I still feel the energy from this fishing trip last Friday.
Last Friday, May 24th, was a beautiful weather day on Cape Cod. Winds were forecast to be light and variable with calm seas and some early morning fog.
I arrived at the marina in the map below an hour earlier than our 6:30am meeting time to get the boat prepped ahead of what I felt like would be a sizeable crowd before the holiday weekend.
I took the time to cut some local squid that I had purchased from Maco’s Bait and Tackle.
As I prepped the boat and the bait, I was filled with my own thoughts of fishing as a young boy with my dad and subsequently my own more recent trips with my own nieces, nephews, and children. Today was about family and making memories while out on the water.
I was getting eager to meet My Fishing Cape Cod members Tom Sangermano and Jeff Richard who had signed up for an opportunity to have their name drawn for this trip. Rather than pick a winner between the two, we took the opportunity to all go together as a group of six people.
Tom brought along his two grand children, Kiralyse and Avery, who are both students at UCONN. Jeff brought along his grandson, Joey, who as a twelve year old, was making one of his first excursions on a boat for black sea bass.
For this trip, MFCC member Tom Sangermano brought along his two grandchildren, Kiralyse and Avery. MFCC member Jeff Richard also brought his grandson Joey, who you'll "meet" later on in this report.
I was really excited to have them aboard, but when we launched from the dock at 6:45am, we were greeted with a dense fog that didn’t break until we reached the point of land shown below.
Eventually the fog lifted and we made the short trip to offshore the coastline shown below that contains undulating topography of humps and bumps that hold Black Sea Bass.
This general area had been successful for me in the past.
We marked a few fish on the sonar, so we decided to set up a drift. The drift was under 1mph and there was no need to drop anchor at this time.
On this trip I had pre-rigged a half dozen rods with a mix of bait rigs and jig and teaser rigs. The Sangermano group selected bait rigs to start. The high-low rigs with 3" B2 soft plastics were baited and sent to the bottom. Joey selected a similar B2 tandem rig for bait. Jeff and I selected fishing with jigs and teasers tipped with bait.
Kiralyse struck first. Tom and Avery soon followed, and it was obvious early on that the bait rigs were going to score early.
Tipping the jigs with squid made a big difference during this trip.
Avery with a solid sea bass!
There was a mix of black sea bass and scup. Although Kiralyse had landed a keeper sea bass, most of the other sea bass were short.
We were hoping to keep male sea bass over 17". The males are the ones with the beautiful blue coloration and knots on their heads.
Jeff and I flanked Joey between us. As the day went on, I got a lot of practice hoisting jumbo scup over the rail and netting other fish as Joey held a hot hand on our side of the boat.
Joey and his grandfather Jeff Richard.
The Sangermano’s methodically filled the bucket with keeper sea bass while Joey hammered anything that swam under the boat.
At some point I inquired to Jeff if this was all being staged, because the fish seemed disinterested in our jig offering even when we tipped them with bait.
Joey had great luck during this trip!
Late morning the tide changed directions and the wind freshened a bit, as is typical of Buzzards Bay. The fishing actually improved once these sifts in conditions happened. We also shifted to a specific larger hump on my chart and anchored in a specific spot.
During the first hour after the tide change, we landed several nice keeper seabass in succession with the majority of them coming on baited rigs. Jeff, very reluctantly, swapped over to a baited rig and joined Joey in catching. The trip was having the intended result of keeping the kids busy and making kids out of the rest of us.
Around noon, we planned our trip back home. I filleted the catch, which included a dozen keeper seabass and about ten scup, all of which were over twelve inches. Everyone was able to go home with some fish and new friendships made through the fellowship of fishing.
I’m forever grateful for the opportunity to share these experiences with Tom, Jeff, and their grandchildren, Kiralyse, Avery, and Joey.
The entire day reminded me why I love to fish and how much fishing has meant to me from a very young age. The memories made, laughter, conversation, and camaraderie are special, cherished things that I was happy to share with them.
About the author
Edward Kooyomjian
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Awesome article Ed! Well done!