Look Closely

My friend Chris and I fished a few days ago in the waters off of southern Rhode Island.  We hadn't fished together in a while so it would be a fun trip no matter what the results.  Morning light was just peaking over the horizon as we steamed east towards a couple local reefs that hold fish all summer, an area where we have had some fantastic mornings catching striped bass on fly rods.

As soon as we arrived at our usual first spot to look around, several small bluefish showed themselves along a ripline. We decided to have a little fun and stretch our lines on a few of them. We rigged up shock tippets with old flies and hooked fish on just about every cast for maybe 20 minutes before we decided to check for some stripers at a few other regular haunts.

Bluefish Double

Bluefish littered the surface everywhere we looked.  They can often plague a striper fishing trip, out-competing bass and destroying flies, but on this day they proved a necessary ally to our success with linesides.  When we finally found the bass we were looking for, the seemingly endless bluefish schools in the area drew most of the other boats to them, leaving the bass all to us!

The schools of blues were more obvious than the bass.  They ravaged baitfish at the surface while flocks of terns and gulls bombed from above. The striper feed was much more subtle, they glided slowly across the surface exposing their dorsal fins and the tops of their tails. They were holding tight to one corner of the reef, on most drifts you only had a couple shots at the fish and then it was over. The birds, being occupied with the bluefish leftovers, didn't bother to follow the stripers so you really had to look for them. 

Myself and Chris with a couple of the average fish from the morning.

The stripers we caught averaged 28-30 inches in length, a great size fish for a fly rod. Only a couple were under the legal size of 28 inches. As a bonus I landed the lunker of the day, a 36 inch fish, weighing somewhere in the mid to high teens (my biggest striper on fly to date!) The bite was finicky at best  and the preferred flies were small and flashy to match the peanut bunker they were feasting on.

The 36" bass took me well into the backing of my 10 weight set-up

It was a fun morning as always with one of my oldest fishing buddies, Can't wait to do it again!

Tuna Tales

Had the opportunity to join a few friends on a "light tackle" tuna trip off the coast of cape cod this morning.  We left the dock around 4:45am and were soon greeted by a stunning sunrise.

We made it to the fishing grounds soon after and were immediately surrounded by breaching humpback whales.  The still mornings silence was interrupted by spouting blow holes and tail slaps from all around us.  We marked tuna on the sonar and started making casts with large spinning gear rigged with near-surface plugs.  We had several tuna follow our baits, but no takers right away.  

The number of whales in the area was nothing short of incredible, at any point throughout the morning we had one or several pods in eyesight.  Some as close as 50 feet from the boat.

Finally we got a tuna to play ball! Capt. Dom hooked it on a jig below the boat and the battle began.  He passed the rod to George who dealt with several blistering runs and got the fish below the boat before he threw in the towel and handed the rod off to Tom.  They say these fish will test your tackle, One run under the boat by the fish while the rod was at just too high of an angle and it exploded, as if landing a 100+lb fish wasn't hard enough!

Tom's arms couldn't handle it anymore and he passed the rod to Jim, who brought the fish home, short rod and all!

The bluefin tuna was just legal size to keep, Tuna between 60" and I believe 72" need to be released, Ours was just under the 60" mark and Capt. Dom estimated it to weigh around 130-150 lbs. A truly impressive creature (and a delicious one at that) Tuna sashimi on the gunwale of the boat during a lull in the action. Soy sauce and wasabi are kept aboard for such reasons.

In addition to the tuna we caught and released several striped bass in the 20-40lb range. All caught incidentally on the same plugs we fished for tuna.  According to regulations the bass can't be kept farther than 3 miles from shore and aren't to be removed from the water more so than necessary to safely remove the hooks.  Tom and Capt. Dom unhooking a bass in that weight range.

With good reason, several whale watch boats out of cape cod were using the same area.  Here are some customers getting what they paid for!

It was a great day on the water.  Lots of great sights and a cooler full of tuna! Thanks Capt. Dom, Jim, George and Tom for making it a fun day on the water!


The End