😭
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OUCH!
that sucks George

:err:
no to both of those Bob

call me, I'll go fish the beach with ya
it's time

fishing been pretty good locally and on the cape trips. theres been a nice mix of sizes and a ton of fish in the 22-25 pound range. in my areas it was a bit of a late start for bass with the bite a week-10 days behind schedule. water temps are still nice and cool so i'm hoping the bite holds up. we got a couple of fluke this morning while doing some local exploring

the finder says it all
 

Hit the bay yesterday and once again pogies every place and bigggg schools absent were bass and bluefish

Things have picked up greatly around PI ( mass)...some big fish have been weighed in to Surfland from boat and beach... pogies have showed along the beachfront and a few have made the river...I had a good week last week for all sizes of fish...small to large when I wasn't outrunning T storms... or gusty winds... all tides seem to be producing with the outgoing still getting the nod from river and beach...as I said earlier in this thread...I think the full moon will be special..water temps are not fluctuating as much from high to low tide ( low 60's to mid to high 60's) and I feel the stability has helped the bite considerably..now if the anchored chunk fisherman at night will just leave their lights on.. fishing would be downright pleasant.

Not bass but had a nice morning drifting for fluke off of the RI beaches yesterday. Can't believe my first trip on the boat this year was on July 4th... Had my 4 fish limit of fish up to around 24" by around 9am. Checked a few seabass spots but only found one keeper and a few shorts on them along with a bunch of searobins. Finished off the trip digging up a bunch of clams and was back in by around 11 to pick up the family and head to the sandbar.

Edit - almost forgot I did catch a bass around 14" on an spro jig on the way out. Lots of small fish busting in the pond at first light.

Had the opposite. Fished near Newport. Easy limit of BSB, no monsters but some nice knotheads. No wind for a drift and only a bunch of short fluke. Hard to fish the structure edges with no wind!

Those dink bass are ubiquitous right now down there....

Had some decent summer togging on Sunday for opening weekend of the CT summer season. Fished a variety of drops in the kayaks, from 7-18 FOW. Plenty of fish still concentrated shallow. Surface temps were 68-71 degrees. Nothing big but a bunch of keepers for the group. Also had a surprise 36" bass on half a green crab.

Just spent July 2nd to 4th at sea almost nonstop fishing around Plum Gut, Gardiners Island, Shelter Island, Orient point, and Greenport. Fishing was slow and I'm being generous with that term. Plenty of bait around but the predators just were not interested. Though I caught a 12" baby striper at the dock at night that was one of the many terrorizing a huge school of spearing. Sea bass have been small and the scup even have been lazy.

At least the days were beautiful....

Merrimack River 7/1 - 7/6....the only night I did not fish was the 4th.Best fish of the week( last night) 27lbs... a lot of 26 -27" fish ( new arrivals covered with lice showed up this week... there are more 10lb class fish around the last few nights than there were earlier... the wind finally subsided so I could effectively fish some new water on the rising tide.. water temp at high tide 64....I still haven't stuck a jumbo but there are a few around... I'm betting on them being outside with the pogie schools... next week will tell the tale.

Lots of Pogy schools in EG Bay, Narr Bay and up the River. No fish on the except a few shorts. Water 72 degrees.

Beavertail last night at high tide & not even a nibble .
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Launched the yak at Gooseberry Point and made the paddle to Hens & Chicken's, which had some large swells busting on it. I had to pick my spots obviously, but caught a bunch of tog, a couple nice keeper sea bass, maybe 15 schoolies to maybe 24" (nothing big) and lost a keeper fluke or I'd have a trifecta of good eaters. If the limit on tog was more than three, I'd have stayed longer, but heading to the ramp late morning. I know if I'd been in my old center console, I'd have been out front throwing into that large wash; not in a 14 foot yak. Still that Hobie PA14 is amazingly stable and rides the large rollers and chop well. A handful of boats working the perimeter, but they weren't chancing coming in where I was working. The hard decision now is do I vacuum seal tog and eat sea bass, or the other way around.

Other way around Bob

How about we make that trip in the boat soon?
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you wont have to twist my arm much on that invite. I love finessing tog on small plastic and many might not realize how fing aggressive they are when you put current and white water into the mix. I can catch them without that, but it takes a bit more patience, but they see those conditions as an opportunity to get some easy meals just like stripers do.

When I got tired of casting, I actually caught several more by just drifting in 8-10 ft of water and dropping the jig straight down and just twitching right under the boat as i drifted. The key always with this is never to set the hook, you need to wait until they pull the rod tip down, because sometimes they just don't have it in their mouths all the way.

Finally got out for a father son trip with my pops on sunday morning. Havent fished with him in a long time. Had him on a real nice fish second drift. Not sure he was ready for that and it broke him off in the rocks. Next drift he bagged a niceteen size fish. His first one in more than 5 years! He was pretty pumped. He went home with some nice fillets. Solid bite going on. Wish i could just get out more.

Me too Jay. I have only fished once in 3 weeks (on the 7th). Just to much family stuff/work on the property to fish. I'm lucky to get out and golf once a week.

On vacation last week. Launched at 4:00 am with my oldest daughter, jigged up some Macs and ran to the Race thinking we were going to kill it but there was nothing bigger than 30". My daughter, who hasn't caught anything under 40" all spring and is now spoiled was pissed. Fishing slowed up at the end of the tide so we ran back to pick up the wife, youngest daughter and wife's brother who was in from CO. He had never been in the ocean before so we decided to take him for a rip down the coast. Halfway to the canal, we came across this school of pogies getting hammered by 30-40lb bass. I'd snag a pogy and as soon as i made it stand out in the school, it was inhaled - less than a minute. Each fish to the boat had several fish trailing it. One even stole the pogy off the hooked fishes head right at the boat. We had this for 2 hours straight before we had to go in. With the amazing spring in upper Buzzards Bay and the amount of pogies and macs in CCB, it's shaping up to be a great year. Hopefully the temps stay down and the bait hangs around.

Here are my 7 and 9 year olds new PBs. Chit, my oldest now has me beat...

How sweet is that! :-)

Thanks, great post
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Great stuff right there. I will be down there with my boat next week hopefully they stick around. love the big smiles in the pictures you are making memories that will last forever. Fishing with my father growing up was all about the Deerfield river and small brooks all across western mass. He never fished salt water until I bought my boat. Now he has my personal best beat by 5 pounds. But the real take away is how important time together with family is.
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NJ Surf indundated with shovelnose rays
 

Brother Don still in the NJ surf. He informs me that now, and progressively over the past few summer seasons, the rays are so numerous that it is virtually impossible to bottom fish without getting tangled up with one of these.

? Possible with the depletion of the inshore shark populations, that these rays have no just become out of control.

hey guys - haven't been on in a while, but I like this thread!

Been having a pretty damn good season compared to the last say 3-4 years. Consistently catching a lot of fish every trip, but not a lot of size. Had a great trip on the June full moon with a 30 pound-class fish and multiple teen-20lb size, then its been mainly 26-28 inch fish, but a lot of them and full of sea lice the last couple of weeks. Got into some macks this weekend and got one fish about 35 inches, and the rest were all the 26-28 inch range. I'm having a ton of fun catching these days though since I really only get out once a week, my trips have to count and its been good for me anyways. This is all from a kayak on the dawn shift, I've really settled in that schedule and I love it.

yeah my areas thick with 26-30 inch fish - we've been using the albie rods but get surprised by 20 pounders once in awhile

Quality of the fish has improved this past week in the Merrimac river..still not alot of trophy size fish but enough teen and 20 lb. Fish to make it fun. ..Fished the Saco river(from shore) in Maine last week end and the the bite for 22 to 26" fish was steady and some times hot...I took several low teens sized fish and lost one MUCH larger to a mooring ..I saw pogies in the river at day break Sunday and was able to snag a few...guess what the big fish took.
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I'm fishing on memories only down here.

Got my best fish in the boat this AM. Scale bounced between 43 and 45#. She's still swimming. No picture as I was:
1. Alone

2. 4 foot swell

3. Up against some real nasty rocks.

PB on my boat.

Nice Paul. Congrats. I got schoolies last night.
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Thanks Paul.
2 of my nephews were at the Block Tuesday night and Chris hooked a fish he fought for over an hour and lost when the 50# leader snapped. I'm thinking it was a small Yellow Fin or maybe a School Bluefin. Don't think it was a shark as he would have lost it a lot sooner.

Nice. At least he got to enjoy the tug
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