rolmops
Vice Admiral
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2002
- Messages
- 5,363
The yearly pilgrimage to fisherman's paradise is over again and after 3 days on the water I can say that the fishing deities were well disposed towards this fisherman and his son.
The first day out on Billings Gate shoals the Bluefish schools were so heavy that it was impossible to fish live bait or chunks because it never made it deeper than 15 foot and another bluefish would be on,usually 4 to 6 pounders ,so we went for bucktail jigs.These made it to 30 feet down before they were attacked by the blues. It was impossible to get under the blues to, where according to fishfinder, the stripers were.That day we caught about fifty blues in 5 hours.
The second day ,the sea was mirror flat. We ran out to Woods End and Race Point. Not a bite. We did however see many a seal congregated in front of the popular Herring Cove and Race Point.They were just waiting for any old fisherman to hook into a striper so they could steal the fish off the hook .Towards evening we went outside the Bay towards Stellwagen and out of sheer boredom did some bottom fishing 200 feet down.This gave us a cooler full of cod and haddock.Coming back to the Cape, there was a spot we wanted to try for stripers ,but upon arriving there,we found ourselves in the middle of acres of dogfish that were swimming and lolling around on the surface.
The third day started with an effort to get some stripers off Billingsgate with black eels. Dogfish like black eel,so do bluefish.
Billingsgate on a Saturday morning in July is as busy and full with boats as Times Square is with tourists.
We started jigging and made it down to 40 feet with six hundred feet of stainless steel wireline out.After ten minuteds we hooked into the first striper and then all hell broke loose.We had landed in a school of 40+ inchers and started hauling them in. We had our daily limit in half an hour.They were roughly all 30 pound + fish.
Where usually we follow the charter boats,this time the charter boats started to follow us! Needless to say,we felt pretty important.
We ended up catching about 30 stripers,none smaller than 40 inches and two were just above fifty inch.It really hurt to have to put them back.
We marked all the catch points on our GPS ,hoping that next year they will be back.
All in all,a very good fishing trip.
The first day out on Billings Gate shoals the Bluefish schools were so heavy that it was impossible to fish live bait or chunks because it never made it deeper than 15 foot and another bluefish would be on,usually 4 to 6 pounders ,so we went for bucktail jigs.These made it to 30 feet down before they were attacked by the blues. It was impossible to get under the blues to, where according to fishfinder, the stripers were.That day we caught about fifty blues in 5 hours.
The second day ,the sea was mirror flat. We ran out to Woods End and Race Point. Not a bite. We did however see many a seal congregated in front of the popular Herring Cove and Race Point.They were just waiting for any old fisherman to hook into a striper so they could steal the fish off the hook .Towards evening we went outside the Bay towards Stellwagen and out of sheer boredom did some bottom fishing 200 feet down.This gave us a cooler full of cod and haddock.Coming back to the Cape, there was a spot we wanted to try for stripers ,but upon arriving there,we found ourselves in the middle of acres of dogfish that were swimming and lolling around on the surface.
The third day started with an effort to get some stripers off Billingsgate with black eels. Dogfish like black eel,so do bluefish.
Billingsgate on a Saturday morning in July is as busy and full with boats as Times Square is with tourists.
We started jigging and made it down to 40 feet with six hundred feet of stainless steel wireline out.After ten minuteds we hooked into the first striper and then all hell broke loose.We had landed in a school of 40+ inchers and started hauling them in. We had our daily limit in half an hour.They were roughly all 30 pound + fish.
Where usually we follow the charter boats,this time the charter boats started to follow us! Needless to say,we felt pretty important.
We ended up catching about 30 stripers,none smaller than 40 inches and two were just above fifty inch.It really hurt to have to put them back.
We marked all the catch points on our GPS ,hoping that next year they will be back.
All in all,a very good fishing trip.