5/13 Late Report (Buzzards Bay and Beyond)

[Riptide Charters]

Sorry about the late report. Work and wind have had my mind elsewhere. On Sunday Mike C and Jr joined me at 0630 at Bourne Marina. We ran out and found acres and acres of birds spread all over Buzzards Bay. The water was FAC and it allowed us to cover some ground and cover ground we did.

We went from pod to pod checking the size of the fish. After and fish or two we would leave and go to the next. We were really hoping to find some large fish. The goal was 30#. It never happened but not for lack of effort.

After running the entire east side of the bay we ran along the Elizebeths and found a continuous line of birds and 20-26" fish along the entire island chain. We stopped to talk to Larry B only to have fish literally bumping off both our hulls while we talked. These were not the fish we wanted so we pushed into the sound and ran long to some of our later in the month deepwater haunts.

The temps in the deeper water were around 52 which wasn't bad, but other than some small pods of big bait and a few lazy birds we found nothing.

A run back into the Bay gave us some bumpier water for the ride back as we ran the entire west shore of Buzzards Bay. Once we realized we were not going to find the mother load of big fish where we were looking we decided to explore some backwaters to look for a good place to get bait for later in the season. Our pogie search in some new waters yielded me a few minutes soft aground on a mud bar with the consistancy of puppy poo and a few micro bass for the effort. Mike C did get a legal fish in a place where a kyak would have been more appropriate than my 24' CC.

Finally at around noon we were cold and tired from the constant running, so we called it a morning and headed in. From what I got for reports later in the day it seems we should have run east in the sound farther. Mike C had a hunch the fish would be farther east than we ventured and I opted to go another way. Reports would show I was wrong and Mike C had the right idea.

Final tally for us was around 20-30 fish. Just a random pick as we pod hopped leaving miles of breaking fish to find the holy grail. The water in the Bay was 57 so it's going up every day. We could have landed fish form 20-26" all day had we chose to sit on one school and bail them. They would eat anything on every cast which made getting a look at the fishin in each school easy and quick. But we didn't.

Overall a huge effort with a very small payoff. I know the areas we hit fish better in another week or two but we pushed our luck and came up short. At least the ride was pretty smooth and the mud bar was easily escapable.

[shoefish]

Good report rippy- send some of those fish up here... I wouldn't mind 20-30 small fish, not at all

[POON MAN]

only to have fish literally bumping off both our hulls while we talked

Gotta love that stuff

[Seaker]

I have a delivery to make this weekend but the owner and family wish to ride along. That's cool but the forecast isn't. If there is no delivery then I'll fire the Seaker and hunt some fish on the south side....to be continued

[Tuna Meltdown]

Riptide, I saw you guys come in on Sunday. I was the white hulled seacraft fishing the dock at the end of the no wake zone across from the Maritime.
I headed south and found gulls working larger bait right in front off Woodshole. They were working isolated small wolfpacks of fish. Looked like they were keyed in on large squid and bunker. I was only able to pick a few 26-28" fish out of theese schools but there were definatly larger fish as I saw them bust every now and then. They were a little frustrating but we had fun and finished out the day with about 24 fish all between 18 and 29" long. The 29" fish was taken right at that dock about 20 minutes after I saw you. Go figure that the biggist fish I caught was only a few hundred yards from were I put in. Great reports keep them comming.