August 3rd 2013: Skunked on the northshore!

After seeing a ton of fish and bait last weekend, my friend and I decided to hit the same spot on the northshore at night this weekend and try to hook some bigger fish.  Stable weather should keep the bait in place and therefore the fish should stay put.  I also heard reports of squid coming in thicker which should keep the stripers in place.  High tide at 9:30P.  At the time, this seemed like a good plan.

Wind was supposed to quit at dusk, but it kept going 10+ until late.  It felt like a bluebird high pressure day even though it was night.  Strange weather, but it was very pleasant and the wind kept the bugs off.

Launched a little after 7P and fished until almost 12A - mostly dragging eels.  I had a small fish come up and slap my eel....and that was it.  Nada.  I did mark alot of small marks in a channel - they looked smaller than bait so I couldn't say for sure what they were.  No big fish on them at any rate.  We did catch the tail end of a mini blitz of micros around sunset, but our lures were too big and I was too slow to downsize before a powerboat rushed in with yellow/orange bobbers and put the fish down.  I swear I've seen more guys in $20K boats fishing with bobbers in the salt this year than ever before in my life.  Also, every time I hear "look!  over there by the kayak!", I cringe.  I think if someone yelled that to me walking down the street, I would reflexively wince.

Anyway, curse those fish for having fins and being able to swim away.  

I haven't been skunked in a while.  I have to say, I prefer it the other way around.  

Here's a pic showing empty fish finder and colorful sunset...

July 28th 2013: More of the same...

Hit the salt again with a friend of mine (Ron) around 4P or so and fished until almost 9P. It was overcast the whole time with a north wind. Forecast called for east winds in the morning shifting to south. Wrong.

During the day, there were a bunch of power boats chasing schoolies + birds around. I didn't see anyone in a boat catch any fish, but they would run around and put the fish down like it was their job. They seemed to be enjoying themselves, so that's good for them. Around dinner time, most of the boats left - but the birds + fish slowed down as the tide was running out. Still lots of bait (3" sea herring) around. The fish were keyed in on the bait, but if you threw something about 3" long and white or silver - they ate it. It wasn't a fish every cast - I think because there was so much bait, but we had a steady pick of fish.

After dark, there were very few boats, still lots of bait, and more bigger fish around. We decided that we really should have been fishing after dark. Much more pleasant with bigger fish around. Just tough to get up the next morning.

Best lures for me were a zoom super fluke jr (pearl white) on a 1/4 oz jighead and a silver/blue kastmaster the same size as the bait. Not much love on topwater. I did get a few more on a magnum super fluke and a 7" fin-s fish, even though these were a poor match for the bait. My best fish ate a zoom super fluke jr on a 1/4 oz jighead - might have gone 28" if I pulled her tail a little. I lost a few fish on eels after dark that felt bigger.

Here's some pics...

July 26th 2013: Wind from the North, do not go forth...

....well, i went forth anyway and it rained the whole damn time.

I looked at the radar and saw passing showers like the forecast called for. Fishweather.com showed diminishing N winds, so I picked a spot in the lee on the northshore and hoped for the best.

As I was driving, I went through a couple of passing showers which seemed to confirm the radar. Nice. Put my kayak in the water and it didn't stop raining until 9 PM when I put my kayak back on the car and drove home. Oh well. Can't catch them on the couch staying dry. 

My original plan was to go out and try to jig up some macks. No macks, but I didn't go out very far in case a real storm came through. Plan B was to catch fish on lures and if I couldn't get any keepers, plan C was to visit Tomo's and buy eels. Plan D was to fish for squid. I made it to Plan B.

After peddling around for a while, I found a ton of fish. Only problem is that they were suspended about 10-15' down and in a generally negative feeding mode. About once per hour, they would pop up and beat up some 3" sea herring for about 30 seconds - usually 100 yards away from me. I caught a few schoolies by casting out a magnum super fluke and letting it sink slowly until it was about 10' down. Also got a few more on a 1 oz bucktail swimming it through the school. Tough, tough fishing - but I thought it might be better after dark with eels. I did watch some guys with live macs motor in, drop the macs, and instantly hook up. 1 with a keeper and the other just short. So, bigger fish were around and they should eat eels, too.

On the way back, I ran into another fellow kayak fisherman in another location. As we were chatting about the suspended fish we were marking, a mini-blitz popped up. We each pulled a few fish from the mini-blitz. I got a few on a mini 2oz wood guppy pencil (white) and a zoom magnum super fluke. I think 103yaker was getting his fish on a jumpin minnow. Bait was 3" sea herring.

Here's some pics...

July 21st 2013: Peanuts, Pollack, and Stripers...but no macks.

Launched around 6 AM in a north shore harbor with 2 friends of mine. Lots of peanut bunker in the harbor. I caught a couple schoolies hanging around the peanuts while I was waiting for my friend to catch up. Nothing big inside that I could find.

Headed out into deeper water looking for macks. Couldn't find any macks, but I did find a bunch of harbor pollack on a 20' hump surrounded by 40' of water. They swarmed the sabiki rig.  Filled up my bait tube and headed towards the rocks. We dragged the pollacks in a 3-way school for a while, but no hits or runs on the pollack. As we came around a rock island, I saw some birds acting excited. Paddled over there and it wasn't really a blitz, but the stripers would pop bait on the surface about every 30 minutes or so. In between, they were just cruising around, but would readily hit a kastmaster or a magnum super fluke. We caught mostly schoolies up to 30" fish. I thought about keeping it, but decided to let it go for good karma. I did keep 3 harbor pollack and threw them on the grill. Tasty little bottom fish. Sort of like eating trout, but tastes like pollack with more bones. 

Here's some pics...

July 14th: Trying out my new baitrunner set-up and bait tube...

With all the rains that we've been having, I decided to avoid the river mouths and fish a north shore harbor (mass) instead.  I also wanted to try out my new bait tube that I made (see pics) and my baitrunner set-up (7' St. Croix Tidemaster, heavy power, moderate action with Penn Spinfisher4500LL).

Got up at 4 am, stopped for seaworms at Tomo's Tackle (Salem, MA), and hit the launch.  Get out into the channel and there's macks chasing some sort of small silvery baitfish.  Nice!  Drop down my sabiki rig with a 4 oz butterfly jig (mack pattern) and start pumping the jig....I watch a school of fish come up on the FF with some bigger marks below.....boom!  Doesn't feel like a mackerel.  No, I've got a big striper on my sabiki rod.   Took a while to get the fish in, took a few pics, and let her go to eat more macks.  A small blitz popped up in one of the coves, so I started heading over there.  Some boat saw me going and ran over to put the fish down.  I need a camo colored kayak.    I took a few casts, but I think the fish bolted.  I decided that I should get away from the big boats and try to find some macks outside.  Got 1 mac on my way.  No macks outside and I'm stuck dragging my 1 mac in the bait tube.  Got a few schoolies casting a mack-colored SP minnow into the wash.  I was wondering if I'd catch bigger stripers in the same area with the live mac, but I didn't want to use my 1 mac up yet.

Tried flounder fishing for a while, but no hits.  I think it might be too warm for the flounder now.

Good news is the bait tube worked well and the mack was very lively when I hooked it up on a big circle hook.  Let out some line and I was playing with the settings on the baitrunner so it wouldn't be too loose.  The mack started taking line because it was getting chased.  All of a sudden the baitrunner starts going "zzzzzzinnnggggg".  I let it run a few seconds while I got the kayak turned around and then engaged the reel's drag.  New set-up worked perfectly and stuck the fish.  Then the fish wrapped me around one of the many lobster pot lines.  Took a while to get the fish up and grab it.  Cut my line to avoid hooking the pot rope and then decided to drag the fish back to the ramp.  Drag of a 31" striper is almost the same as dragging a bait tube.  

Here's some pics...

July 8th 2013: Week of July 4th Summary (freshwater fishing on Cape Cod)

The SW wind was relentless.  It blew constantly day + night which made the fishing tougher than in past years.  I like fishing in the wind, but this was ridiculous.  On the plus side, whenever it was overcast or raining and windy in the morning, the fish bit very well.  Once the sun was out, the bite got much, much more difficult.

My usual plan was to hit a different herring run pond every day in the early morning for an hour or 2.  The herring fry are about 1" long now and the fish try to pick them off in the morning for a breakfast snack.  Some years, they are very keyed in on the herring - especially when it's calm.  This year, they bit on a wide variety of baits - possibly because of the wind.  I also noticed a lot of yellow perch in the areas that I was fishing and some of the bass were probably feeding on the perch, as well.

Poppers, chatterbaits, tungsten football jigs, texas rigged 4.5" yum mighty bug, king daddy frog, KVD 2.5 cranks, bass magic 3.5" swimbaits, whopper plopper, some BPS saltwater hard plastic jointed swimbait all worked...probably a few more that I'm forgetting.  Mostly largemouth with some smallies thrown in.  The perch have been taking lures up to 5".  It was impossible to throw a small crank because the perch would attack it immediately.

Average size was between 2-4 lbs.  Good quality fish, but no really big ones.

Here's some pics...

July 8th 2013: The two that got away....(on the Cape)

I didn't get out fishing in the salt as much as I would have liked (wind was relentless).  I got a bunch of schoolies when I did get out, but the big fish came un-stuck.  I always seem to remember the ones that got away better.

1st fish...

I was fishing deep in BH on the north side of the Cape.  There's a channel where the whaling boat goes out and a nice drop off the edge.  For some reason I couldn't catch them jigging, they wanted skinny plastic trolled on a long line.  So, I'm having a good time catching schoolies and trying to see if they like pink or arkansas shiner colors better.  They didn't seem to have a preference, so I kept fishing both rods (mistake).  I'd cast out into the channel and start pedaling against the tide, 1 rod would go off, haul in a fish, get swept into the channel, and then do it all over again.  Finally make a pass where I don't hook a fish and continue to troll both lines over a shell point on my way back to the ramp.  Ba-bam!  The pink skinny hogy rod doubles over.  Big fish.  No time to clear the other rod (mistake). Between the wind, the fish, and the tide, I had a hard time controlling the hobie as the fish pulled me into the moorings.  Fish took me under a mooring line and wrapped me up with the free line that was still out.  I see one of my rods go shooting out of its holder as I clear a mooring line and watch it dangle in mid air.  CRap.  Decided to cut the free line before I got impaled with a hook which was hard for me to do since that line was probably all that was holding up the rod that just flew out of my kayak.  (funny how things can go so bad so quickly?)  Oh well, I still have the big fish on.  Hook pops free as I was about to land her.  Mid 30's, I'd guess (inches - not pounds), but good fight on light gear.  Go back to see if I can get my rod.  Crank in the slack slowly because I know there's not much holding my other rod (since I cut the line).  A few more cranks and up she comes!  Swivel had lodged in the reel seat and was the only thing holding the rod up.  Grabbed the rod, stowed everything away, and headed back home to take apart my reel.  I was lucky I didn't get hooked or flip or lose my rod!  Not so lucky with the fish.  

2nd fish...

More schoolies on skinny plastic - this time near the mouth of BH.  Wind was supposed to be 8 mph from the SW.  It's a steady 10-20 mph straight W.  Awesome.  I can't see the fish on the flats because of the wind and I'm just blindly casting at little rips and cuts and stuff and catching a schoolie here and there.  Nothing consistent.  As the tide fills in, I let it push me back in the harbor and I'm getting soaked as the wind and tide are fighting each other and creating building waves.  The hobie is great and can handle most anything, but it can be a wet ride at times.  Oh well, I was getting hot anyway.  I decide to try a big silver Ron-Z in some of the deeper water.  Sort of like fishing the canal except without people crossing your line.  I pass over a hole that goes down to about 15'.  I can see bait + fish on the FF.  Pump the Ron-Z as I slide through and Blamo!  Big fish hits the Ron-Z.  The fish is stripping line on a ML 7' surf rod (heavier gear than the first fish) and pulling me into the main channel.  There's a tuna boat coming, so I crank the drag down a little and start thinking about Plan B. Plan B never came into play as the hook popped again!  Maybe I should have kept a loose drag and hoped the fish would turn?  The plastic was turned a bit on the jighead, but not balled up on the hook.  Not sure what happened?  Those hooks should be good enough for tuna.  Never even saw that fish - she just completely over powered my gear.  More boats are showing up now, so I decide to bail.  As I'm leaving, the wind shifts SW and cuts out.  White caps disappear.  Standing waves flatten out.  Looked nice enough to launch again, but I already was done for the morning.  On the plus side, I'm learning more about the area every trip and where the fish hide at different stages of the tide.  

I didn't take many pics...

Here's one of a sand eel that I snagged on a 6" pink skinny hogy with a Owner Inshore jig head