Reading piemma's post about the cape in the 90's got me giddy. Fishing was real good out there. Its great to relive it with the guys that were there.(like Piemma) If you weren't there, do you get horsed when you hear people tell the "good old days" stories, or do you have to be there?

it depends on who is telling me these stories. If it's someone like Charlie Cinto, then I get a helluva sore jaw from laughing so much. If it's Stan Kuzia, I listen intently to what he says much like Tony Chirappo. If it's a guy like Crazy Alberto, then yes I do get fired up:uhuh: that man can fish. If it's Fisheye, then I just drool at all the pictures and wish I was there.

Stories by experienced fisherman are all part of the fishing experience. Everyone should here a few from time to time.

I am going to scan a bunch of old pictures from the Cape back in the "day" and post them.

it depends on who is telling me these stories. If it's someone like Charlie Cinto, then I get a helluva sore jaw from laughing so much. If it's Stan Kuzia, I listen intently to what he says much like Tony Chirappo. If it's a guy like Crazy Alberto, then yes I do get fired up:uhuh: that man can fish. If it's Fisheye, then I just drool at all the pictures and wish I was there.

Stories by experienced fisherman are all part of the fishing experience. Everyone should here a few from time to time.

No doubt. Got some good ones from Tony C. He always ends a story session by saying "that was the past though, what are you catching NOW?"
Could be my favorite phrase of all time.

I love hearing about the glory days on the backside, wish i was there to experience them....

Some of those stories and locations are worth their weight in gold. Mayby we will never see fishing like that but it offers hints at where we could find the best fishing of our time now. If 50s are caught in one spot multiple times over the years there is good reason for it. The particular structure and currents draw them there, and maybe you won't get the quantity of quality that years past offered, but its a good place to start. We can all agree that most times the 50s just arent there, but knowing the exact rock a handful have come from increase your odds astronomically.

don't know much about the nineties, but the late 70's and early 80's were the heydays which my old man speaks of all the time. i believe every word of it too, he pulled a bunch of 50's off those beaches, and even a few that he looks back on to this day and can't believe how big they MIGHT have been!

He always ends a story session by saying "that was the past though, what are you catching NOW?"
Oooohhh.... I LIKE that quote! Sort of sums up my feelings on some guys....

Anyway, I love hearing the old stories. A guy I fish with has told me a story a bunch of times of a 60"+ bass he took at Ballston years ago. Every time I hear the story, I get all fired up to fish. He has 7 or 8 50's to his name, plus countless 40's. I have learned a lot of how/where to fish from this guy. Any time I can sit back and listen to what some of the old timers have to say, I pay close attention! As has been said, they may not be there every night, but if you can figure out why and when certain spots consistantly spit out big girls you can up your odds today.

TC.. love how he always ends an answer, with a question.. his way of making you think.. and picking your brain at the same time..


I gotta question him about thong wearing Canadien women.. I am hearing rumors... :hihi:..
:wave: Senior Angler...

Fronts coming.. gotta go hit the sand, and see the "ghost angler" ;)

i was bart......in the 60 70 n80 was the hay days of bass fishin for me ,the 90 good bass fishin droped off in a flash .. when bass fishin for bucks ..... in the late 70s n early 80s i got 2.75 lb for mid size bass 8 to 17 lbs.schoolies were 16in to 71/2lbs i got always 2 bucks +.n large bass was 125 to 225 per lb.. at race pt jumbos bass 40lbs+ were a few cents less ... if the fishing was good i took them to chatham or elsewhere ... most fair nights i would do 3 to 8 bass , n a good night is 10+ ...plugs or eels @ 5.00 a doz ,at drews b+t or at bass run for 50$each....20 to high 30 lbs was the norm , and 30s to 40s in the fall.. much bigger fish in the fall . the best part of the fall run lasted3to 6 wks .in that time 2wks were unreal ... 2or 3 guys could do a 1000 lbs or more.. i loved those days .no nights. me n the boys would fish our brains n body out ,all for the love of the buck or bass didnt matter.. but if the truth be known ,,,,i,m blessed w/the memorys n the beatings those big fish gave me weather the boat or the beach .... that was what bass fishin was about..one more thing tell nobody nothing... believe it or else capt cupcake???????

Spent many, many nights in the company of the old guard back then. I fished with the Woonsocket crew and a few of the New Yorkers. Some of the stuff I saw and did went on to become legend, mostly I was just a witness, but I still remember nights when I had to put bass in the front seat cause there was no more room in the back of the truck.DAys spent trying to sleep in the truck behind Matt the Rats, a shade tree was the most valuable thing at them times. You could pull into Old Harbor at 3 in the morning and ice down and weigh your fish and come back at 9 and get paid cash. Would take a weeks worth of stinking , slime covered clothes into the wash and fold and get them cleaned for a couple of bucks, they wern`t to fond of us! But that was then......
Who says the old days are gone, Tony C dragged a 53 and a 62 up onto those fabeled sands last year!
Slinger

:hidin:

:hidin: :hidin:

:yawn:

:yawn:


Old stories do that to me too for the most part. Except for one or two guys who tell stories well and don't exaggerate too much.Otherwise, I have to be there or it never happened.:sleeps:

I am going to scan a bunch of old pictures from the Cape back in the "day" and post them.

I may be telling you something you already know, but if you google Al Bentsen and click on Images, you'll see some nice ones.

:hidin:


Longhair :cheers:

Karl - Canadian geese were sighted at the Circle of Love, the Senior Angler was sighted trolling in the area:eyes: :eyes:

...and I'm just sitting around in my old pajamas....

Love old stories :jump:


even Franks or other fabrications :hidin:

i was bart......in the 60 70 n80 was the hay days of bass fishin for me ,the 90 good bass fishin droped off in a flash .. when bass fishin for bucks ..... in the late 70s n early 80s i got 2.75 lb for mid size bass 8 to 17 lbs.schoolies were 16in to 71/2lbs i got always 2 bucks +.n large bass was 125 to 225 per lb.. at race pt jumbos bass 40lbs+ were a few cents less ... if the fishing was good i took them to chatham or elsewhere ... most fair nights i would do 3 to 8 bass , n a good night is 10+ ...plugs or eels @ 5.00 a doz ,at drews b+t or at bass run for 50$each....20 to high 30 lbs was the norm , and 30s to 40s in the fall.. much bigger fish in the fall . the best part of the fall run lasted3to 6 wks .in that time 2wks were unreal ... 2or 3 guys could do a 1000 lbs or more.. i loved those days .no nights. me n the boys would fish our brains n body out ,all for the love of the buck or bass didnt matter.. but if the truth be known ,,,,i,m blessed w/the memorys n the beatings those big fish gave me weather the boat or the beach .... that was what bass fishin was about..one more thing tell nobody nothing... believe it or else capt cupcake???????
AND WE WONDER WHY FISHING ISN'T AS GOOD ANYMORE!!
Not slamming but 10+ fish a night, then people get mad at asians who are eating 100% of their catch and not selling breeders.
Sorry but when I started fishing it was the good old days then slow and crazy 36"+ size limits, then they came back just to get hammered again!
How about taking a couple of fish(any species) once in a while when you will eat them, otherwize enjoy the expereience and leave some for everyone else.

Karl - Canadian geese were sighted at the Circle of Love, the Senior Angler was sighted trolling in the area:eyes: :eyes:
:hihi:.. hope them geese can't talk ;)

kennebeck.. that's why a lot of folks are :hidin:
There was a real darn good recovery after all that stuff from the old days tho.. I remember a few years of No Fish... actually didn't fish for a few.. took to FW bassin for a while.. some real good fishin for them on the cape....
Now, i believe, it's the bait we need to fix, as was done for the stripers.
Can't really blame the old ways.. it's what was done at that time, and accepted as the way to go, by 99.9%, hopefull we can turn that around and get as large a percentage conservation minded, it's well under way.

AND WE WONDER WHY FISHING ISN'T AS GOOD ANYMORE!!
Not slamming but 10+ fish a night, then people get mad at asians who are eating 100% of their catch and not selling breeders.
Sorry but when I started fishing it was the good old days then slow and crazy 36"+ size limits, then they came back just to get hammered again!
How about taking a couple of fish(any species) once in a while when you will eat them, otherwize enjoy the expereience and leave some for everyone else.

You have no right to pass judgement if you were not there and had experienced the times and places. 36" is relatively recent history which automactically brands you as a newcomer to this sport. Times have changed and we all, (all those who were there and part of it) are different people now with new attitudes. So in other words shut up and listen and learn. Being that your monicker implies the state of Mine and the fanatiscism of "conservation" of your relatively small part of the big picture. Maine's striped bass fishery is marginal and of little consequence when seen on the grand scale, a mostly river fishery indulged in by those new to the sport or corrupted by bad information and junk science and blinded to the real struggles that stripers really face, menaing predation by marine mammals and lack of significant large forage species upon which an adult stripers success depends if she is to reach the potenetial for growth, health and fecundity.

Go back to class my dear first grader, you have a lot to learn.:rtfm:

Interesting! when someone say's old fishing stories...it always starts off with the comm. guy's on a beach somewhere landing hundred's of pounds...etc.. etc...///// now to my way of thinking it should be about an old uncle bob who just happen to go flouder fishing and latched onto a 60lber. which towed him 3 miles up some river an after a 2.1/2 hour fight brought it to the boat.....or like when you were catching small blues from a beach on a fall sunday afternoon and something came along and ate the blue, but never surfaced once while you were being spooled and running out of beach to run it down......those are fish stories.....just like the time two budd's were fishing for stripers and one got a hit on his eel..hooked it and brought it in only to find the eel had passed through the gill's of the first fish and another fish came along an got hooked too...two fish at the same time on one eel....thats a fish story an true.

:claps:

Sorry if I hit a real nerve there Flap but I grew up on the Ct. shore and have a 50 in Ct. Narragansette, Cape beach, and Maine river.
Yeah our Maine fishery is relatively new in the publics eyes but the fish have been there for millenium.
Your agument about lack of forage fish is well founded AND CAUSED BY A COMMERCIAL FISHERY FOR THEM!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry not a newby or a first grader but have put in over 100+ days(nights) for each of the past 28 years. 2004-2.814 stripers in Maine with a 50, 2-40's and 16-30's.
I really am an o.k. guy and not a conservation freak by the way.

I "grew up" fishing with my younger brother . He had a 14 foot tin boat (a Lone Star I think) with a 30 horse Johnson motor. In our free time, weekends, after work, we would hitch up the the trailer to the old Chevy Biscayne and head for Wareham, Plymouth, Barnstable or Sandwitch. The pogy schools were everywhere with bass, blues and squet in Buzzards Bay and no squet north of the canal. Also, many nice 'tog and fluke trips (as well as cod, mackerel, flounder, scup and black sea bass). We would each catch our "100 pounds plus 1 fish" (didn't need a commercial licence) and then take our catch , whatever it was, to the market at the Sandwitch basin, or Capt. Harris, or the fish market in Onset, or the Wareham fish market. Thats when M&D's was "down the street" from where it is now. With me and my 'bro, and 200+ pounds of fish, that little boat was close to swamping. Ever take a 14 foot boat across Cape Cod Bay ? I won't talk about spring fishing at the herring run at this time. Tube and worm at scuset ledge ? Every fish over 30 pounds. Quicks and Robinsons ? Good fishing there too.
We'd start fishing in late February in Onset harbor for winter flounder and would stop our "routine" trips around the middle of November (then we would go bird/rabbit hunting)

We also like to go ice fishing at Lake Pearl when the brood salmon are stocked, caught a few.

Remember you could rent a boat and launch at the Weweantic river on Route 6 ? The guy had a little trailer set up and if he had gone out that morning, he'd hang the big ones up on the side of the trailer, saw my first small Maco shark there. And , if my brother couldn't go, my friend had a 4WD truck and we would go to P'town to fish (his wife and my wife worked weekends), so we would head there on windy weekends when my 'bro didn't want to go, I think it was $10 to get on the beach (after the inspection) we would drive down to "the bowl" at low tide, rake up some eels and wait for the tide to come up. Then my other friend, whose dad was the shellfish warden in Chatham would take me out in his 4WD Winnebego Brave to Nauset and we would fish sand eels (same at P'town). I think my 'bro still has my sand eel rake. Lots of nice fish there.

Remember trying to launch your boat in Plymouth , at the old boat ramp ?
Oh well, we both got married and continued to fish with our familys. He eventually got some bigger boats(now he has 21 foot cutty cabin) and I bought a bunch of different rods and went striper fishing at the canal. We still fish 2-3 times a year. He lives in South Attleboro and likes to fish Rhode Island waters (mostly around Prudence Island), he's a "clammer" (sure do love the littlenecks and the steamers) but he does take me on occasional trips to Block Island and the old places we fished 30+ years ago..
I really do love fishing.

And all the "inane" questions I used to ask, that would get everyone "rilled up", were only questions that came from my own experiences.