What a way to Start a New Season!!

I have only been fishing a few times during lunch breaks at my favorite early season spots with only a couple hits to show for my efforts. Thomas told me earlier this week that he wanted to eat some bluefish so I told him that we would go fishing on Thursday night. So we go to our favorite early season bluefish hot spot and it was windy and cold. I did see one fish caught, but TJ was not going to try and stick it out. But, he really wanted fish to eat. I told him we could go try our favorite harbor because it would be calmer and warmer there.

When we arrived at the harbor there was a nice sized school of menhaden popping around on the surface so I brought a rod down and started throwing a 7" bone Hogy. Every few minutes the menhaden would stop dancing around on the surface and then get blasted by some bigger fish. I missed a bass (no tooth marks on the Hogy) and then a little later had a bluefish come and bite the bait just shy of the hook. So, I take the hook off and am getting ready to put on a new Hogy and I figure what the heck!! I cast out my Owner 7/0 hook, unweighted right into the middle of the school of bunker. I snag one and within a few seconds it gets hit, but I lose the fish really quick. I threw out the hook again and snag a bunker, but this time I decide to reel in and rehook. Well, on the way in I see the bunker about ten feet in front of the dock I am standing on and this big 0le bass comes up and inhales it. I was not expecting to see a fish this size yet this season so I am fishing with my 8' Tsunami Trophy, Okuma Epixor with 15 lb. Tuff-line braid. I just kept repeating over and over, "do not go under the docks." Well, she didn't, and after a long fight I got her into the dock. TJ took this great picture and then I went to put her back in the water. TJ says, "Dad, you always keep the first striper of the year and you said we were going to catch a fish to eat." I went on to explain to him that usually my first fish of the year is around 30" and this was much bigger. We talked for a little longer and after a lot of hemming and hawing I decided to harvest the fish (during this entire conversation with TJ I am venting the fish and she is not really coming to, I think the fight was rather long on my light tackle and she was spent).

Got her home, measured and weighed her. 39" and 22 lbs. When fileting her her stomach contained a partially digested whole bunker and two binker heads that had clearly been left over from bluefish.

Great Weekend

Had three gigs this weekend. Nice to get some extra cash. I am really starting to like playing with Salsa Night Band. Even though I do not understand what the people are saying much of the time they are really nice and we communicate with bare bones English and my limited Spanish.

Saturday morning Mike Earley took his friend Rick back to the West End of the canal and Rick hooked up to a nice 28 lb. bass. Mike also brought home a honking bluefish that had to be at least 12 lbs. I was too tired from the night before to get out in the morning with them. It is a really weird feeling that I feel because before Thursday night if I knew there were huge fish in a particular area I would have been there in a second no matter how little sleep I had. Thursday was so good I almost feel as though I have no need to experience the same fishing at the same spot. At least I am not felling the same desire to prove my fishing expertise or lack thereof because now I have 4 keepers under my belt for the season. Having said that, I had so much fun that I think that I am going to go back there tonight. Apparently the fish are still there from reports that I have received.

Great news!! After Thomas' baseball game and my wedding ceremony on Saturday I was able to get the boat put in and it is now being officially rack stored at Fiddler's Cove. On Sunday morning we went out on a family boat outing with Christine's parents. It was awesome. We went into the west end of the canal and were able to dock up in Onset Harbor and eat lunch at Marc Anthony's. Best pizza in the Cape Cod area. There were a lot of boats fishing, but I did not see a single hookup.

Gwen scored her first goal in lacrosse yesterday. I was so proud of her. There is so much luck involved in girls lacrosse. If a girl gets a pass and it is the second pass they need to pass it again until their team can legally shoot on net. I can't count the amount of times that Gwen was the second girl to receive a pass only to have to make one more pass and have that girl score or get a shot on net. No biggy! She is really starting to understand the game and I am so proud of her newly found athleticism.

Thomas had a game and although he did not score he played outstanding. He was very agressive during ground balls and was able to get a couple shots on net. It was their 2nd and last game of the year and they ended up in a 5-5 tie.

Fishing report and a prediction

On Sunday morning Mike Earley went to Middle Ground and released 20 keeper sized striped bass. The squid are coming through and the big fish are following. This is just like the time I went out with Steve Page and we happened upon the same circumstances. It is truly amazing fishing. Monday morning Mike Hogan went out and pulled in 8 keepers with a charter he was running. So, Tuesday i decided it was time to take a day off and get out there. When I got to middle ground nothing was happening. I did not see any squid, fish breaking, or fish being caught. After an hour I look to my left and I see this huge seal. Yes, a seal in Vineyard Sound on June 3. I get out of there and try a bunch of other spots with no luck. I go back to middle ground and start fishing again. I see a couple seagulls diving here and there which at least tell me there is squid in the water again. I manage to catch three stripers on the Double Wide Amber Hogy. With so much weed in the water it was the only way to consistently get good casts in and not bring up a pound of weed every time. The fish were 26", 26" and 27". No keepers, but I felt good that I was the only one that I saw catch any fish. Every now and then you would see a bass come flying up out of the water to attack squid, such a cool sight. Apparently the fishing just kept heating up too because Gene Bourque went back and caught a few nice fish later. It was nice to get out there and catch some decent fish. This was the first time I had gone out on the boat by myself and I was really happy with all aspects of it. I was out for 5 hours and burned hardly any fuel. I continue to shave seconds off of my self proclaimed mastery of loading and unloading of the boat on to the trailer.

Prediction - More seals equals more Great White Sharks. There will be more sightings of Great White Sharks this year than ever. And, within the next two years my horrible prediction is that there will be a shark attack on an outer beach on the Cape.

Finally!!

Mike Earley was instrumental in getting us out on Mother's Day to fish. Somehow he persuaded Suzanne to take the other wives out to an extended lunch/dessert on Saturday. This gave us 4 hours of fishing on Mother's Day morning.

It was windy and a bit cold, but doable. We decided to head to the West End of the Cape Cod Canal and then work our way back. On the way to the Canal we came up on a huge flock of birds that were diving. It was clear by some of the rises that there were fish breaking under the birds. I feel pretty confident that I did not get too close to spook the school, but as soon as i got us within casting distance the birds took off and so did the fish. We slowly went over where the action had been occurring and I noticed that there were some interesting marks on the fishfinder. I have not yet taken the time to completely figure out how it works. I was pretty sure that this had to be fish. Mike and I took some casts and Mike hooked up to the first fish of the season, a small 20 incher. We turned around and repeated the drift. As soon as I told Mike we were over the fish he hooked up again. I was very excited to be reading the fishfinder accurately. We repeated the drift a few more times and I finally got a hit, but it felt like areally small fish and he never really latched on. Mike got a couple more hits too, but we were unable to boat any more fish.

We went up to the West End of the Canal and did see some bird action, but there were no fish under them. On the way back home we swung into the mouth of Red Brook Harbor and made a few casts into the rocks at Wing's Neck. After a while we saw a few striped bass working on some bait in tight to shore. About ten feet away from where we could reach with a cast. Could not tell what the bait was. Looked too small to be herring. Bigger than peanut bunker and smaller than adult menhaden.

I am going to be trying to take advantage of any free time I can muster in the next month as the fishing is really going to start heating up. A couple sick days may be in order as well.

My Best Striper of Last Season

In early June of 2007 I got a call from friend Mike Earley and he told me his father was unable to make their scheduled fishing trip. Mike invited me to take his father's place on his 18' Parker center console. This would be my first time fishing along the Elizabeth Islands and I was looking forward to it. Mike took me out along Naushon Island and we had decided that slinging live eels would be our tactic for the evening. Mike and I had already been fishing twice earlier this year, once from shore and once from his boat. On both occasions I managed to get a fish on my first cast and I was hoping for the same this time. We got out to just about the southern most tip of Naushon and started to drift in close. I eeled up and let it loose. Within minutes, on my first cast, I was hooked up with my best fish of the season. I had already brought in many a schoolie and many a bluefish this season and I could immediately tell that this fish was much larger. Mike couldn't believe that I again had nailed a fish on my first cast for the third trip in a row. Mike measured the fish and I was excited that it was 39", not my best ever, but a very respectable fish. Unfortunately for the remainder of the trip we were unable to find that fishes friends anywhere. That's fishing.