Riptide Charters

This report is going to seem out of character for me, but that aside, it was one heck of a day of fishing/catching. The shack nasties had me in their grasp and I needed to get the boat out on the water NOW! I called a few buddies to see about setting up a cod trip. The forcast was for FAC conditions and the word was the bottom fish bite was decent. Its not my thing but neither is going out of my mind waiting for stripers.

The guys responded and Jeff from Navionics suggested that we take the opportunity to test out the new Platinum + charts in the field. THese charts are just becoming availible and I had one of the first copies in existance. To say the detail on these things is amazing is an understatment. 3D charts that are created from the bathy chart data makes for an incredible fish finding tool.

so with the latest in software loaded up the boat wa outfitted with jigs and clams and a 4 man team was assembled. We met in Plymouth around 0730 and splashed without incident. The run out was fast and smooth. A light NW breeze barely rippled the water and we slid along at almost 40mph.

We headed east and after about 45 minutes we began to look at structure on the new charts. The first few locations looked good, but failed to give up any fish. The whales, bait and birds were all good signs and we knew it was just a matter of finding the "right spot". We moved to a conture line on the chart in the 180' range and the sounder lit up. From that point on it was lights out catching. The cod were few and far between, but the haddock were BIG FAT and HUNGRY! we bailed 24-34" and they ate anything we got to the bottom. Jigs or clams it didn't matter. Everyone was tight for the next 6 hours. We landed in excess of 100 fish with 4 guys. We only adjusted the drift twice and even that wasn't really needed If we went more than 3 or 4 minutes without a fish we were wondering what happened.

Final tally, well over 100 keeper haddock, around 10-12 cod they ranged from 18" to around 12#, there were also a few oddball fish in the mix including 2 dogfish (in April). The lure/bait of choice was Williamson Speed Jigs as weight with a small sluggo as a teaser. Most of Jeff and My fish came on this rig and ate the teaser. BIG Scotty Pills had the same rig, but all his fish came on the jig. Split was the clam man and was slaying fish often doing it two at a time. The water ranged between 170 and 190' deep. The area was alive with mamals birds and bait. The bottom 30' of the sounder was solid with fish most of the day. We needed 8-10 oz of weight to hold bottom. There was very little current or wind so it was very easy fishing.

Overall just a fantastic day of catching. Even for someone that is not into bottom fishing, it was tough not to appreciate how this day played out. Bright sun, flat water and TONS of fish. The only thing better than that was having the guys do my share of the fish cleaning and having a Venison / Fresh Haddock surf and turf on the grill for dinner. It doesn't get any better than that!

__________________
Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com

On The Edge

Rippy Bails The Ground fish !!!!

Nice job out there Terry.. Sounds like you hit the motherload..

Let the games Begin

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Catch um up

1999 proline 2202 wa
1999 200 merc

Captrlbagwell

That is one agreat day.

AlloyToy

Nice job Capt. Terry. There were a few boats out there. Some caught and some didn't. I know our catch rate improved when the wind shifted in the afternoon.

Now that's one hell of a surf n' turf

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"First The Bite Then The Fight"

Riptide Charters

The "Big" Cod for the day!


BIG Scotty Pills w/ one of the days Haddock


Jeff from Navionics w/ one of many of the days Haddock!

__________________
Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com

orion23

That last picture of the haddock is a real monster, probably a 10 pounder. Wouldn't mind having a few like that in our boat. We had some fresh cod last night and it was fantastic. When people say they don't like fish when they bought it at the grocery store, I can understand why because it is perhaps a week or two old. Again congrats on the great looking fish pic's.

bassarama

Congratulations

what a nice way to start a season

Capt Fred

Hello Terry, I just purchased a Navionics Platinum Card from West Marine 2 weeks ago. I did not open it yet, still mounting E Series. Can you tell me the revision of this NEW chart you used so that I can make certain that I have the latest and greatest. Sounds like you had a great day. Hope to be in next week. Can't wait.
Thanks

Riptide Charters

Hi Capt Fred,

Chances are you have the latest Platinum Chart, but not the Platinum + (Plus). It's brand new to the market, so new in fact Raymarine just released the firmware update on 4/14/08 that allows the machines to run it. The difference between Plat. and Plat + can be found here: http://navionics.com/Headlines_08.asp?ID=276

The highlights that I like are the 3D charting used to be run off the regular chart soundings, now on Plus they are rendered off the Bathy charts. What that means is no more sharp angular 3D rendering. The bathy data has many more soundings which makes for a MUCH nicer appearance and to be honest a much more usable feature.

Also their "Top Down" resolution (the satilite overlays went from fair/good resolution to UNREAL resolition. I could actually see my buddies boat in the marine on one of the shots. It's a "Google Earth" type view that can be overlayed on the charts. Both on land AND on sea. You can sea sandbars, weed beds even rip lines in some cases. On the standard Platium charts you could see low res buildings and roads. Now you can see cars, boats etc. If you fishing new areas, the ability to see from the top down is awesome. Lets you know what around corners, back up in bays even lets you see the layout of most marinas if you zoom in on them.

Their site has a more comprehensive list of upgrades, these are just a few I've played with in the short time I've had the chart. I'm still learning and working though the new features myself.

Do you NEED Platinum Plus? Maybe not. But it's like going to a color unit from a black and white one, once you have it, you'll never go back.

__________________
Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com

Riptide Charters

I grabbed a few screen shots to give you an idea of what Platinum Plus looks like. Bare with me, I'm a boat guy not a software guy. The crew at Navionics is working to get me some better stuff to show you, but this will give you an idea for now.

__________________
Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com