Where are the fishing reports/talk???

[nightfighter]

Come on.... Contribute here first if you must play in the Political Sandbox...

I found macs. Had some above slot fish on Sunday. Got outfished in the same area by a boat buddy fishing pogies. We trolled an area around 100' that had been significantly more active a week earlier.
Stayed off the water Monday. Waiting for the weekend, even though I am dying to go tomorrow... Too much work to get done.

[Raider Ronnie]

No fish in Boston harbor so don’t waste your time heading there.

[Clammer]

IMO this has been the best year for all sizes that I can remember

no idea what the water temp was today .waaaaaaaaaay up in the Providence river , but in the middle of the afternoon in the wrong tide
my machine was loaded with slots an above .
Just a sample > ri commercial bass fall lseason opened today ........................... ready closes tomorrow until June 2023

go to the dealer an the heads on the bass are larger than the whole bass that I would catch ><>

there your report

[Guppy]

Report: lower unit ships today, I hope….

[Rmarsh]

Our first outing on the boat this season.... Black sea bass were hitting our jigs tipped with gulp....wife was outfishing me and snidely remarked "I see what your doing wrong" just to rub it in.

[Rockfish9]

It's been "stupid fishing" since may, day night, doesnt matter, river, beach, 3 miles out doesnt matter..the only thing that does matter is what size you want to target.. this year is the first time since the late 90s I leave fish to find fish, I've boated, measured and released 2 fish over 50" , one at 51, the other at 53, quick measurement boat side(outside of boat is marked to 60")and released..both of those fish on live eels at night..
Bait is everywhere, river has sand eels and herring, pogie schools randomly roam the beach front out to 160 FOW,sand eels, soft shell crabs and baby lobsters are the bass feed in the surf, Mackerel showed up big time last week, tuesday morning took 15 minutes to fill the bait tank and a 5 gallon bucket.and I didnt go far.
Tuesday was wolf packs of small and mid sized slot fish pounding herring drops in the river, small 26" fish Along the beach, I moved several times, but never found the cows before I was out of bait, the ledges at the 3 mile line were a comercial parking lot.. everyone's a hero when the fishing is easy..
Water temp is 58, the river is running 58 to 60 late into the drop and it is all salt water..until the very bottom
..lobsters are crawling pretty good along the sand, averaging a keeper per trap on 3 day soak..
Good times right now, bass are gorged and getting a little fussier, feeding for short periods of time, resting for longer periods..
One note in the circle. Hook, the owner Matu light TOURNOMENT in line circle is superior to any other circle..I've tried them all.. it hooks up 99% of the time, and always right in the jaw, Mack's can be hooked through the nose, pogies because if their width are better bridled, over 300 fish on live bait this year, only 1 gut hooked slot fish..which made a hell of a fisherman's stew.
It's as good as it gets, fish now, it wont last forever..
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[Raider Ronnie]

Where are all the doomsday cry babies ?
There are no fish left.
We are killing all the fish
Global warming
Commercial bass fishing is wiping out the Striper population
🤔
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[fishgolf]

Due to local Piper Plovers, I have not fished since mid-May. Waiting for mid to late August... Kayak still hanging in the garage.

[fishsmith]

Political talk is nothing more than who can hate the hardest, blah,blah,blah. I’m all for fish talk. 2022 striper fishing has been crazy good, most recently 12 slot sized fish on July 4th, the day before I was in RI and got some monster sea bass (was targeting fluke, but no keeper sized caught). all fish from the kayak, hope to be back on the water Friday night or Saturday.
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[wdmso]

Everyone knows where the bass bite is

[piemma]

Happy to hear the good news from guys I know on here, that know how to fish. Mak's report and Clammer's were awesome.

[Got Stripers]

My reports is that I’ve been just having some fun with schoolies off the beach, normally I’d have dragged the kayak down to gooseberry or Saconet a half dozen times or more since the upper BB sea bass bite waned, but the price of gas has me playing more golf, fishing local and working on my other hobby.

[Rockfish9]

Schoolie bluefin crashed the party yesterday..somewhere landed, others are looking for new reels this morning.
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[nightfighter]

I had two instances of tuna busting and a whale, all in the same morning no more than five miles out last weekend. Forget which day. Figures, I sold my 50Ws last year...

[Linesider82]

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

Hook, the owner Matu light TOURNOMENT in line circle is superior to any other circle..I've tried them all.. it hooks up 99% of the time, and always right in the jaw, Mack's can be hooked through the nose, pogies because if their width are better bridled, over 300 fish on live bait this year, only 1 gut hooked slot fish..which made a hell of a fisherman's stew.
It's as good as it gets, fish now, it wont last forever..
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

rf9 what size circle are you using?

[Rockfish9]

Originally Posted by Linesider82

rf9 what size circle are you using?

5/0 for eels, 6/0 for Mack's..the only thing i.dont like is theybare ring eye, you can't smell them, but a palomar knot keeps them in line
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[Got Stripers]

Originally Posted by nightfighter

I had two instances of tuna busting and a whale, all in the same morning no more than five miles out last weekend. Forget which day. Figures, I sold my 50Ws last year...

Whales breaching off our beach and feeding in close, haven’t seen them this close this late.
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[beamie]

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

5/0 for eels, 6/0 for Mack's..the only thing i.dont like is theybare ring eye, you can't smell them, but a palomar knot keeps them in line
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And can you describe YOUR way of ‘setting’ a hook

Not sure if I had ever used this matu hook before but the gamis I use in 6 7 8 0 are some days just ok to others days being 50% in the gullet

Very frustrAting and sometimes i just go back to my reg love bait hook to kill less fish.
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[Raider Ronnie]

Originally Posted by Got Stripers

Whales breaching off our beach and feeding in close, haven’t seen them this close this late.
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We got a few whales hanging in Boston Harbor.
Been running a few charters on the Ave Maria.
Last Monday we had one of the whales right at the boat within 1/2 mile of land.
Charter was treated to fish & a great whale show.

[wdmso]

Ray and I and my friend headed out of Plymouth looking for school Tuna 71 miles later several shots at them no love must not have had the right lure almost every school we were denied a boat near use hooked up.

We were throwing hogy pro tails based on intel from the day prior

Frustrating
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[Rockfish9]

Originally Posted by beamie

And can you describe YOUR way of ‘setting’ a hook

Not sure if I had ever used this matu hook before but the gamis I use in 6 7 8 0 are some days just ok to others days being 50% in the gullet

Very frustrAting and sometimes i just go back to my reg love bait hook to kill less fish.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

No set, just reel down on them, they MUST be the tournoment style. It makes a big differance we caught over 100 bass today , no.monsters. biggest was about 25 lbs, we started with 30 live Mack's under balloons while maintaining a chunk slick, I think we missed. A about a dozen fish ball day, ran out of livies bye 8:10 switched to strip baits and straight jigging of crlippled herring... not 1 gut hooked fish, the 5 gallon pail of whole Mack's were gone a little after 1..as long as you kept the chunk.line going the fish stayed under the boat and we were doubled up..
Finished the day running my lobster pots with 8 keeper lobsters.. great day I shared with a ice fishing buddy from the mountains of new hampshire that only fished fresh water.. hes talking about buying a boat..and getting a slip.. another life ruined...st least hes single.

FWIW, I haven't run a chunk line since I quit selling bass. In 2004. I guess itvstillb it still works for big numbers.
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[Guppy]

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

No set, just reel down on them, they MUST be the tournoment style. It makes a big differance we caught over 100 bass today , no.monsters. biggest was about 25 lbs, we started with 30 live Mack's under balloons while maintaining a chunk slick, I think we missed. A about a dozen fish ball day, ran out of livies bye 8:10 switched to strip baits and straight jigging of crlippled herring... not 1 gut hooked fish, the 5 gallon pail of whole Mack's were gone a little after 1..as long as you kept the chunk.line going the fish stayed under the boat and we were doubled up..
Finished the day running my lobster pots with 8 keeper lobsters.. great day I shared with a ice fishing buddy from the mountains of new hampshire that only fished fresh water.. hes talking about buying a boat..and getting a slip.. another life ruined...st least hes single.

FWIW, I haven't run a chunk line since I quit selling bass. In 2004. I guess itvstillb it still works for big numbers.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Very funny….LOL

[hq2]

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

No set, just reel down on them, they MUST be the tournoment style. It makes a big differance we caught over 100 bass today , no.monsters. biggest was about 25 lbs, we started with 30 live Mack's under balloons while maintaining a chunk slick, I think we missed. A about a dozen fish ball day, ran out of livies bye 8:10 switched to strip baits and straight jigging of crlippled herring... not 1 gut hooked fish, the 5 gallon pail of whole Mack's were gone a little after 1..as long as you kept the chunk.line going the fish stayed under the boat and we were doubled up..
Finished the day running my lobster pots with 8 keeper lobsters.. great day I shared with a ice fishing buddy from the mountains of new hampshire that only fished fresh water.. hes talking about buying a boat..and getting a slip.. another life ruined...st least hes single.

FWIW, I haven't run a chunk line since I quit selling bass. In 2004. I guess itvstillb it still works for big numbers.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

I dunno, 100 fish is a lot. I know the mortality rate for circle hooks is low, but the odds are at least some of the released fish may have died. With things going like they have been over the past few years, all of us need to think about things when we do C&R.
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[Linesider82]

Originally Posted by hq2

I dunno, 100 fish is a lot. I know the mortality rate for circle hooks is low, but the odds are at least some of the released fish may have died. With things going like they have been over the past few years, all of us need to think about things when we do C&R.
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100% agree, which I why I asked RF9 what hook he was using and size. I have personally found that sizes in the 5/0&6/0 work well but not all manufacturers. One thing I have noticed is the hook size really does matter. Increased size seems to (in my experience, gut hook more fish) until a certain upper size and then it works again when the gap is around or close to 1" which occurs on a 10/0 circle but not all manufacturers, this hook tends to find a purchase under the jaw bone of larger bass.

I have also been using circles to teach my kids how to fish in general, right? All they have to do is reel, brilliant.

What I have found is that the hook size and effectiveness matters a lot between species. E.g. what does a fish of a certain species do when striking a live or dead bait, and what happens in those moments before coming tight that effects how/where the hook finds purchase and if it sets up in their gullet or not.

Aside from Striped Bass I fish for both largemouth and smallmouth bass and have learned a lot over the past 5 years fishing mustad's thin wire demon circles for these two species. What I have learned drove my question to RF9.

When I first began this experiment it was for my first born to learn fishing. Live bait gets undeniable attention so that was a check box, and the idea that the full experience of casting to hooking and fighting a fish could happen by simply reeling in line a circle hook was the answer.

I looked at a lot of hooks, but landed on one manufacturer for this fresh water species. Mustad's inline demon circle. I bought a package of size 1 and 4 to start. And started with the size 1. Immediately, I noticed the hookup ratio was great however it came as a shock to see so many gut hooked fish. So I changed to size 4 and the hookup ratio remained the same but the gut hooked fish deminished to 1 out of 20 with a very young angler's reaction time. And separately myself with 1 out of 40 being gut hooked, probably lower if I was at the rod to immediately attend/react. For LMB a size 4 in line circle has been the ticket. We hook shiners up thru the lower jaw and out a nostril. We have named our fish, and have experienced annual visiting fish that we've caught multiple times including those gut hooked which I have simply cut the line close to the hook and let go rather than trying to do a damaging extraction.

As for the smallmouth bass, our starting point was the same size 4 hook and we realized very quickly that it never purchased well with these fish. I moved up to the size 1 hook and have seen the same results (of very low gut hooked fish). I attribute this to the fact that a smallmouth bass is way more aggressive, and a slightly different mouth geometry. The size 1 hook tends not to find their gullet but the corner of their mouths or the lip.

In both instances above this has been from shore, a dock, or a boat.

In regards to Striped Bass, I think the size 5/0 and 6/0 are probably the best bet for a boat bass of any size. When you want to catch a bass on live or dead bait from shore with a low angle it should be something in the 10/0 range with a point to shank gap of an inch or greater especially for a chunked bait.

Hq2, to your point on reviving fish, last night I caught 7 surf bass and they all fought weird. Came directly to the surface, and did not fight until the surf break. I felt like they were sleeping but ate my offering anyways, until they were like oh shnikes I'm going into shore. Each one took varying degrees of revival time.

This is a great thread.
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[Rockfish9]

I gaurentee none of those fish perished .. not everyone fishing is a bass murdering googan beating the fish blody on a deck or in the sand... believe it or not.. some people actually know how to handle fish.
It's sad that every single thread turns into this..Ive said my piece.. now I'll go in peace..
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[nightfighter]

I had a day like no other in a long time. Lost count of fish caught. Was snagging pogies then transferring them to a single hook. Lots of fish around multiple schools of pogies. Never went beyond second can out of the harbor... Saw a ton of boats just north of Eagle Island. So many I had to look with my binocs to be sure that was where they were... I assume doing the same snagging and catching. I was on good fish so had no need to go see what the deal was. Reports of tuna in close here and off Swampscott and Nahant. This has been a superb year! And I am so glad we have a slot so that so many big fish are being released.

[Guppy]

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

I gaurentee none of those fish perished .. not everyone fishing is a bass murdering googan beating the fish blody on a deck or in the sand... believe it or not.. some people actually know how to handle fish.
It's sad that every single thread turns into this..Ive said my piece.. now I'll go in peace..
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

Joe, it’s a bitch…. Tight lines

[Jimbo]

For a good month I was doing well on schoolies in the River Bass, but around a week ago they seemed to have left the area for Sound waters.
Tried my new flyrod over ta Bass Hole once, but not having fly fished in 30 years, plus a big wind, well, I'm sure I entertained some folks. Time to hits southside beaches with the big rod.
Speaking of reports, I wrote a letter to the new editor of the CC Times asking why they now have a weekly report, but it mostly covers RI and some CT with a mention of the Canal, but nothing further down the Cape. He said he'd check into it, we'll see. Mostly I rely on OTW's weekly report.

[piemma]

Originally Posted by Rockfish9

I gaurentee none of those fish perished .. not everyone fishing is a bass murdering googan beating the fish blody on a deck or in the sand... believe it or not.. some people actually know how to handle fish.
It's sad that every single thread turns into this..Ive said my piece.. now I'll go in peace..
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Why do you even pay any attention to the jamokes????

[Guppy]

Originally Posted by piemma

Why do you even pay any attention to the jamokes????

Paul, for the heck of it I googled jamoke… I think this is funny..

“derive from a dialectal Italian (Neapolitan or Sicilian) word giamope.”

and we’re having sausage peppers and onions on hard crust bread tonight….. soooo good…