Riptide Charters

8/14 Momma Riptide and Ripette (Report)
Today I took my Mom out for a B-Day fishing trip. As the old addage goes "mechanics drive the worst cars" so does the guide taking his family fishing. Mom's NEVER been on one of my boats in the nine odd years I've been doing this seriously. Nor has my girlfriend Debbie. That said it was time to get them out fishing.

Mom came down last night and we had Dad drop off Riptide 2. Since the big boat is SUPPOSED to be getting traded in, it is being detailed and given an overall good cleaning. So rather than mess it all up we took the little boat out.

The weather was not forcasted to go my way. I was hoping to do a Pamet launch and fish Race point for blues then maybe a nice run to the bank for a whale show and lunch at the Welfleet town pier. Instead the forcast was N/NE wind 10-15 with gusts. Rather than beat up the two girls I took them into Buzzards Bay to stay sheltered.

We splashed at a leasurely 0900 and zipped out to the MMA ship. Nothing there so we pushed out into Buzzards Bay. It was a little breezy, but the girls did well and soo I found some birds working over bait near the West End. I eased them into the birds and after a quick refresher on casting both of them were tight to 7-8# bluefish. we worked these fish out for a little bit and I managed a hook in and out of my thumb trying to keep up with landing the fish they were catching. I screwed up and left my gloves on the big boat.

After a few fish each I decided to press on and see if we could get some bonito or some other exotic dispite the wind. We ran over to Woods Hole and shot into the sound. We ran up to Falmouth were we grabbed lunch at the Fish House/Clam Box at the mouth of the Harbor. Fried Clams and fish along with some lemonade was the hot setup for a sunny warm day.

After lunch we ran up towards Poppy where the seas were a bit choppier than I expected inthe North wind. Trying to keep everyone comfortable we headed back towards Woods Hole. The tide had turned once we got back so with a break in the chop I shot over to Tashmoo. It was nice and flat over there with some bait but after 30 minutes of drifting / suntaning we saw nothing.

Back through the hole and into Buzzards Bay we went. The turn of the tide had the bay flat and I was able to stretch the legs a bit on the bay boat. The new E-Tec 225 H.O. in Stars and Stripes colors pushes that thing like a motorcycle not a boat. We flew accross the bay at a leasurly 50 knots as we aimed for the West End.

En Route I saw some birds and we pulled back the throttles and eased into the action. Mom was tight first and Deb was right behind. I saw Mom's fish along with several more big blues and a BIG bass chasing it around. Deb hung something BIG and it would not come off the bottom. I figured she hung one of the big bass so I let her work on the fish. I landed Mom's fish, then another, then another. Deb was still getting dragged around the boat by her first fish. After a while she asked if Mom would give her a hand. Mom tugged on the beast and still no progress was made. Finally I got the rod and realized it wasn't that they were newbies, it was that they had hung a big fish on the 10# llite spinning gear and it didn't want to come up.

THe fish made several solid runs but stayed deep. I finally got it near the surface and from the size I was sure it was a big bass. When it turned i realized it was a SLOB bluefish. I worked to to the gunnel and grabbed the Boga grip Dad keeps on the console. I locked the fish intothe grip and heaved it over the gunnel. I looked at the fish and then at the Boga....... 17# of big mean bluefish on a 10# test rod with a little 360 Penn Reel and 25# flouro for a leader. How we managed the fish without a cutoff is beyond me but the Yo Zuri was firmly planted in its' jaw without any chafe on the leader.




After a bunch of photo's I revived the fish and released it. Everyone was happy and it was a great way to end a fun day. Final tally around 15 bluefish ranging from 3-17#. They were all over the place and we got them just about everywhere we roamed. The lure of choice a small black and silver YoZuri minnow. The bait they were on was P-Nuts and Silversides. The water was 73.4over most of the bay. It was bright sun and a north wind.

Overall a great day OTW with Mom and Deb. They both had a great time, caught some nice fish, had a great lunch and got a bit of sun to boot. Not a bad way to spend a weekday with family and friends.

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Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com

Seaker

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www.seakersportfishing.com

ChuckA

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