Cape Cod Fishing Reports
The epic live mackerel fishing continued yesterday for Chris, Al, Charlie and myself.
I met Chris last fall when he was still searching for his first ever striped bass. Chris spent the winter reading up on anything and everything related to striped bass fishing and today he is hands down one of the most enthusiastic of My Fishing Cape Cod blog members. Gotta love his passion!
Chris brought along Al a good co-worker of his, and Al brought along his son Charlie - an up and coming fishermen and baseball player. Chris was looking to catch the biggest bass of his striper fishing career and Charlie was looking to catch his first striped bass ever. Needless to say the stage was set for a memorable trip.
We met at 4AM and cruised out on flat calm seas. The ocean would remain as smooth as a pane of glass for the entire trip which is always awesome. Yesterday's weather could not be beat.
The hour before sunrise was spent jigging for live mackerel and hitting up a popular tube and worm spot. Unfortunately we struck out with the live macks and failed to register any hits on the tube and worm. No worries though, we reeled in the lines and made our way to new territory.
After a 25 minute cruised I eased the Miss Loretta into an area that has produced mackerel for us all season long. It only took a few minutes for the guys to start hooking up. We had found the bait!
These mackerel were perfect for live lining. Just about all of them were on the small side - tinker mackerel as they are known on Cape Cod. We spent maybe 30 minutes at the most loading up both live wells and then decided to make our way in closer to shore to look for bass. I was secretly hoping and praying that the fish would be in the same spot that they have been all spring.
As we cruised in towards shallower water we began marking stripers. I kept my mouth shut because I didn't want to get everyone's hopes up, but I had a feeling that these guys were in for something special.
I set up the drift, gave a quick lesson and put the crew to work. Before we knew it line started peeling from one of the guys' setups - our first take of the day!
I think it was Charlie who hooked up first, and he did a great job bringing his first ever striped bass to the boat. It's always exciting watching a first timer reel in his very first striper.
The solid fishing continued for the next few hours. We got into a nice routine with the guys drifting macks and yours truly unhooking fish. By 9AM I had a serious case of bass thumb developing.
Chris, Al and Charlie kept flicking tinkers out behind the boat and the bass kept on eating them up. We had stripers coming right up to the surface and smacking the macks, as well as bass chasing the macks right to the boat.
Most of the bass during the morning tide were small keepers, but they were all fat as heck and put up a great fight. Charlie got off to a quick start boating the first few bass, but Al and Chris managed to catch up by mid morning with some fine catches of their own.
[slideshow id = 13]
The bite really started to heat up around 9:30AM. The bass filtered in as the tide dropped and we began getting multiple takes and double hook ups which is always a blast.
Most of the action was centered in one specific area. We managed to at least get a good solid take each drift through this spot. If Al wasn't hooked up then Chris was and if Chris wasn't hooked up then Charlie had a fish on. The guys kept me busy!
Action like this only happens when the bass are stacked and virtually pave the bottom. I managed to snap a few pics of the fish finder in between hook ups.
[slideshow id = 14]
As we approached our 25th fish of the day we had a BIG take on a tinker mackerel. The bass engulfed the mack virtually as soon as the poor little fish hit the water. Charlie settled in with what was going to be by far the biggest bass of the day.
The striper took a fair amount of line and gave Charlie a pretty good battle. All the fish yesterday fought real well and were super aggressive. After 10 or so minutes we had the bass next to the boat.
"Nice fish!" I remember saying. It was a nice fish - a long and lean 25 pounder that was mixed in amongst all the small keepers. Not a bad surprise at all!
Yesterday was just another awesome spring trip. The live mackerel bite has been the best it has ever been for me, and I know the same goes for a lot of other folks that have been fishing the same area.
Things aren't showing any signs of slowing up!
Click here fore more information on the areas fished and techniques used.
Tight lines and good luck fishing!
Ryan
