September 4th Albie Fishing Report

It's been a wild week for albie fishing on Cape Cod. In fact, I know two fishermen who caught more than 40 albies in just one trip!

However there have been skunkings as well. These fish move quick and can be here one day and gone the next.

Fortunately I was able to get out albie fishing this week and I'm happy to report that we did quite well. We found consistent topwater action and albies to 9 pounds.

More...

During this trip on Wednesday of this week I was fishing with my friends Jeff and Billy.

You might remember these guys from last year's albie trip. By 6:00am we had launched Jeff's boat and began making our way out of the harbor.

We passed by some pretty impressive boats (to say the least!) as we putted our way towards the fishing grounds.

There was a slight SW breeze blowing but it was manageable. The early September sunrise was spectacular.

We actually figured that perhaps the slight chop would help the albies bite better, granted of course we were able to find them. Our first destination was an outflow where we hoped to find peanut bunker and albies.​

Albies seem to like current and sure enough it was not long until we saw a few busting here and there. Then suddenly we had a school come crashing right next to the boat - game on!

​I think I speak for us all when I say it's always nice to get the skunk out of the boat early on. Fortunately we had Billy onboard, who wasted no time at all hooking into the first albie of the day.

The fish ran like mad, stripping 100 yards of 10 pound test from Billy's reel. We actually had to chase the albie down a bit, in order to help Billy gain back some line.

Finally after a great fight (which I caught on video and will share with you tomorrow) we landed the first albie of the day.​

The fish continued busting here and there in small pods. We tried drifting through the area and we did try to chase down a couple schools but it was difficult staying on top of the fish.

​That was when we decided to make a big move and travel over to Chapaquidick on Martha's Vineyard, where we had received intel of a hot and heavy albie bite.

I'm going to cut to the chase and just let you know that we did not find a thing over at the Vineyard! 

We traveled more than 20 miles checking out various stretches of beach along the island but did not see a thing. So we decided to pack things back up and head back across and see if we could find albies in some other potentially fishy areas closer to home.

​Just when all hope had pretty much diminished we found them, or should I say the albies found us. We were cruising along when I spotted a school tearing up bait on the surface. Woo hoo!

However these fish were being difficult. I had a couple chases and missed hits before they disappeared. Before I knew it we were back on the hunt, when Billy spotted something mysterious on the horizon.​

From a distance we weren't sure what it was. Could it be a dead whale?

However up close we knew right away what had happened. An adult Loggerhead Sea Turtle had been struck and killed by a boat.

​If you look on the left side of the turtle, you can actually see the gash left by the propeller.

The turtle had been dead for a while, and smelled quite terrible.​ It must of weighed several hundred pounds (they can weigh more than 1,000lbs) and was impressively massive.

Eventually we left the turtle carcass to find more albies, albeit with mixed emotions...​

It was now nearly 10am and we had caught just one albie, despite traveling dozens of miles. Little did we know that an all out blitz was right around the corner.

We spotted a good size blitz not long after seeing the turtle. Just like before the albies were holding in a rip line and the current was super strong.

Despite casting into the blitzes neither myself or Jeff could hook up. However Billy once again had no trouble fooling the fish!​

Billy was using a green Deadly Dick, which seemed to be what the fish wanted.

After a clean release Billy wasted no time hooking up yet again using the green Deadly Dick. The score was now Billy 3 and Jeff/Ryan 0.

If you've never before caught an albie, then be prepared because these fish fight hard...especially on 10 or 12 pound test.

Finally Billy landed his third fish of the day, as Jeff and I wondered what the heck we were doing wrong!

Fortunately the albies were still up and consistently feeding on the surface in the same general area. 

Around 12pm Jeff and I finally started getting into some fish.​

There were now several other boats working the area, but everyone kept their cool and resisted the urge to race around like knuckleheads.

The fish were feeding heavy in current, and we more or less stuck to fishing the same general area.

After failing to hook anything with the green Deadly Dick, I decided to use a pink Daddy Mac which cast like a bullet. I kept hitting the edges of the school but I was unable to get a bite.

Finally I placed a perfect cast 15 feet beyond a school and retrieved the Daddy Mac quickly through the pod of albies. That did the trick, I got bit, and was on with a good one!​

We estimated the fish to be in the 8-9 pound class. The fish fought harder than normal, probably because I foul hooked him in the side (which you'll see in tomorrow's video).

They sure are pretty fish!​

I continued working the pink Daddy Mac and about 30 minutes later hooked and landed another beautiful albie after a tremendous fight.

Finally our captain Jeff got his chance.

Jeff had been navigating the boat the entire trip, working hard to give Billy and I good shots at these quick fish. It's not easy to do that and try to catch an albie, but Jeff made it happen around 1pm.

To add to the chaos I just happened to hook up at the same time. Doubles!​

That would be it for us. After landing those two fish the albies quieted down and by 1:30pm we began making our way back to port. 

​Final tally for our crew was 7 albies with the largest possibly tipping the scales at 9 pounds. This was by far my most productive albie trip to date, however I look forward to topping it sometime soon!

Big thanks to Jeff and Billy for a fantastic trip. Stay tuned tomorrow for a video recapping the experience.​