Went to Stellwagen three times. I had a nice map and Christine's hand held GPS was very helpful. Within two miles of the bank I was looking at some boats and saw this huge black mass come fully out of the water and splash down. Humpback whale, so cool. I have been on three whale watches and never seen a humpback. I did see a few schools of tuna rise, but they come up and go back down so fast I only managed a few casts that had a reasonable chance at hooking up. I trolled for a while too, but no fish. On the radio it sounded as though nobody was hooking up so I didn't feel that bad.
Went back the next day with Christine's dad and brothers Mike and Dan. The seas were choppy and the ride there was slow. When we got there we did not see any tuna, but we saw the most amazing whale show. We were beside a humback for about a half an hour and he was jumping up and out of the water for us. Incredible.
Two days later I took the family out with Christine mom and Aunt Bitty. About half way to Stellwagen we saw multiple small schools of tuna rise up. I made a few casts, but still no luck. We went out to Stellwagen and it was feeding time for the humpbacks. They were travelling together today usually in groups of tow or three and coming up to gorge on food. While I was there I saw the hugest school of sand eels that I have ever seen. Off and on I would mark bigger fish down below and was hoping that they would come up to feed on those sand eels, but no luck. Christine got some great pics. Here is my favorite.
