How Was Your 2013 Season?

[BigFish]

Well.....mine was very good mixed in with a little strange! My surf season started off with a bang hanging a new PB of 33.5 pounds on Memorial Day weekend! The season from the surf was steady until Fall......and the Fall was terrible! My kayak season started off with a bang as well with a fish filled day out of Onset with Tagger and Fishchick! I caught more fish from the yak this season than any previous season and my local spot was productive for me quite often! I even chased a deer across Duxbury Bay in my kayak which I am going to guess not too many can boast of such a thing! That was cool! Fall again was horrible!

[WESTPORTMAFIA]

Congrats on the pb. Started off with a 45 pound river fish not westport in the boat which is highly unusual for that river. Usually 10-25 pound fish on the live pogies. Did pretty well but lost steam and didn't fish enough in the fall. But I got a lot of work done. Looking forward to hitting the ice.
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[WESTPORTMAFIA]

And didn't get into any bluefish blitzing from the surf which can be fun. Didn't see many bluefish at all this year.
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[Jackbass]

Originally Posted by WESTPORTMAFIA

And didn't get into any bluefish blitzing from the surf which can be fun. Didn't see many bluefish at all this year.
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X2 usually that's my lazy fishing mid summer. Just show up and they're there. Made me work harder bass fishing but that netted me some better fish. Over all 2013 was a bust for me. Lots of time put in for not great fishing.
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[seadogg]

All in all not bad, but not incredible. Got into lots of fish as early as April and hit the ditch for several great morning tides in May and June. Buzzards Bay was hot until July, with schools of 20-pound bass invading Quick's, Robinson's and the Pigs before dawn, but like many recent years the water became a bit too warm by August and the fish became fewer and fewer. Some of my best mid- summer nights were in the wetsuit slinging eels. Sadly, the false albies had my number this year, and I didn't land a one. I've never been skunked by the little torpedoes before, so I was humbled to say the least. There were no lack of fish but they had some serious lockjaw going on. I've been taking offseason trips to the Everglades for tarpon, reds and snook and those have been incredible. It's crazy, but I'm really getting hooked on it.
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[bart]

didn't fish eels this year and don't plan on fishing them again. that being said, my poundage went way down and numbers went way up. lots of skunks at the ditch in May/early June with an occasional 20 lb fish mixed in. got sick of the madness down there and fished RI for most of the rest of the season, although the few trips i made to the ditch in Aug/ early Sept were real good for fish in the 15-25 lb range. Stuck it out in RI for the rest of the season and it sucked for the most part. Had a flurry of good fish early am on columbus day, but that was it. No blitz fishing and only ONE (big) blue.

As far as catching is concerned, it was probably my worst season in the last 6-7 years. But it was also very enjoyable in that I met some good people who i fished with a lot, and also solidified some friendships with people I have looked up to in the fishing world growing up as a kid. That was probably the coolest part....

[tysdad115]

My 2013 season started real simple -wrong place, wrong time,way too many uncooperative super heroes and lack of any top water bite early in year meant for some frustrating outings for Ty. Torn leg muscles made me miss the month of July. August was good though, at canal anyways. Taught Ty how to jig down there and he did extremely well, then switched to eels. Total number of fish caught was way down though but had some good nights. I did get to fish alot more with some real good guys on SB.
As far as surf goes , very concerning. Usual areas that have done well were dead all year, nothing worked ? Or no fish around? "Right time,tide and wind" produced skunks when normally fish were there.

[Swimmer]

Awesome
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[parker23]

Last week of April through mid-May was fantastic fishing skinny water.
May-Mid-June very good.
July and August were the strangest months in 30 years. Usual spots that have produced in years were dead. I had to drive 50 miles to an old haunt to get quality fish w/consistency.
Sept, Oct and early November were either skunk or excellent.
Bluefish were scarce; I had 1 cigar but eel all season. I have many dead eels in freezer awaiting rigging.
Back injury on Nov 11th resulted in me using crutches to walk.

Losing weight and exercising so I won't be sweating crisco next season.

[DZ]

Not the greatest – downward trend continues in my local areas. Very few of what I call “highlight” nights where good bass were on the feed. One encouraging sign was the massive amount smaller bass locally during October when we had the bay anchovies and these fish didn’t want to leave.

Nebulas bluefish.

Another encouraging sign was the increased amount of sandeels along the entire range (Newport to Long Island). I’m not seeing a lack of bait like others have – tons of it out at Block in November -plenty to eat just nothing inshore to eat it.

[Justfishin']

No skunks but no numbers or real size; but I only fished less than 1/10th of the time I usually put in.
It may not count, but I had a real good fly fishing season for trout, hit a 6lb smallie on a dry , took my brother to the Salmon debacle up north for the first time where he caught the biggest fish of his life, caught a decent steelie on the same trip drifting a bead.

But I missed surfcasting pretty much the whole time.

[JohnnySaxatilis]

It was ok... The Cape was strange this year surfcasting; b harbor was totally dead, ended up having to really track em down in the spring. The moon tides in june at the ditch which are usually the best sucked, and I missed memorial day weekend working so my spring wasnt that good. Plus there was no may bluefish bonanza on the south side, they were sometimes mixed in but had a fraction of last years number. The early and late fall was good, had some fun days jiggin and pluggin, Wish I did more fishing at night with eels though... Thats next years goal

[fishbones]

Overall, I had a decent year. Lots of good size bass but nothing really big. Like others, not many blues for me at all. I fished with a lot of good guys and learned a lot from them. Westportmafia convinced me to try conventional gear again and I'm glad I did. I didn't fish as much as I have in other years because I wasn't as motivated, but I still fished a lot. I definitely enjoyed it more this year and had a lot of laughs with some of the guys I fished with. Hopefully more of the same next year and in the meantime, I'm looking forward to ice fishing.
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[eskimo]

I had a really good season but then again I fished a whole lot.
Spring has been the new fall for me and July has been awesome the last couple of years.

September has been rotten.

[bart]

Originally Posted by DZ

Not the greatest – downward trend continues in my local areas. Very few of what I call “highlight” nights where good bass were on the feed. One encouraging sign was the massive amount smaller bass locally during October when we had the bay anchovies and these fish didn’t want to leave.

Nebulas bluefish.

Another encouraging sign was the increased amount of sandeels along the entire range (Newport to Long Island). I’m not seeing a lack of bait like others have – tons of it out at Block in November -plenty to eat just nothing inshore to eat it.

this was basically my observation as well. I remember you posted back in July there were pogies in the boulder fields. I was fishing "across the way" from you and saw pogies dropping out of the bay, but the biggest i could muster or even saw caught was 15 lbs at most. I watched guys yo-yoing and live-lining pogies in a hole not even 25 yards from where we were throwing plugs at sun-up and they got squat (karma's a biatch, let the surf guys have a shot!). I don't think there were fish big enough to eat a whole pogie.

most encouraging thing I saw was TONS of smalls where I was so i guess that's good....right!??!

[BigBo]

The 2013 season started off great for me. The fall sucked. Overall I can say it was one of the worst I can recall in recent memory.
On the plus side, I had a great year hitting fresh water.

[RickBomba]

I got to share an epic father's day with #^&#^&#^&#^&y in the boat. We got tired of catching big fish on top.

I also got to use the boat and take some old friends out for some easy fishing, which was nice.

Finally, I got to take my two year old fishing and watch him chase the ducks.

Best year ever for me.

[Rappin Mikey]

With the baby, my opportunities were limited. When the fish are in Western MA in the Spring, the majority of the two months were blown out with high water. I did manage a few nice bass when the water was cooperating. The highlight of the year was the last week in June/first week in July when we stay at the outer Cape as a family. Stripers everywhere every day. Most of the time I had to use the kayak. But I had a few days when they were in close. One day was one of my top three days from the surf. Big fish crashing the beach. Blitzes that you read about. Truly a time to remember.

[JLH]

This was a tough season to gauge.

Overall it was well below average in terms of consistency but it was very close to my best season in terms of numbers of quality fish. A couple of weeks in the summer and again in the fall were very good, there were a few other pretty good weeks mixed in here and there and then the rest of the season as a grind. Had to work pretty hard for what we found in terms of fish with a lot of very slow or completely fishless nights.

[Clogston29]

3 year old and new born really took a toll. Had a few good nights. Hope to get more into a groove next year.
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[bassballer]

Real good bass season. Fish into the high 40 range. Some good numbers of 20-30's. Fluke wasn't so hot, big learning year though. Seabass was consistent as well as tog. Not one Albie, but the bonito made up for it. Hoping to build off last year and keep having fun. Good year sticking fish with good friends.
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[fcap60]

I hardly fished eels at all and as a result I had mostly smaller fish.
I saw very little bait in the areas I fish including a pond outlet which is usually loaded with bait in the fall.

Enjoyed more boat fishing than I have in the past and had some nice fluke and sea bass plus I'm starting to like "boating hours".

[l.i.fish.in.vt]

started the season with 5 of the best weeks of fishing i have ever had,followed by 5 weeks of the worse fishing i have encounted.then finished with 2 weeks of great fishing.didn't catch one bass in daylight from the beach. only fished off the kayak 4 times rather than the normal 40 to 50 days.caught one 2 lbbluefish all season,in seasons past,probably catch 500 to a 1,000 blues season long.a very odd season for sure.