The alarm went off at 4am on Saturday morning. Still half asleep, I threw on the clothes I had put out the night before and headed downstairs to begin loading up the boat with fishing rods and tackle. The trailer had been hooked up to the truck the night before to allow for a quicker getaway in the morning.
At 5am my Dad and I are fueling up at Dunkin Donuts where we find Wayne picking up his morning coffee as well. (Random observation: the same 2 old guys are sitting at D&D at 5am every Sat. morning that I go fishing.) Wayne followed us over to the boat ramp at Falmouth Harbor and in short time the 3 of us were making our way out of Falmouth Harbor under the limited light of the half-moon. At the harbor entrance we hit the throttle and are headed southwest between the Vineyard and Elizabeth Islands.
There are so many places to catch fish along the south side of the Elizabeth Islands and west side of the Vineyard and the fall is usually prime feeding time for striped bass. Our first stop was at Devil's Bridge (off Gay Head) where we put the lines in the water and made multiple passes along the rip. Nothing. We moved down the west side of the Vineyard from Gay Head down to Squibnocket. Nothing. We marked a few fish, but no action. Finally, off Squibnocket beach we we managed to pull in a small bluefish. Not quite the striped bass feeding frenzy we were hoping for.
We decided to change locations and headed up to Quick's Hole, a narrow channel between Nashawena and Pasque Islands (part of the the Elizabeth Islands chain). On the south side of the channel we pulled in some bluefish in the 8-10 lb. range. Not the striped bass we were looking for, but good enough that we kept 6 to bring home for dinner.
By 11:30am the bite was slow so we decided to head back to the harbor. The wind had picked up a bit and the ride back was a little bumpy, but not bad. Back at the dock we loaded the boat back on the trailer and stopped to fill up the gas tank on the drive home.
Once at home I had the responsibility of filleting the fish. I find bluefish very easy to fillet and in no time had them packaged in ziplock bags. I then took a walk down to the beach to dump the fish carcasses, returning to the ocean everything we won't eat. This way none of the fish goes to waste. My parents w
While at the beach I receive a call from Wayne with an invitation out on his boat for the evening. I'll meet him at Little River Boat Yard as soon as possible.
Wayne had spent the afternoon cleaning up his boat and by 4:30pm we were off the dock and headed out towards Waquiot Bay. We fished the entrance to Waquiot Bay for quite a while but had no fish to show for our effort.
With daylight fading, we started to make our way back to the boatyard. As we passed through the "no wake" entrance of Waquoit Bay I made a few casts, throwing a white sluggo with a jig head off towards the sandy beach. I cast towards the shore to about 2 feet of water, a few twitches and BANG! A big splash of water as the fish hits the sluggo and my rod bends over. Fish on!!!, but I don't even get the words out of my mouth. The line breaks at the leader and the fish is gone. Probably not a huge bass, but it would have been a good fish to end the day with. The most frustrating part is that I've been putting in the effort to learn and tie better knots and trying out different fishing line. Needless to say, I won't be purchasing this brand again!
I drove back to my parents house and grabbed a quick bite to eat. I was tired and needed to go to bed to get some rest to do it all over again on Sunday.
The alarm went off at 4am on Sunday morning and I repeated the ritual of the prior day. Get dressed, load up the boat, and drive to Falmouth Harbor. Roby H. was driving down from Duxbury to fish for striped bass off the Vineyard. Based on my luck the previous day, I was less than optimistic. We were off the dock by 5:15am, again making our way in the dark towards the west side of the Vineyard.
Within minutes of the lines being in the water on Devil's Bridge we had a fish on, a small bluefish that shook free just as we got it to the boat. I had enough bluefish from the day before so we weren't keeping any blues today. Unfortunately we encountered the same luck as Saturday, no bass and only the occassional bluefish as we fished the entire west shore from Squibnocket to Gay Head. We even anchored and threw chunked bait with no luck. Fishing the rocks at Quick's Hole produced nothing around 11:30 we headed back to the harbor - striking out all weekend on the bass.
Despite our lack of fish, I was able to observe a charter fisherman who was also fishing the rocks around Quick's Hole. I've seen this guy bring in BIG bass so I'm looking to trying a few of his techniques on my next trip.
Back at my parents house I rinsed down the boat and all the fishing gear and by 3:30pm I was in the car driving home to Winchester, dropping off a few bluefish fillets to our friends Kathy & Larry in Arlington on my way home.
Going into the weekend I had hoped for a much more successful fishing weekend. With the fall being one of the best times to fish for striped bass it was disappointing not to catch any. But I had two enjoyable days out on the water and I can't complain about that. I'll just have to find time to get out again before the season is over.
At 5am my Dad and I are fueling up at Dunkin Donuts where we find Wayne picking up his morning coffee as well. (Random observation: the same 2 old guys are sitting at D&D at 5am every Sat. morning that I go fishing.) Wayne followed us over to the boat ramp at Falmouth Harbor and in short time the 3 of us were making our way out of Falmouth Harbor under the limited light of the half-moon. At the harbor entrance we hit the throttle and are headed southwest between the Vineyard and Elizabeth Islands.
There are so many places to catch fish along the south side of the Elizabeth Islands and west side of the Vineyard and the fall is usually prime feeding time for striped bass. Our first stop was at Devil's Bridge (off Gay Head) where we put the lines in the water and made multiple passes along the rip. Nothing. We moved down the west side of the Vineyard from Gay Head down to Squibnocket. Nothing. We marked a few fish, but no action. Finally, off Squibnocket beach we we managed to pull in a small bluefish. Not quite the striped bass feeding frenzy we were hoping for.
By 11:30am the bite was slow so we decided to head back to the harbor. The wind had picked up a bit and the ride back was a little bumpy, but not bad. Back at the dock we loaded the boat back on the trailer and stopped to fill up the gas tank on the drive home.
Once at home I had the responsibility of filleting the fish. I find bluefish very easy to fillet and in no time had them packaged in ziplock bags. I then took a walk down to the beach to dump the fish carcasses, returning to the ocean everything we won't eat. This way none of the fish goes to waste. My parents w
While at the beach I receive a call from Wayne with an invitation out on his boat for the evening. I'll meet him at Little River Boat Yard as soon as possible.
Wayne had spent the afternoon cleaning up his boat and by 4:30pm we were off the dock and headed out towards Waquiot Bay. We fished the entrance to Waquiot Bay for quite a while but had no fish to show for our effort.
With daylight fading, we started to make our way back to the boatyard. As we passed through the "no wake" entrance of Waquoit Bay I made a few casts, throwing a white sluggo with a jig head off towards the sandy beach. I cast towards the shore to about 2 feet of water, a few twitches and BANG! A big splash of water as the fish hits the sluggo and my rod bends over. Fish on!!!, but I don't even get the words out of my mouth. The line breaks at the leader and the fish is gone. Probably not a huge bass, but it would have been a good fish to end the day with. The most frustrating part is that I've been putting in the effort to learn and tie better knots and trying out different fishing line. Needless to say, I won't be purchasing this brand again!
I drove back to my parents house and grabbed a quick bite to eat. I was tired and needed to go to bed to get some rest to do it all over again on Sunday.
The alarm went off at 4am on Sunday morning and I repeated the ritual of the prior day. Get dressed, load up the boat, and drive to Falmouth Harbor. Roby H. was driving down from Duxbury to fish for striped bass off the Vineyard. Based on my luck the previous day, I was less than optimistic. We were off the dock by 5:15am, again making our way in the dark towards the west side of the Vineyard.
Within minutes of the lines being in the water on Devil's Bridge we had a fish on, a small bluefish that shook free just as we got it to the boat. I had enough bluefish from the day before so we weren't keeping any blues today. Unfortunately we encountered the same luck as Saturday, no bass and only the occassional bluefish as we fished the entire west shore from Squibnocket to Gay Head. We even anchored and threw chunked bait with no luck. Fishing the rocks at Quick's Hole produced nothing around 11:30 we headed back to the harbor - striking out all weekend on the bass.
Despite our lack of fish, I was able to observe a charter fisherman who was also fishing the rocks around Quick's Hole. I've seen this guy bring in BIG bass so I'm looking to trying a few of his techniques on my next trip.
Back at my parents house I rinsed down the boat and all the fishing gear and by 3:30pm I was in the car driving home to Winchester, dropping off a few bluefish fillets to our friends Kathy & Larry in Arlington on my way home.
Going into the weekend I had hoped for a much more successful fishing weekend. With the fall being one of the best times to fish for striped bass it was disappointing not to catch any. But I had two enjoyable days out on the water and I can't complain about that. I'll just have to find time to get out again before the season is over.
0 comments:
Post a Comment