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.
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...
No comments:
Post a Comment