Fishing Report - Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod
Capt. Rich Antonino
July 23, 2007
Stellwagen Bank - Saltwater Fishing Report
July 7, 2007--TUNA FISHING
Great day tuna fishing. What a difference a day makes! I mean, yesterday, we couldn't buy a bite. Today, we found them early and stayed on them for the rest of the day. We had much of the ocean to ourselves, with the company of a few boats. We hooked and landed 5 nice tuna today. The action was mixed up with 4 big (40+ inch) stripers and one big bluefish.
Joel St. Germain brought a couple of friends and everyone helped out with the lines. It was great teamwork. My mate and second captain, Matt, worked on the White Cap with Brad White today and they battled a big tuna for 2 1/2 hours before landing it. It was amazing to see them work a fish so hard for so long. Great job.
I hope that the tuna fishing stays hot! We'll be out there for tomorrow and the beginning of the week, but have openings for later in the week. Think sushi!
Keep having fun. We live once.
July 8, 2007 --MORE TUNA FISHING!!!
Today was a short-notice, 1/2 day for tuna and it was as if it were custom-made. We left this morning at 5:00 am and headed out onto Stellwagen Bank. The ride out was as fast and as comfortable as possible, keeping people smiling all ride. As we got near my spot, we saw a huge school of tuna busting on small baits and birds working an area. We weren't even able to get our whole array of lines in to the water when we hooked up with a long, lean striper of about 20 pounds. Back it went.
We lost the school temporarily, but found them again a 1/3 mile away. We were able to get our whole spread out and as we were passing the school (watch the video of the melee on my video section), the long squid bar went off. Luckily, it went off on the Penn 130 (The big rod!). It peeled off line as if I had the drag set far too light. It wasn't. It was a bull of a tuna, measuring 58" and I'm guessing 140-150 pounds. What a great fish. With this tackle, it was a battle, but the scales were tipped in our favor. The customer was exhausted! But, had it hit on one of our 50-wides, we would have had a long, long battle on our hands!
So, we went fishing for tuna on a 1/2 day, got one on Stellwagen, trolled for a little longer there, ran down to Peaked Hill Bar and beat up a pile of bluefish while trolling for tuna there and headed back to Green Harbor by 10:15. Amazing day!
So, do you want to go fishing for later this week?
I HAVE A SHARED TUNA TRIP FOR THURSDAY IF IT'S JUST YOU OR A COUPLE AND DON'T MIND SHARING THE FISHING WITH ANOTHER COUPLE. Call Rich at 508-269-1882 or email me here.
PS. Check out the photos of last night's sushi dinner. Matt and Aimee--Aimee prepared this meal and it was something special.
July 10, tuna and cod fishing
Today was an interesting day...Lots of fun and very relaxing. The weather was perfect until it wasn't perfect. That is, great, calm weather and then the skies opened up on us and the wind cranked up from the SE something ugly. It brought us back to the pier a little early, but it was still a full day.
We started fishing for tuna and fishing amongst the whales, but soon made a 5 mile run to the cod grounds. My customers did pretty well despite a lack of experience and a language barrier--the biggest cod was a 44", 23# cod (skinny) and we did ok on more cod and haddock as well.
It was fun sharing what we do here in Mass with people from South America and the Czeck Republic! Not much talking, but a good time to be had by all!
July 13--MORE TUNA FISHING
What is tuna fishing? Well, you're fishing for big fish and they don't always bite. So, tuna fishing is about anticipation and enjoying yourself on the water. That being said, we did it well yesterday. When the fish bite and we put them on ice, it's a terrific bonus. We ran a half-day charter yesterday, fishing from 8:30 until 1:30. Running out to Stellwagen at 38 mph got us fishing around 9:00 (we stopped for a while to watch two whales sunning themselves--it was awesome).
We fished the SW corner, the BE buoy, and up towards the NW corner. There were lots of boats there, but the bite seemed to be an early bite. That's tuna fishing, sometimes. We had perfect trolling conditions and tried out our downrigger for the first time. I like how it handled and look forward to using it more going forward. We'll keep having fun out there--do the same.
We have some weekday availability coming up if you want to call in sick--mid-summer is great weather and it's always time to relax and fish. We only live once.
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