spot, we managed to push limits of fish in the box. Every time the jigs hit the bottom, the guys had fish on and I mean, these were nice fish. They were not just the 24-26 inch fish, there were fish coming up well over 30 inches. Quite a few times, the guys had 2-3 fish come over the rails, just an awesome day. The running joke was from John, we snagged bottom a couple of times but managed to break off. So after that, every time John hooked into a lunker of a fish, he would give me a hard time and say "thats not a fish, it must be bottom" laughing out loud as he said it. Paul was the money man on the cod today, every fish he caught, seemed like it was a keeper. Even I got in on the action today!!!
After a few hours of filling the box with cod, we decided to head in for some striper fishing. We marked some piles of fish in shore but they would not take anything so we made a little move. We hit my second spot and sure enough, the fish were there. The guys managed to jig up 5 nice grill sized fish for the box within about an hours time. Most of the fish were 30-32 inches with the biggest coming in at 34.5 inches. Not a bad way to end the day!!!
In the end, I would say we had a cape cod grand slam, Jersey Girl style. Even though we covered about 120 miles of water today and did not see 1 tuna the entire trip, we managed to catch several species of fish today: cod, cusk, striped bass and bluefish. It was just a great way to spend the day. John and crew had the fun they were looking for and we had a boat load of fish and laughs through out the day!!!
It looks like we are going to have the first big summer storm over the next 3 days with winds NE winds blowing to 40mph. This is going to keep us back at the dock. We will try to get some pro-active maintenance in on the fishing gear to keep busy. We are booked solid through Friday-Sunday so give us a shout on the water later this week. These big storms are sure to mix things up a little bit with the fishing so our Friday trip will be interesting. Maybe this storm will get Charlie Tuna running around again or get those bass active up on the top water feed. The best fishing has yet to come, contact Capt Roland Lizotte for booking details at 774-437-1882. WE GUARANTEE FISH!!!
Stellwagen Bank Fishing Forecast:
Striper and Cod fishing is solid. Tuna action should hit up with the passing of this north east storm through September, October and November.
Target Species:
Striped Bass, Bluefish, Cod, Haddock, Bluefin Tuna, Sharks
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