5/4 Buzzards Bay Report (We are on the board for 07)

[Riptide Charters]

Today was a recon trip for a potential ½ day charter tomorrow. It’s early but the sport has a large group together for an occasion and they were hoping to get OTW for a few hours. So today I went looking to see if it would be worth taking them out or if it was going to be a boat ride.

Dana, The Sarg and I met at Bourne Marina at a leisurely 0730 and splashed the boat. We idled out and then hit the throttles heading for Buzzards Bay. As I cleared the Maritime flats the boat dropped off to idle from cruising speed. Having just put in new throttle and gearshift cables I had a pretty good idea of what had happened. The cable clip is spring loaded and the dealer said it looked awful close to touching a small bracket at WOT. While apparently it moved enough that it touched and POP off with the clip and off with the cable. A quick fix and we were back on our way. (The clip will be safety wired on this afternoon so that never happens again)

We hit the West end of the canal and saw plenty of birds and bait but nothing seemed to be molesting the bait. We hit Marion and Mattapoisett harbors for a quick look and didn’t see anything obvious in either spot. The game plan was to head for Woods Hole then run back along the East shore and see what was around. About ¾ of the way to Woods Hole I marked several flocks of birds on radar out in open water. We headed for them and found assorted birds actively working over fish! I set up Dana and the Sgt. For a shot and as soon as their rubba hit the water they were both tight! I grabbed a rod and tossed in just a tad bit late and got nothing. Both of them landed nice bright fish around 24” or so. First casts of the season for them and they double up.


Unfortunately those would be the only fish we connected with. The birds were still around but we couldn’t get close to them before they broke up and we marked very little on the sounder. It was scattered bait and what seemed to be small schools of fish doing a hit and run on them.


So with that we headed back to the ramp. I had to get the guys home before noon or I was going to be in BIG trouble. They insisted they could only go if we would make it a short trip. So we cruised home as we reconed the rest of the bay with no joy.

Final tally for the trip the first two bright fish of the season. The bass fell for small Storm shad in about 50’ of water. The temps are up a bit since the other day. Today most of the bay was in the 52 degree range with some spots as high as 55 in close to shore or coves. More and more bait is entering the bay and the rafts of cormorants makes me think that it’s the bigger bait that will have the bass moving in soon. FWIW a buddy was on his boat last night in Bourne Marina and when he put on the spreaders he attracted a huge mass of squid up behind the boat. That’s a good sign for sure.

Overall a good trip. One minor glitch early on, but an easy fix and it happened in a nice safe spot so better now than later. IT was a bit sloppy on the Bay but the two bright fish made up for the bumpy conditions. It’s starting around here, it will only be a few days more and the fish will be pouring into the bay in huge numbers chasing all this bait.

[ReelCrazySportfishing]

WTG Captain!!!!!!

[74Formula233]

Nice to see some reports again!

[88 Sportcraft]

Nice Bass Capt.

[FMF]

arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggg and im still on the land.....oh well...at least some body got stripes!
WTG

[old mud]

Thanks for the report Capt.

Don

[Bob & Mag]

Thanks for the report. Hopefully with water temps on the rise, they'll be showing up soon.

[gman]

wish i was out there