misslorettafishing

So far this September has been an exact repeat of the September of 2010.

A year ago last night I had a crew from Missouri catch 30-40 keeper striped bass with the largest tipping the scales at 37.5 pounds. These were by far the biggest bass of their lives, and according to them, the best fishing trip they had ever been on!

September 17 must be a magical date because last night was even better than that awesome trip one year ago. Dave, Rob, Chaz and Flick drove 6 hours from upstate New York to Sandwich yesterday hoping to catch something a bit bigger than the schoolies and small keepers they’ve had success with over the past few years. These guys were dedicated outdoorsmen, who have made the long trip to the Cape numerous times already this year to fish the Cape Cod Canal and the Bay beachfront.

They’ve also successfully hunted deer, elk and bear and have fished for bass, walleye, pike and the occasional muskie. So needless to say, I knew I didn’t have to worry about them complaining about it being a little cold at night on the water!

Conditions were picture perfect yesterday evening. Clear skies and a slight breeze from the east had my hopes pretty high that we would again find fish pushing bait up shallow under the cover of darkness. Like usual, it took a little searching around to find the bass, but once we found them, they were more than willing to chow down on our live eels.

Unfortunately, I forgot the eel net! Have you ever tried removing eels from a live well using your bare hands? I won’t be forgetting the net again anytime soon!

Dave was the first hookup with one of the nice bass that paved the bottom beneath the boat. This fish had some nice shoulders and peeled a fair amount of line. Dave was breathing hard, as we all anxiously awaited a glance at the fish. There’s a lot of pressure to get that first one in the boat when you have driven 6 hours to go fishing!

Dave did a fine job and within a few minutes we had the first fish of the night, a healthy 20 pounder, flopping around on the deck. Great start!

For the next two hours we moved up and down the beach, stopping every so often to pitch eels at the random piles of fish that were holding in 20 feet of water. Everyone boated some nice bass and before we knew it, we were up to 11 keepers ranging from 15-30 pounds. The guys were thrilled and so was I.

At around 10pm we entered a little lull in the action, so I decided to check in a little tighter to the beach. Before I knew it, I found myself in the exact same spot I was in one year ago during that epic trip with the boys from Missouri. To my astonishment the sonar screen lit up with bass. The fish had pushed up onto the sandbar again, as they did during the night of September 17, 2010.

I had just started a sandwich and was on the phone with my girlfriend when I heard one of the guy’s drags screaming. “I’ll call you right back!” I said to Lauren. Little did I know it would be 45 minutes until I finally had a chance to pick up the phone!

The bass were everywhere! All the guys began hooking up-at the same time! Doubles and triples were the name of the game. We all did a nice little dance around the boat for a while. These fish were bigger as well, with the average around 25 pounds, with quite a few over the 30 pound mark.

And then Chaz hooked up. Right off the bat he knew it was a big fish, and he had no problem letting everyone know about it! The bass was putting a real good bend in his rod and taking a lot of line. After a very lengthy battle Chaz eased the bass in towards the boat.



“Holy crap” I said to myself as I reached down to grab the massive fish. This was a very nice bass with an enormous mouth, head and stomach. She had been feeding well and was stuffed with bait. We all looked in awe at the massive bass, which was by far the biggest striper any of these guys have seen first hand. She weighed in at an impressive 42 pounds even-awesome fish!

The blitz continued right up into 11 feet of water. I’d imagine that some of these bass were in even tighter to the sand. Anyone fishing from shore last night in this area would have had a great chance at some incredible bass. I may even make the trek to this area tonight if the weather conditions aren’t too bad, and see if I can hook up casting from the beach.

We continued fishing until around 12:30am when the guys decided to call it quits. Being the true sportsmen they are, they made the decision to not risk hurting any more of these big bass. Final tally was somewhere between 25 and 30 stripers, ranging from 15-42 pounds. Everyone caught the biggest bass of their lives. I later got an email stating, “best fishing trip of my life!” You can’t beat that.



Last night was incredible, and certainly the exception and not the rule.

However if the stars align, and weather conditions are in your favor, the potential to have a trip like last night’s is not out of the question. It’s tough to beat fall fishing on Cape Cod Bay, and if you put your time in, are patient, and never give up, then you will eventually be rewarded by a trip like last night’s.

Big thanks again to the Adirondak Fishing Crew. Glad you guys made the long trek back home safely.

Best of luck to anyone heading out onto the water this week. Tight lines!

Ryan

The past day and a half has been nuts!

It all began with a bluefish surfcasting tuna bait run Wednesday evening. We’re pretty sure we’ve found a spot down Cape that will consistently produce small bluefish from shore-which is a rarity. The spot offers easy access to a deep, dredged out channel that is currently holding a ton of baby pogies.

Only problem was the tide was slacking when Mazzola and I arrived at the spot. Like usual, there were a ton of juvenile menhaden, but really not much life at all in the form of bluefish. We saw a few blues break the surface here and there, but ended up getting skunked. I think things will be different if we hit up this shorebound spot half way into the incoming tide.

The weatherman was calling for southwest winds of 5-10 mph for Thursday, so we decided to make our first giant tuna trip of the fall yesterday morning. Hopefully the blues we had stowed away in our bait pen were still alive and kicking, and ready to be fed to some tuna.

Unfortunately, we had a major die off in the bait cage. Just about all of the snapper blues were dead at the bottom of the pen. Luckily 5 of the older, bigger bluefish were still swimming happily in the cage. My guess is that the younger, small snappers are too sensitive to the temperature change, and thus perished. It was a bit of a bummer, but we now know that blues under 12 inches won’t survive very long in our bait pen.

The tide was dead low which meant I was climbing down 15 feet via a homemade rope ladder in order to access the bait pen. I’d imagine this was quite the site at 1:30am, and it wasn’t long until we started to be questioned by some of the late night fishermen in the area. Due to the language barrier, I’m not sure if we were able to effectively explain the situation. I think the guys thought we had set up a “bluefish trap”, much like a lobster trap-just for bluefish. Maybe this guys is on to something…

Nevertheless after meeting some very “interesting” fishermen at the marina, and grabbing iced coffees from one of the most enthusiastic Dunkin’ employees I’ve ever ordered from (especially considering it was 2am) we were off to Plymouth in search of pogies.

Prior to yesterday, I had only seen live pogies on two occasions. The first is when we purchased live pogies last spring for bait. The second was earlier this year when I saw a couple pogies swim by my boots while fishing the Cape Cod Canal. I’ve wondered for years how certain, talented guys in our area consistently catch live pogies to use a tuna bait. This simple little foot long bait fish has driven us bonkers for years!


I’m happy to say that we may have finally “cracked the pogie code” yesterday morning. Our plan was to set a 100 foot long gill net along a channel edge that we had heard produced pogies from time to time. It could not have been longer than 10 minutes when we noticed the buoys on the gill net were bouncing around.

As we brought the gill net in to the boat, we were shocked to see not 1 but 3 three adult pogies caught up in the net! Finally, after years of trying, we had caught a live pogie! Funny to think that we managed to catch a 600 plus pound tuna, before being able to catch a 12 inch pogie-funny how things work!

After a few more sets with the gill net our live well was chock full with adult menhaden and one shad. We had netted close to two dozen big pogies when all was said and done. Hopefully this spot will continue to produce bait through October.

With plenty of bait we headed out to the western edge of Stellwagen Bank. It was a beautiful morning with light winds out of the south. It was an easy ride and we had baits in the water 45 minutes after departing Plymouth.

Of course, it was not long until we hooked up with our first dogfish (sand shark). These “rats of the sea” are virtually everywhere! Doesn’t matter if you are in 50 feet of water in Cape Cod Bay, or 150 feet of water at Stellwagen Bank-you will catch a dogfish.


I baited up with a fresh live pogie and set him off the port side. As I was feeding line out an enormous fish came up and inhaled the pogie right off the stern of the boat. Fish on!

Right off the bat we knew this was not a tuna, but this fish still had some serious size and quickly began peeling line from the Penn International 80 setup. We cleared the other lines and began fighting what we figured was a shark. About 10 minutes later I had the fish somewhat close to the boat, when she decided to make a run for the bottom.

The shark began stripping line from the 80 and made a dash for the bottom as Mazzola circled the boat to avoid cutting the line on the engine prop. The fight did not compare to that of a giant tuna, however this fish was still very powerful and put some serious bend in the rod. I set the drag to full pressure in an attempt to lift the shark towards the surface.


A moment later we got a glimpse of the beast. This thing was massive! It was a blue shark, and was easily the longest fish I have ever seen in my life. Blue sharks are pretty common off New England, but I had absolutely no idea they grew to such a size. We estimated the fish to be around 10 feet in length and at least 400 pounds.

We finally were able to get the shark close enough to cut the line a foot or so up from its jaws. Unreal!

The wind began to kick up so we made our way in tighter to the Plymouth coastline and reset the baits. At around 1pm we had something suck down the live blue we had set under the kite. A minute later we were tight again!

Right off the bat I knew we weren’t hooked up with a giant, but I figured there was a chance that it was a small tuna that didn’t yet realize he was hooked. The fish made a few nice runs, but we soon had her under the boat. Unfortunately not a tuna, but another blue shark-this one was around 7 feet in length. We both were surprised to have hooked up with another shark, just several miles from the Plymouth coast.


After checking the radar it was obvious that we were going to get slammed by strong thunderstorms, gusty winds, and even some hail. We decided to make a run for the dock to avoid the worst of the weather. It was a good decision. The wind picked as soon as we rounded the Gurnet outside Plymouth. Always best to play it safe and err on the side of caution.

All in all a great trip. We even managed to catch a striped bass on our way in before pulling the boat. No tuna on this outing, but we finally found a great spot to catch pogies-which is awesome. The massive blue shark was a sight that I will certainly never forget.

Tight lines this weekend. The north wind predicted for today and tomorrow may just light things up on the striped bass and tuna front!

Good luck!

Ryan



Giant Tuna

Saturday’s fishing excursion began at 4:30am with a juvenile bluefish trip, and ended at 4am Sunday, after landing close to 800 pounds of striped bass. Quite the chock full Saturday!

I will admit that I was not thrilled when my alarm went off Saturday morning. I never mind getting up to go fishing, but we were targeting small bluefish-not slob bass. But devoting a morning to catching small blues will be well worth having prime giant tuna bait this fall. I’m happy to say that things worked out great, and we loaded the bait pen up with 20 bluefish between 6 – 18 inches. Awesome tuna bait.



After cleaning the boat, making an eel and worm run, and grabbing a coffee, I met Sean, Bob and Pat at the Sandwich Marina for some striper fishing. I had high hopes for the evening. The bass have been around in force, and I knew some folks landed some nice ones earlier in the day. On top of that it was a beautiful evening, with clear skies and light winds at the marina.

Unfortunately those light winds kicked up a bit once we got on the water. A very refreshing 10 knot breeze from the east made for some sloppy trolling conditions at Scorton Ledge-the first spot we hit. We got a little wet, but we trudged through the slop until we marked a ton of bass holding just off the Ledge. They were stacked up!


I resisted telling the guys about the find until we had a rod bent over. Luckily these fish were in the feeding mood. We picked away on small keepers and bluefish for a bit, until the port side rod doubled over. Big fish!

Pat was the first on scene and did a nice job bringing this big boy to the boat. At one point I was more concerned about losing Pat than the fish! We were all doing a precious little dance around the boat, trying to keep our balance in the choppy conditions.

After a nice fight, Pat got his fish within range and I brought her aboard. A beautiful 25 pounder, very nice start to the night. A couple passes later and Bob would match his eldest son with a 25 pounder of his own. Sean boated a couple small keepers, apparently saving his big fish for later in the trip.

All these pre-sunset bass bit a 24 inch red tube and worm. Pretty typical for the Ledge.


Once the sun set we moved east, hoping to find piles of bass to pitch eels to. We trudged and searched through 20 feet of water-nothing. I moved out to 30 feet-nothing. 40 feet produced not a single mark, 50 and 60 feet were also dead. In many cases I would feel a little pessimistic about not marking anything in these areas, however what happened during the full moon last September was still fresh in my mind. If it happened again on this trip, I thought to myself, then these guys are in for a real treat.

And that’s exactly what occurred! The wind backed way off, the seas flattened right out, and we found bass in 10-15 feet of water-and a TON of them.

From there on out it was a consistent diet of doubles and triples, line peeling drag runs, and big bass hitting the decks. All three guys landed the biggest bass of their lives. Pat had the lunker of the night, weighing in at 37.5 pounds. Both Bob and Sean were not far behind, with multiple fish caught in the 30 pound range.

I somehow managed to take some video footage of the events without dropping my phone in the drink. I love hearing those drags scream, I’ll surely be watching these videos throughout this winter!

The full moon and flat calm seas made it possible to watch the big bass in the moonlight. On numerous occasions we had two or three 20-30 pounders follow hooked bass right to the boat. These fish were not at all spooked by our headlamps, and could not of cared less about the boat. One bass even slammed an eel that had slid up Sean’s line as he battled a fish!

Every once in a while the stripers would come up and annihilate something off the surface. I have no idea what they were feeding on last night, but they were super aggressive. The bass literally paved the bottom, with small patches of bait here and there on the sonar. If we lost track of the fish, all we had to do was cruise a few hundred yards or so in any direction, and we would quickly stumble across another large mass of them.


We found the bass at 9pm and were headed back to the docks with sore arms before midnight. In less than three hours of pitching eels we had caught 31 keepers between 10 and 37.5 pounds! Unreal!

The night fishing on Cape Cod Bay does not get better than this! This same bite occurred during this same week last year. Usually the bass push offshore during the night, but for some reason every so often this pattern reverses, and they push up incredibly close to shore. When this happens, the best fishing of the year ensues.

Who knows how long the bass will remain in this pattern. It could be for weeks, or just a matter of days. Either way, if you have a boat then right now is the time to get out there-I’m talking tonight people! Or of course, you can always give me a call.

If you do head out, still expect to do some searching around. The area we fished last night was absolutely loaded with big bass, however it all happened within a one quarter mile stretch of beach. We searched over 10 miles of water to find this area.

So in conclusion, this is as good as it gets on Cape Cod Bay. Right now is the time to go. Good luck and go get ‘em!

Tight lines,

Ryan

I had a couple awesome crews this Labor Day weekend.

They were awesome for a few reasons:

1) They came equipped with infallible positive attitudes

2) They followed directions to a T and had no problem adjusting on the fly

3) They took the good (as in 20-40 pound striped bass) and the bad (as in dogfish and rat blues) in stride

I could continue on with more reasons but that’s good enough for now. We all know that with Labor Day upon us, the unthinkable truth that summer is winding down is settling in. However the fishing is just starting to pick up. Crews scheduled between now and Columbus Day have a lot to look forward to (as long as the weather cooperates!).

Speaking of the weather, this past weekend was pretty windy. That didn’t deter a determined crew of father and son duo Eric and Bob on Saturday night. Even though the weatherman was calling for 15-20 knot winds out of the southwest, Eric and Bob showed up at the ramp-headlamps in hand.

The great thing about fishing Cape Cod Bay is that even when the wind is blowing a little, odds are you can still get out and fish no problem. It was breezy, but because the wind was blowing offshore we had relatively calm conditions.

Right off the bat we found fish in tight to the beach and followed them out to 60 feet of water. Unfortunately they gave us NO LOVE! One nice bass and a ton of blues later and we decided to call it a trip, despite our strongest efforts.

These two guys were part of an epic bite last year, in which we boated over 25 bass between 15 and 35 pounds. Needless to say we were all a bit disappointed. The good news is that I have nothing better to do than fish, so there’s a good chance we will get another shot at boating some big bass before the season is over. The next trip will be on me.

As is the fishing world, things took a 180 degree turn for the better the very next night.

I had Darren, Bob and Ryan with me Sunday night. These guys came all the way down I-495 with high hopes for catching some nice fish. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting an incredible night after Friday’s showing with Bob and Eric. However each night is different, and you just never know what to expect when fishing Cape Cod Bay.

After cruising the beach eastward we again marked fish in tight. Contrary to the night before these bass were in the chewing mood. Ryan soon hooked up fishing a conger size eel on light tackle. This bass took some nice line, and after a few grunts and deep breaths, Ryan had a beautiful 25 pounder flopping around on the deck.

The best part of it all was that this was Ryan’s first striped bass of his life! What a start to his striper fishing career. A few high faves and a picture or two later and we were back on the hunt.

Darren was next up and boated a couple cookie cutter 15 pounders-perfect for the grill. They weren’t monsters, but they were definitely a nice warm up to what was coming next.

After losing that school of bass into the abyss, we cruised a mile or so the west out into deeper water. There we found the absolute mother load of striped bass. This was a biomass of fish unlike any I have seen thus far this season. Solid marks from 20 feet down to the bottom. A few of the arches were seriously big. I didn’t initially let the crew in on the find until I heard Ryan’s drag screaming.

With Ryan hooked up, Darren pitched an eel nicely into the center of the mess of bass. As I was dealing with Ryan’s fish both Bob and Darren hooked up with a pair of big stripers. Lines were going in every which way, the guys were hooting and hollering, and the drags were sizzling.

Before we got our bearings back Darren and Bob were all tangled up and criss-crossed off the starboard side. Initially, one would think we were in trouble, but the guys remained calm-it’s all part of fishing in a bass blitz. After a few key rod maneuvers and some headlamp work we were free and back to fighting the fish.

Bob was the first to get his bass to the boat and I quickly brought her aboard. She would later tip the scales at 27 pounds-NICE!

Once we got Bob’s fish aboard it was time to concentrate on Darren’s. This baby dug for the bottom and made multiple drag peeling runs. Prior to this night Darren had only caught a few schoolies and maybe a small keeper, so this was new territory for the big guy. He did a great job though and eventually had the fish within range.
Fishing Cape Cod

As soon as I got the bass in the light an exasperated “Oh my God!” could be heard resonating from the guys. This was a nice fish. She was long, fat and had a huge head and shoulders. This was a gaffable fish without a doubt and took some muscle to get aboard.

Once she hit the deck Darren knew he had a trophy. The bass topped out at 40 pounds and made Bob’s 27 pounder look like a baby.

We all breathed a sigh of relief that despite the tangle, we were able to get both fish aboard. This was no time for pictures though as the biomass of bass was still beneath the boat.

We continued pitching eels and hooking up until the guys were ready to call it quits. Within 30 minutes we had our limit of bass and a bunch of blues. What a nice flurry of action!

The crew was satisfied with what they had caught so we headed back early so they could get home and have a few cold ones before it got too late. Final tally was a bunch of stripers between 15 and 40 pounds, a bunch of bluefish and of course a few sandsharks. I’m sure we could have continued hooking up had we pushed it into the wee hours of Monday morning, but there really was no need.

As we stowed the gear and made preparations for the trip back to Sandwich we all reflected on the sheer size of the school of bass that we were fortunate enough to encounter. There’s no doubt in my mind that at least one 50 pound bass was swimming somewhere amongst that school. Knock on wood, but I hope this is the fall that we finally boat a 50 plus fish.
Fishing Cape Cod

Both Ryan and Darren caught the biggest fish of their lives. Bob also caught the biggest striped bass of his life (I think..correct me if I heard wrong Bob!). All in all it was a great trip that featured some awesome weather and some of the fastest fishing so far this year.

Big thanks to Bob, Darren and Ryan for making the long trek down to the Cape. It was definitely a Labor Day to remember!

Take care and tight lines,

Ryan

This is a great website!

Along with this site, I'll be posting fishing reports, hourly updates (during July and August) and weekly fishing articles to help everyone put more fish in the boat or on the beach.

Articles and reports can be found at:

http://www.misslorettafishing.com/Fishing-Reports---Articles.html

Most of these reports and articles will have a focus on the Cape Cod Bay area.

I hope to help 2011 be a banner year for beginners and seasoned veterans alike!

Tight lines,

Ryan Collins

From everything I've seen and heard, the fishing at the Cape Cod Canal has died down a bit-compared to the bonanza we experienced last week.

With that said there are still some nice bass being caught. I would imagine that the bulk of the school has moved north into Cape Cod Bay and possibly beyond. Often times great fishing takes place in the Bay after a big push of bass moves through the canal.

Obviously it is inherently difficult to forecast where bass decide to go, however the past few seasons in particular have provided me with at least a few clues as to the best areas in Cape Cod Bay to begin the hunt for these migrating cow bass.

For anyone heading out in the Bay this coming week, feel free to check out this article on big striped bass behavior.

http://barnstable-hyannis.patch.com/articles/understanding-big-bass-behavior

Hopefully it'll help you to put a few of these beautiful fish in the boat.

Even though the fishing in the ditch has died down, it should only be matter of days to a week before the next big push of bass decides to move through. If they behave as in past seasons, superb fishing should last for around three days before the majority of the biomass moves north-like last week's large push.

Right now there are pogies, herring, mackerel and a cornucopia of other bait fish in the canal. The stage is certainly set for another blitz sometime very soon.

Tight lines,

Captain Ryan Collins