looking for the crumbs. Happens all the time, in the surf from the boat in Cape Cod Bay, along the Elizabeths and Monomoy, everywhere. The fish floolwing think the bass you hooked is chasing something or feeding and they want in on the act. They don't get it till the fish you have on is at the boat ususally. Last year at Naushon I had fisve fish in a row that went 30 lbs or better on five drifts in one little rocky point. Each time, I don't know if they were the same fish but it looked like it, I had two fish come up to the boat with the hooked ones and they were much bigger then turn tail and streak back to the rocks and boulders inshore. 30lb'ers are nothing to sneeze at but I wanted the bigger ones and they just would not take the Howdy. Curious and opportunistic. At Monomoy several years ago we had a run of nice fish while drifting in 25 feet of water just off of the lighthouse over some muscle beds. It was great fishing. They would turn on around one in the afternoon and hit for a couple hours then shut off. four days in a row same thing, week after Labor day. My buddt Eric nails one that eventually weighed 38 lbs and as he had the fish within 20 feet of the boat we noticed the eel had ridden up the line about six feet above the 38 pounder. Then we noticed a huge fish following the hooked one who, all at once, darted up and took the eel and ripped it right off of the line while Eric's 38 pounder was swimming toward the boat on the surface. Easily that fish was in the 50 lb+ class. Repeated drifts only resulted in a couple more 25 and 30 pound fish. Opprtunists, like seagulls that steal a fresh meal from another after the other does all the work.
