| Sept 22, 2008 |
The current fall pattern continued to evolve last week with larger stripers showing up along the shore in increasing numbers. The big moon tides and cooler air and water temps got the fish eating throughout most of last week. Steve and the shore anglers enjoyed one of their best weeks so far this fall with several stripers exceeding 40 inches. All of their fish were taken on top water plugs of various types; pencils, stick baits and poppers. The boat fishing also was better this past week, another sign that the normal fall pattern is taking shape. Most all the boat caught fish were found and taken tight to shore from Straitsmouth down coast to Eastern Point. We had our best success tossing white Slug-Go’s and fly-casting large baitfish patterns. As for striper food, we are seeing a few scattered pods of mature pogies, tight groups of the small mystery baitfish (that we believe are cod fry) but no peanut bunker as yet. A super fall run is very dependant on a good solid run of peanuts. The bluefish last week were spotty at best, a few here and there, but nothing in the way of a blitz like the previous week. Porter B reported that the hot action at Crane had cooled down as did the weather. He did get back up this way to fish and got into the shore action as well. He also found some good action at Candy House flat at the bottom of the tide Sunday morning, hooking a few stripers over 30 inches. He also noted the presence of a school of squid there. Candy House may be worth taking a look at this week. Thanks Porter!
I expect the cool weather to help bring in more fish this week, but without the peanuts, it will be difficult to keep the big stripers here for any length of time.
With lighter winds forecast for Saturday morning, Capt Allan Smith invited me and Capt Al M aboard his 20 Maritime for some tuna hunting at Stellwagon. We left Rockport at 5AM and headed south to the N/W corner. We arrived there at a little past six and found a large gathering of whales, birds and bluefish gorging on huge pods of sand-eels. We were hoping to find tuna feeding at the top as well but did not. So we set up three rods with deep divers set to run at various depths and began trolling and watching the electronics for tuna trails.
After about an hour, and a few bluefish, we started to mark a few solid tuna trails and trolled big circles in that area. Within a half hour, the middle #30m rod went off big and tight to a screamer. Capt Al took the 30 as Allan and I cleared the other two rods. That was the start of an epic 4 ˝ hour battle that covered some 6 miles of ocean. We all (at the start) thought we had hooked up the typical Stellwagon “cookie cutter 55 inch fish”, but soon realized (after an hour) this tuna was not “typical”. The tuna fought extra tough, not diving deep but rather running out 100 yds. and then run fast back toward the boat. This pattern continued for another hour before we got our first glimpse of the fish. From what we could see, the fish was well upwards of 60 inches, but we weren’t sure how big at this point, but knew by the battle the tuna was strong and smart. After three hours, we had moved off the bank and into deeper water and the tuna started his next game of diving deep. The fish became increasingly difficult to move with the #30 outfit and Capt Al did all he could do to get back line on this fish that I had now dubbed “The Beast”. The beast finally came up from the depth to tease us one more time; we were now convinced this fish was in fact larger than 6 feet long. The battle went on for another hour plus, with the beast coming up near the surface only to run hard and deep again, and again. Finally, after 4 ˝ hours of an epic battle between fish and fisherman, the 80 pound leader cut through and the beast won the battle for it’s survival. Although the three of us were a bit bummed, we were not disappointed; it was a battle that we all shared and something that we all remember for …..ever. Both Allan and I got to fight the fish as well…...but Al fought him for better than three hours without the aid of a fighting belt or harness.
Some great fish……………..or BEAST!
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