Black Sea Bass Movements
 

Ok my board name isn't got sea bass, but I've come to love eating them when I get them occassionally while deep jigging, but frankly I have no clue about their season movements and preferred habitat. Not looking for specific spots, but I'd love some feedback to better help me target them successfully, I'd love to have my freezer stocked full of vacuumed sealed black gold. Seems to me that I really don't start hitting them regularly in my usual haunts off Gay Head or Cutty until late summer, which I assume is tied to their seasonaly movements.

They were in thick this year off of Marion and up near the sandspit at 25-40 ft.Now they have gone deeper and in moving water,try the holes in the islands and also between Nomans and the Vineyard.They love jigfish even without squid.

Lots of shorts, the big'uns are deep!

how to folks cook/clean.prepare

Just gut 'em scale 'em stuff with herbs some lemon score the flesh a few times rub with salt pepper olive oil and cook on an oiled grill.

My favorite fish to eat.

-spence

If I go out next week, I could bring some by the house on Monday.

That would earn you some good points redeemable at any one of our fabulous locations :hihi:

Also, I'm going to be on vacation the first week of August if you need someone to bump the bilge.

-spence

Ive been getting them on humps throughout buzz bay and I hear Cleveland's Ledge has been producing some quality size seabass. Cleveland's is a well known in the spring but for some reason fish have hung around there this year. I've also drifted west of Clevelands light in deeper water and got some quality fish. If you start banging scup dont move cause they're mixed,, they hold in deeper water as it warms up.

Goose I was over there a couple weeks back and marking so many fish it was unreal, but tap-tap-tap told me scup; the occassional snag confirmed. I jigged that area for over an hour figuring just that, because when I hit scup in 50-75 feet off the vineyard, I usually start to hit some blackies.

Do people fish blind for these fish, targetting humps and holes, or will they suspend off the bottom in numbers where you can search for them before drifting and dropping jigs? When I hit them, it seems like I'll mark good numbers of what I assume are scup on bottom, or small groups of what I assume are the blackies as the returns on the depth finder are completely different then the masses of scup I'll mark.

I typically use jigs, although I do remember one very successful trip off the deep side of Lucas, were I used a freshwater tactic as I had no bait or bluefish for fluke rigs. Went with a carolina rig approach with small 3-4" plastic rigged weightless of the end of large egg singers and the blackies loved it.

I'm hoping I hit a nice pod soon, I've only had one to eat thus far and I'd trade all the fluke I've eatten for that one fish.....yum.

Yes, really interested in advice targeting them ! The wife and I got quite a few last week while scupping , but of course the seaon was still closed.

They come into the shallows in spring to spawn and then go a little deeper to almost any rock pile or wreck you can find at the right depth. Most often they are mixed with scup. Late fall they start to migrate to deeper water and they spend the winter out in 50 fathoms.

Spence's recipe is spot on and they are delicious.

Bigger ones say 3.5lbs and up, I fillet. Smaller ones I gut and scale. then I do milk then flour then egg then seasoned Italian breadcrumbs and Parmesan in a about 1/4" of extra virgin olive oil. Just don't let the oil get too hot or you burn the outside and the middle will be raw.

As with most fish any time you can fry it results are terrific, sea bass "nuggets" are a hit around my house. That said they also end up very good with asian seasoning, soy sauce, ginger, scallions etc.

I caught one on a 13" eel last year while 3 waying for stripers in the Harbor

I'll see how exhausted I am when I get home friday night, my flight arrives at BOS at 2257.
Wednesday may be a sick day.

Bob, I'm looking for rocky bottom. When I'm on a hump, just by releasing line and looking at the bottom for rocky drop-offs, I can catch more,,taug same thing. Based on a recent report I think its worth going to MV

we got a few really nice Jo,s in the bay yesterday ;;

last week we had good numbers @ Newport .,.,

Im out today for sea bass!!


Lost a bass last night on my yak that owned my ass for a minute . Prior to it running the line on the rod holder .... snap!

Hard to keep track of, as the movements easily dissolve in sea water.

A great Sea Bass article in The Fisherman mag a couple weeks back. Believe it was authored by Jeff Capute who I read about often re this specific fish.

Bob we get them on ledges and rocky areas. Small diamond shaped jigs are killer, we jig them almost like cod fishing. Tipping with squid helps. A few years back I caught a big one drifting eels on Scortons Ledge pre dawn. After light with no striper bite going on we went back and killed them jigging. They seem to like a more rocky bottom than scup or fluke.

They have arrived, put 20 in the box yesterday and my buddy didn't take all 10 filets home with him, so I'm good for the short term. Boy nothing beats a panko incrusted black sea bass, man o man is that good. Pretty much on schedule based on memory, seems about mid summer I start hitting them jigging deep off the Vineyard, my problems was dropping my jig fast enough to get thru the damn bluefish. Was quite the show yesterday, everywhere you looked baitfish flying out of the water trying to avoid the blues, fun to watch while drifting and jigging. Between the tide the strong winds, even the drift sock didn't slow you down much yesterday, had to adjust tactics to hit bottom. Oddly the adjustments actually triggered strikes, so it worked out well. Love my Trevali jigging rod for this type of fishing, I know they were designed for speed jigging tuna, but boy to the lesson the fatigue when snapping jigs in 75 feet of water.

Moses can you email a copy of that article, don't subscribe but I'd like to see it.