6/2-6/3 Navionics VIP Charter

[Riptide Charters]

I've been up what seems all day and night for the last couple getting things squared away for this three day trip for Navionics. They have some VIP's in from the mid west and I had to get these guys on some big fish Cape Cod style. With Shaun Ruge doing mate and leison duties the job was a bit easier.

The first day we decided to take advantage of the big fish, big bait bite over in CC Bay. Mike C had done some recon with Jr in the tin boat the day before and assured me that these walleye guys would be impressed with what we had in store.



So I had the big boat spit shined and in the water at 0330. The crew arrived at 0400 and we were headed out of Sandwich into the Bay in the dark. We arrived at our bait station and found an ample supply of pogies that were JUST THE RIGHT SIZE! Ruge and I set the guys up with snagging hooks and we manned the livewells. In no time flat we had both 40 gallon well stuffed to capacity with prime looking baits. We stowed the snaggers and headed out for the bass.

As I was doing the slow cruise looking for the best place to swim our victims as the sun broke the horizon I spotted a huge boil about 100 yards away. I headed towards it and Jeff was on the boat armed with a Salty's Fathead popper. The fish gave himself away about 20 yards out and Jeff DRILLED the boil with the big Salty's Fathead. It didn't take more than one huge KER-POP! Before the big bass blew the popper up and it was GAME ON!



What followed can only be discribed as Chaos! Ruge and I began hooking up pogies and as fast as the guys could get them into the water they had hordes of big bass all over them. Ruge took up a perch on the gunnel with the HD camera and began making movies. We had wolfpacks of big bass blowing up pogies 10' off the hull and Ruge GOT IT ALL ON VIDEO!!!!!

The guys were on their game and they worked out the big fish with good form.



Since they were fresh water guys they really enjoyed these big fish ganging up of the pogies on top and putting on a show for us in the early morning sun.





This went on for just over an hour and everyone was able to get a couple of these big fish under their belt. When we finally lost the fish we went back in to re-fill our bait supply. We made bait fast and it was time to head to Mike C's spot from the prior day.

Well the rest of this story gets a bit slower. We hit Mike C's spot and only got one small boil on a pogie to show for it. After a great shore lunch we heaed out to look for some smaller fish on top. We found NOTHING! Since these guys were VIP's we pulled out ALL the stops. I ran LOOOOONG looking for fish everywhere I thought the should be and everywhere I thought the MIGHT be. NOTHING!

So when it was all over the final tally was around 2 dozen SOLID fish. All but one came on pogies and the other on a Slaty's Fathead Popper. The water was 12-18' deep and the fish were just barely showingo th filling tide.

Overall it was some of the best action I've seen all season, bu it came in a very short window on a VERY long charter. If we could have taken 2 fish per hour all day it would have made for a great and exciting day. But we blew all 20+ fish in the first hour and a half of a TWELVE HOUR trip. Lets just say the guys re now very familiar with the ENTIRE CC BAY side of the world.

DAY 2
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Day 2 had us checking out Buzzards Bay for a change of pace for the Navionics crew. We splashed in Bourne at 0400 with 7 dozen slimy buddies. We ran out to the West end and took the curse off with some small bassand blues that were on more of than damn rainbait that has the fish picky as heck. After a few fish each it was time to go looking for bigger stuff. We hit the first spot and found that we were Rippy-Come-Lately at 0530. The small area we hoped to fish was a parking lot. We did get in and manage some fish, but we were clearly late on the draw. One fish we hooked up was a monster on a Yo-Zuri. The fish took the lure right to the bottom after a spectacular surface show and ripped the rear hook clean off the plug while straightening out 2 of the 3 hooks on the front treble. Needless to say he got away. Some of the smaller fish however did not.



After a steady pick of bass and blues in the first spot we headed out to deeper water to try jigging up some bigger fish. My deepr spot has not really turned on like it normally does, but it's always worth a look. Today was no exception. While there were not a ton of fish there we did manage a couple including the big fish of the day, this nice 42"er.


After jigging we made the run to Menensha foran early lunch at Larson's. This is always a charter (and a personal) favorite. After brunch we did a bit of plugging without much success. Then it was back to the ramp by noon so the guys could get to the office and do some work for the second half of the day.

Final tally a couple dozen fish, most were sub-legal with about 6 keepers and 2 fish 40"+. Lure of choice was a Yo-Zuri minnow in black and chrome and a white ball jig with a rubber trailer. The water ranged from 5-90' deep. The eels never got bit today. Seems like a sin to have a well full of eels and not be able to turn them into fish.

Overall a good moring of fishing. It was a morerate pick with a few nice ones thrown in to keep it interesting. Tomorrow is the last day of the marathon, so I have to end this here so I can sleep.

[Shortfin]

Nice post and great outings Terry

I bet your video footage is going to be smokin

[Offshore24]

Way to give navionics crew a good taste of the CC bay.