Fletcher Fishing

posted by John on Aug 8

I learned two things. One give whales more than 500′. They can be out there and then right up on you. When they just surface to breath that is one thing, when they breach 150′ from you, that is scary. I did not know to be scared at the time I took these pics. I hookup up twice today. I was alone and had trouble boating dinner. I had the first tuna on the side of the boat after 35 minutes, and I was not sure what to do. So I tied up the leader around the cleat, set the rod down, and went fast with both hands on the gaff. Estimate of  40-48″, 50-70lbs. he banged his head against the boat, upon contact the ronzi 3 oz jig popped right out, and the fish traveled back down to Davey Jones Locker. I went back to where I hooked up, and did it again. This time, at the end of the first run, a 30-35′ yellow hulled boat roared right between me and my fish. Once I realized I was on the prop, I opened the bale and let him have 300+ yards of 80 lb braid. I hope he busted a prop seal.

Here are the pics:

150' from the boat

I felt the whale wake.

Closer Breach

The whale fascinated me, and then I realized it was two showing off.

The other whale was farther

He flew all the way out of the water.

Site of the first hookup

This was a zoo. The fish were 10 to 20 feet down swirling around and pushing bait up. The birds were insane. I tried an 11″ Got stryper and almost snagged a shearwater. I switched to a 10″ bright green ronzi 3x tuna penetrator (8/0 hook). Within two seconds (no time for jigging) I was off to the races. My trevala tc4f 5’6″ spinning rod and the fin-nor 7500 reel worked out great.

Site of second hookup.

After the heartbreak of losing dinner. I found the same school without the birds and with a whale. The second fight lasted about 2 minutes, due to the yellow hulled boat that took out my line. If you even think some one is hookup up give them 600′ and watch with the binoculars.

posted by John on Jul 16

When seals are involved, the fish act weird.

5 adults and 4 children went on a boat ride to the disappearing island, Billingsgate. I dropped off the two families and fished the channel between Jeremy Point and the island. There were huge marks, but I could not get anything. I tried jigging, both big baits and small baits. I tried topwaters. Nothing!

After collecting the Billingsgate adventurers, we decided to eat lunch by Smalley’s Bar. We saw a lot of fish under the boat on the now incoming tide. Some people might call them bluefish, but I will call them tuna bait. We used topwaters and jigs w/sluggos to entertain the kids. We took one blue home that was hopelessly bleeding.

posted by John on Jul 16

What a fun(ny) day. We went to the Race early, hit all the spots from the day before and targeted bass, but only caught blues. The fishing armada was parading back and forth there, so we went outside and the other armada was there.

The pot line was holding a lot of fish, all on the bottom. The drift was perfect, pick a depth and you followed the bottom perfectly at the same depth.
Again targeting the bass, but only getting one, we caught as many bluefish as we wanted.

We drifted about 4 miles catching bluefish after bluefish. The itch for tuna compelled me to follow the advice of one of the guys at Goose Hummock and work east of Peaked Hill Bar. We saw nothing but boats trying to tease up tuna. We scanned for birds or any other sign of life, not a thing.

On the way home I got the bright idea to hit the SW corner of Stellwagen and check for tuna there. Great idea, but it came up bass, not tuna. 2-3 acres of pushing sand eels with 15-25 lb bass gulping them down as fast as they can, with many fish leaping in the air. We figured that tuna must be below them, but no matter how hard we tried we could only catch bass. One other boat shared the fun.

The fish were no match for the tuna rods, so we tried some smaller tackle. All fish caught offshore were released back to the ocean. I hope they go south to the Race.

Boiling Water

You could hear the buzzing/chirping noise of 1 million sand eels and huge splashes from jumping bass. it was a site to behold.

Lines Tight

We use 10″ ronzi’s with 65 lb braid and an 85 lb mono leader. Big bass, no tuna.

Wendy's Awesome Big Bass.

We moved further SW and casted on some big marks, more bass.

John's Fish

Thank’s for the memories. All fish released safely!

Beth's Fish

Beth came down from Vermont to visit and accepted our invite for the trip. The fishing was good.

Stephen's Biggest Fish of the Day

We had moved quite far from the boiling sand eels and the monster feeding school. More promising marks, more bass.

All in all a very fun day.