schoolie monster
09-30-2002, 03:29 PM
First off, how's it goin' for everyone? I hope folks have been able to get out the last couple weeks. I skimmed some posts and it sounds like there's some fishing going on.
Man, there's no way I'm back at my desk... impossible. The good news is that things were quiet when I was gone and I was able to put out a few fires and am having an easy day.
The bad news... vaca is over. I never really got a chance to get prepared for my trip (mentally) and it was over in a blink.
We had great weather the first week, but the second week was awful with cold and rainy days on Mon, Tues, Thur and lots of rain forecasted for Fri... we actually went on standby and caught the 5:30pm ferry Thursday evening. I don't think we had winds under 15mph... you pick the direction.
I did alot more fishing this year than normal... however, very little from surf, mostly due to another injury a couple days before my trip (shoulder)... aggrevated by having to do all the packing and unpacking 'cause the wife is expecting. It was tough to throw the big rods. My dad and my uncle were there the first week and we got in a bit of trouble for the 3-a-days, and for being tired at night. Bluefish were everywhere off the inside of Smith's Point and Tuckernuck, and off Eel Point. We had alot blitzes with fish ranging from 3-8 lbs. The albies were sporadic, but we had some decent shots at them when they were feeding. There were decent numbers of bass up on the Madaket Flats and in the shallow bars off Eel Point. We "saw" fish each time on the flats, including some nice ones (20+lbs.).
My fishing highlights included two "slams"... Wed and Sat I caught a blue, a bass, and an albie. Sat was the best when I caught an albie, a 33" and 36" bass, and my biggest blue (9 lbs.) all in about 90 minutes... all on the flats.
And being that I caught all those on the same rod, I can definitely tell you that albies put these other fish to shame... yikes... these were my first ones and they are insane. Almost suicidal. I only landed two and one died despite my best efforts to revive it... that's another topic.
I never really had a shot to go for a bonito to complete a grand slam on the famed "Bonito Bar" 'cause of the consistent high winds. But considering I'd never caught an albie before and this was my first time sight fishing the clear water flats for bass, I'm pretty proud of a couple slams.
I was really thrilled about the flats fishing for bass. I really only had maybe 5 good days for it and got at least one each day. I ended up with 7 bass from 29-36". It doesn't sound like alot, but I was getting alot better at boat handling, seeing the fish, and feeding the lure to them. I was getting alot of "looks", but the weather closed in the second week and I wasn't able to continue the learning curve. Conditions weren't the best on the good days, as the tides and winds always were working against each other, but I really love that type of fishing. Seeing the fish over beautiful sand flats, in crystal clear water, seeing the take and the whole fight. Its cool, its intense and I could lose days out on those flats.
And to be completely honest, we've never done well with bass there. I'm not going to put in the time fishing at night to consistently catch bass on Nantucket. This isn't really a fishing trip and I neglected my family enough this trip without adding hours of night fishing to the equation. I was just happy to have a consistent chance to get some bass.
And speaking of family, my family highlights were my dad getting his first albie and listening to him "ooohhh" and "awwww" at the intensity of a bluefish blitz. My daughter battling 3 bluefish and a 32" striper. She's not quite big enough to do it solo, but she had a blast going out with me a few times. She fought the bass for a solid couple of minutes and withstood some blistering runs :) She also got to see some seals close up in the boat.
We also laid my grandfather to rest with my grandma and his parents in the cemetery on the island. We also had a small ceremony in which we spread some of his ashes off of Eel Point, just as we had done with my grandma 3 years ago.
And in general, spending quality time with my family is always a highlight.
We really lost the second week. Sunday was nice, Wed was ok. We never quite got into our rhythym as in past years. Part of that was having company, but we knew that going in. We figured we'd have the second week for just the 3 of us, but sometimes these things happen.
Wednesday, when we woke up to see that the forecast had changed to more rain, I wanted to hit "restart" :smash:
Oh well, as things are going, I'm glad we had the opportunity to get away and have some R&R.
PROJECT REVIEW:
I had a few theories and got a few different things to test, try on my trip with some mixed results. The telescopic aluminum push-pole for $34 was successful. I mainly used it to re-align my drift, but it got me into and out of some real shallow stuff and was very helpful in general. If you want to give this type of fishing a try, but don't want to spend several hundred bucks on a fiberglass pushpole, Bass Pro Shops has a 12' aluminum pole. It is a bit limited 'cause I think you really want a 15' pole, but for $34... its also stores at 6'. I also bought a castnet and did well with it, though I ended up releasing my bait. I never did any live chumming or live-lining of the bigger stuff I caught. My daughter really thought it was cool though. She spent a couple hours with me on the beach and handled pick up of all the bait. The onboard solar charger I'm not sure of. Part of that might have been the lack of sunlight. But its not a solution avoid hauling the battery out of the boat. It probably needs a full day to charge a battery. The sand eel color ledgerunner bait that Got Stripers and I concocted worked great, but I didn't get enough of them. Lots of blues on those flats and they destroy 'em quick. The 6" jerkbait looked very natural in the clear, shallow water and turned alot of fishy heads. I had wanted to fish some other areas with the boat (Great Point, Nantucket Harbor, Bonito Bar), but I stayed close to home. Fishing was good enough to not worry about going elsewhere.
So how's things here?
I took the boat out locally Friday and Sunday. I found tons of bluefish in Quincy Bay on Fri. Had to search thru the fog and mist to find some bass. Found some small bass in a little cove crashing bait. I found lots and lots of bait both days. (Man was there alot of bait over in Nantucket... huge balls and shoals of p. bunker and sand eels... it was amazing). Finally found a school of nice bass, but after one fish they went down. Sunday was sketchy. Found some blues by Thompson I. but a dozen boats on too few fish. I ended up finding fish in skinny water and "sight fishing" for bass at low tide. I didn't have my good sunglasses, or my push pole, but was able to do manage some good drifts and catch 6 bass w/ 3 keepers. If I'd been prepared for this, I'd have done much better. I saw lots of bass, mostly keeper size, but nothing big. I never would have tried it before. You're always learning out there.
Anyways, plenty of bait... but despite the fish I found in shallow water, it doesn't seem like a whole lot of bass in the Harbor. Have they been around?
Man, there's no way I'm back at my desk... impossible. The good news is that things were quiet when I was gone and I was able to put out a few fires and am having an easy day.
The bad news... vaca is over. I never really got a chance to get prepared for my trip (mentally) and it was over in a blink.
We had great weather the first week, but the second week was awful with cold and rainy days on Mon, Tues, Thur and lots of rain forecasted for Fri... we actually went on standby and caught the 5:30pm ferry Thursday evening. I don't think we had winds under 15mph... you pick the direction.
I did alot more fishing this year than normal... however, very little from surf, mostly due to another injury a couple days before my trip (shoulder)... aggrevated by having to do all the packing and unpacking 'cause the wife is expecting. It was tough to throw the big rods. My dad and my uncle were there the first week and we got in a bit of trouble for the 3-a-days, and for being tired at night. Bluefish were everywhere off the inside of Smith's Point and Tuckernuck, and off Eel Point. We had alot blitzes with fish ranging from 3-8 lbs. The albies were sporadic, but we had some decent shots at them when they were feeding. There were decent numbers of bass up on the Madaket Flats and in the shallow bars off Eel Point. We "saw" fish each time on the flats, including some nice ones (20+lbs.).
My fishing highlights included two "slams"... Wed and Sat I caught a blue, a bass, and an albie. Sat was the best when I caught an albie, a 33" and 36" bass, and my biggest blue (9 lbs.) all in about 90 minutes... all on the flats.
And being that I caught all those on the same rod, I can definitely tell you that albies put these other fish to shame... yikes... these were my first ones and they are insane. Almost suicidal. I only landed two and one died despite my best efforts to revive it... that's another topic.
I never really had a shot to go for a bonito to complete a grand slam on the famed "Bonito Bar" 'cause of the consistent high winds. But considering I'd never caught an albie before and this was my first time sight fishing the clear water flats for bass, I'm pretty proud of a couple slams.
I was really thrilled about the flats fishing for bass. I really only had maybe 5 good days for it and got at least one each day. I ended up with 7 bass from 29-36". It doesn't sound like alot, but I was getting alot better at boat handling, seeing the fish, and feeding the lure to them. I was getting alot of "looks", but the weather closed in the second week and I wasn't able to continue the learning curve. Conditions weren't the best on the good days, as the tides and winds always were working against each other, but I really love that type of fishing. Seeing the fish over beautiful sand flats, in crystal clear water, seeing the take and the whole fight. Its cool, its intense and I could lose days out on those flats.
And to be completely honest, we've never done well with bass there. I'm not going to put in the time fishing at night to consistently catch bass on Nantucket. This isn't really a fishing trip and I neglected my family enough this trip without adding hours of night fishing to the equation. I was just happy to have a consistent chance to get some bass.
And speaking of family, my family highlights were my dad getting his first albie and listening to him "ooohhh" and "awwww" at the intensity of a bluefish blitz. My daughter battling 3 bluefish and a 32" striper. She's not quite big enough to do it solo, but she had a blast going out with me a few times. She fought the bass for a solid couple of minutes and withstood some blistering runs :) She also got to see some seals close up in the boat.
We also laid my grandfather to rest with my grandma and his parents in the cemetery on the island. We also had a small ceremony in which we spread some of his ashes off of Eel Point, just as we had done with my grandma 3 years ago.
And in general, spending quality time with my family is always a highlight.
We really lost the second week. Sunday was nice, Wed was ok. We never quite got into our rhythym as in past years. Part of that was having company, but we knew that going in. We figured we'd have the second week for just the 3 of us, but sometimes these things happen.
Wednesday, when we woke up to see that the forecast had changed to more rain, I wanted to hit "restart" :smash:
Oh well, as things are going, I'm glad we had the opportunity to get away and have some R&R.
PROJECT REVIEW:
I had a few theories and got a few different things to test, try on my trip with some mixed results. The telescopic aluminum push-pole for $34 was successful. I mainly used it to re-align my drift, but it got me into and out of some real shallow stuff and was very helpful in general. If you want to give this type of fishing a try, but don't want to spend several hundred bucks on a fiberglass pushpole, Bass Pro Shops has a 12' aluminum pole. It is a bit limited 'cause I think you really want a 15' pole, but for $34... its also stores at 6'. I also bought a castnet and did well with it, though I ended up releasing my bait. I never did any live chumming or live-lining of the bigger stuff I caught. My daughter really thought it was cool though. She spent a couple hours with me on the beach and handled pick up of all the bait. The onboard solar charger I'm not sure of. Part of that might have been the lack of sunlight. But its not a solution avoid hauling the battery out of the boat. It probably needs a full day to charge a battery. The sand eel color ledgerunner bait that Got Stripers and I concocted worked great, but I didn't get enough of them. Lots of blues on those flats and they destroy 'em quick. The 6" jerkbait looked very natural in the clear, shallow water and turned alot of fishy heads. I had wanted to fish some other areas with the boat (Great Point, Nantucket Harbor, Bonito Bar), but I stayed close to home. Fishing was good enough to not worry about going elsewhere.
So how's things here?
I took the boat out locally Friday and Sunday. I found tons of bluefish in Quincy Bay on Fri. Had to search thru the fog and mist to find some bass. Found some small bass in a little cove crashing bait. I found lots and lots of bait both days. (Man was there alot of bait over in Nantucket... huge balls and shoals of p. bunker and sand eels... it was amazing). Finally found a school of nice bass, but after one fish they went down. Sunday was sketchy. Found some blues by Thompson I. but a dozen boats on too few fish. I ended up finding fish in skinny water and "sight fishing" for bass at low tide. I didn't have my good sunglasses, or my push pole, but was able to do manage some good drifts and catch 6 bass w/ 3 keepers. If I'd been prepared for this, I'd have done much better. I saw lots of bass, mostly keeper size, but nothing big. I never would have tried it before. You're always learning out there.
Anyways, plenty of bait... but despite the fish I found in shallow water, it doesn't seem like a whole lot of bass in the Harbor. Have they been around?