I took the day off Friday and headed for the NWC for charlie. I saw a couple of maybe breaks, tons of whales and other boats. I did not see anyone hookup. I trolled for a few hours, then called it. On my way back I was only a few miles from Graves light, and I see some splashing in the distance, so over there I go. As I get close I see it is fish (lots of fish) breaking and moving fast. I have lines ready and a camera too. I approach slowly so not to spook them and then I notice its not tuna. Its a huge school of dolphin. I grabbed the camera and started snapping. I never saw dolphin in the wild except while in Florida. As I approached them at the same speed ~10-12 mph, they came right over to the boat and where swimming all around me. jumping and swimming along the sides and the bow. It was soooo cool. I'm kinda glad I was alone, because I was yelling like a school girl. It was one of the most awesome things I've ever seen, plus its so close I could see them looking at me (and smiling) and there is not a boat around anywhere. I stayed with the school for a couple of miles. Pictures fron my little digital camera did not do justice to what I saw. I took a bunch of 30 seconds videos with it too and if I can get them pasted together and readable I'll post that too (link to it). Notice in the first picture Boston skyline in the background, thats how close they were to the harbor. After a while I just throttled down and watched them go, they were heading straight SE and would probably be at the cape within a couple of hours.
I've heard they are on the bank sometimes, but in all these years I've never seen any. But now I had a personal experience. Good thing I had my camera on board this day.

WOW! Thats awesome Van! Nice pics!:kewl:

We went out sharkin and saw a huge pod of dolphin at the SWC on the way out. Must have been the same mammals.

Great pictures Van.

Last year I was out with a friend tuna fishing and on the way in we ran into dolphin also. They were riding the pressure wake of our bow. I held the camera over the side and took several pics. They were also jumping in our wake. The must have stayed with us for a couple of miles or so. It was awesome.:kewl::kewl:

another great example of great things in life ARE free ;;


glad you were there to see it ><><<><

We see them all the time.If you put the boat up on a slow plowing plane.making the biggest wake you can,,about 10 -12 knots they will follow the boat and play in the wake. surfin, jumpin. they will follow you for quite a while

We saw them coming back in to Scituate too. Got some videos, not sure they're up yet.

Post later when it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLH8wqMsXBI

Awesome

We saw them today out of the Merrimac. Smaller ones.. they were the small harbor porposes you see in the spring chasing the herring. had them playing in our wake for a while. We also had a stowaway for the afternoon.
No tuna for all weekend but plenty of sharks..



http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/thefishingfreak/0825081249a.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/thefishingfreak/0825081248b.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/thefishingfreak/0825081247c.jpg

lol...that looks like BuckmanJr's little feathered friend...he flew all the way up to the Merrimac from Stellwagen? :-)

Mike, those pics are a riot.


Anyway, I took all those 15 second clips, downloaded some video conversion freeware and put them all together, then I put them on photobucket. So here is the link, I hope it works.

http://s362.photobucket.com/albums/oo69/vansdaman/?action=view&current=Dolpins.flv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLH8wqMsXBI



Awesome footage !

We saw them today out of the Merrimac. Smaller ones.. they were the small harbor porposes you see in the spring chasing the herring. had them playing in our wake for a while. We also had a stowaway for the afternoon.
No tuna for all weekend but plenty of sharks..



http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/thefishingfreak/0825081249a.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/thefishingfreak/0825081248b.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y250/thefishingfreak/0825081247c.jpg

Im surprised you didn't hook up with that bird on your boat! We had the exact same looking bird east of chatham, cool little things.