Earlier in the week I published a post about how well live eels work on striped bass here on Cape Cod during late summer and early fall. Whether you are fishing from a boat or from shore, from Provincetown to Woods Hole, eels work great on big striped bass.
I was thinking about this post as I sat at my desk, busily trying to finish some computer work so I could go fishing. As often happens the calm conditions coupled with perfectly sunny skies proved to be too much, so I closed up my laptop and threw on my fishing boots a bit earlier than expected.
The only problem was that I had no boat! My mother and father had taken the Miss Loretta on a cruise down to one of their favorite sand bars. At this moment my dad probably had his butt planted firmly in a tidal pool. I decided to give them a call and see if they would be interested in going fishing once their beach day was over.
They thought squeezing in a fishing trip was a fantastic idea, and subsequently agreed to pick me up at the dock in an hour.
Plenty to be Content About
As you can see in the above photo, it was a nice evening to be on the water. During late summer I cherish each trip a little bit more, because I know fall is just around the corner. Often times I have a melancholic feeling in my gut, as if summer vacation was ending and I had to return back to school.
Another reason for me to cherish this trip is because I was with my parents. About a year ago my mom announced to our family that she was going to have serious lung surgery. No one except my dad knew what was going on - my mom intentionally kept the news to herself so she wouldn't make her kids and the rest of her loved ones worried.
Without any hesitation or doubt my mom underwent major surgery a week later. It took a little while until she was back on her feet, but since then she's made a full recovery which I find that to be quite amazing.
Fortunately my dad's toughest challenge this past year has been to resist eating all the desserts that my mom is always making. We butt heads every now and again over small stuff, such as how much anchor line is and is not necessary. Yet it's good to be out on the water with him too.
There was plenty to be content about, especially as I pulled us into our first promising looking area of the trip.
Bass on the Bottom
I leaned forward to get a closer look at the sonar, as if my squinting my eyes and leaning forward would somehow cause the sonar to start marking fish. Yet there was something different about the sea floor in this area which required further investigation. The closer I looked the more I noticed the small orange blobs that were practically "sitting" on the bottom.
It would of been easy to miss but they were bass, and most likely large ones. I set up a drift that would bring us directly through the fish, and told my mom and dad to get ready.
