Fishing Report - Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod
Capt. Rich Antonino
August 6, 2007
Stellwagen Bank - Saltwater Fishing Report
August 2 Tuna fishing was great and the stripers were too!
Today was a great day in that we A: Caught a nice tuna to start the day and B: Had great fishing weather in which we took several generations of a visiting Swiss family fishing from Green Harbor for Tuna and then returned to Sandwich to pick up more family for an afternoon of striper fishing! It was flat calm, sunny, hot, and a lot of fun. The whales were all around and it was a good time with some great people.
We hooked up with a green/black/silver squid spreader bar that came from Tormenter Tackle the night before. Kudos to Joe Ferrule for suggesting and putting together this bar for me. Thte last time he did that, it was a purple/black/silver squid bar and it's been my number one bar all this year. They work. We caught the fish around 7:00 am by the SW corner. We marked pretty good fish in 80' of water and saw several others hooking up at the same time. I guess the bite didn't last, though.
This is a good time to mix it up--fish early for tuna then head for cod or stripers afterwards. It's all good! Keep having fun out there.
August 3 Tuna and shark fishing Stellwagen Bank on the Black Rose!!
Dogfish, dogfish, and more dogfish. We tried fishing for tuna at first light, but saw zippo on the SW corner, from which we headed east to the SE corner, then down to Peaked Hill Bar. There were whales everywhere yesterday, but today, zippo. So we headed another 10 miles east of Peaked Hill Bar to fish the deep water for sharks. We started just west of a 350' peak, fishing in 550' of water. The temp was 65 and the current had us heading onto the peak. I liked it, but the doggies spoiled it for us. There were hundreds around the boat. We hoped to chum through them, seeing a shark in the crystal water, but it didn't look good.
On top on the peak, we jigged for cod and hit them on every drop (mostly every jigging motion!) That was cool, but the sharking wasn't happening, so we headed back to the SW corner and trolled for tuna. A slow day, but a nice 47" tuna to end the day was just what the doctor ordered!! Great, relaxing day with amazing weather once again.
The tuna fishing should get better and I think that the cod and haddock are really going to come around big time soon.
August 4 cod and haddock at Wildcat Knoll!
Great fishing today with some of my favorite repeat customers. Alan fished the bow to start, using one of my Okuma spinning outfits. It was cool, but the drift was too much for 280' of water to hold bottom with 9 oz of jig. We hit the haddock by Wildcat Knoll in 280' of water, but with a fast drift, we backed back to 250' of water and anchored. It had gotten rough and the drifting was very tough. So, it worked. We hit the fish hard and all around. We brought out the electric reel once again and it proved to be the ticket to the high hooker and big fish! Great fun, chaotic in the waves, and lots of fun. We stayed busy and sent them home with some tremendous fillets.
See you all out there!
August 5 Tuna fishing and cod fishing on Stellwagen Bank
Tale of two trips...tuna trip was just what the doctors ordered...We got out to the SW corner and nailed a nice 47 inch tuna to start the day. Nice fish and it came in on the 130. I figure that when I stop keeping the two Penn 130's on board, we'll hit the mother of all tuna and never stop it. So, we harvest the tuna when they choose to hit the big guns instead of the 50's!!!
The second tale is that it was sloppy rough out there and it took its toll on 4/5 of my customers. That happens, but, what are you going to do. We had everyone back to my house afterwards and grilled up the tuna with some cold beverages for all to enjoy. It was very relaxing. Being a short day, I actually relaxed!!! It felt good.
Nothing planned for the beginning of this week, so start coughing and call in sick. I had a customer with a floating holiday....Boats float!!
More Fishing Reports:
