Riptide Charters

Today we had planned on continuing with our quest for Mike and Chris's 40#ers. However the weather forecast for the Cape and Islands was not looking like it was going to be a n enjoyable quest. The late night thunder and lightning helped with the decision NOT to make an O'dark thirty start. After weighing all the options I decided that getting out of the weather might be the best choice. So with that the 0500 phone calls went out and we trailered up to Boston. En route we called Capt. Joe to meet us at the ramp since we'd be in his back yard.

By 0600 we were splashed in Weymouth and we headed out into the harbor. The winds were blocked pretty well and we cruised around like it was a mill pond. I didn't take long for us to find a small pod of pogies in a sheltered little cove.

On the first cast Mike C snagged a pogie and within second he had a runoff. Chris followed suit and we bagan to put a beating on the fish. If you could dodge the bluefish you were rewarded with a nice bass in the 20-30# range. Mike C got big fish of the day honors with a 32#er.

After 45 minutes of working the fish a few other boats trickled in and the small pod of bait got skitish and we moved on.

We ran around the harbor looking for more bait pods and found TONS of birds working small bait over school bass and blues. We caught a few just to check the size, but we were not looking for school fish we wanted the bigger stuff.

After an our or so we found a larger school of bait in a main channel. It wasnt long before there were numerous boats on the fish. Everything from a skiff to a 40+ fot aft cabin were jockeying for position on the bait. we seemed to have the magic touch on these fish and we began to double and triple up on some nice fat bass and HUGE bluefish. Once the other boats saw us release a half dozen bass near 30# we could not set up on the hard to see bait without the fleet closing right in on us.

While the fishing was great none of us enjoyed having over a dozen boats crowded into such a small group. After having our lines snagged for the second time we decided we had enough for the day and we headed for the ramp.

Final tally for the day was 30+ bass all ranging from 20-32#. Another dozen big bluefish were landed dispite not using wire. The bait of choice was mainly pogies, but I did take some time on the first pod to toss a Salty's Danny plug around the edges of the bait. I picked up some of the largest bluefish of the day that way, but I could not hook up on the bass with it. The water ranged from 10' to 45' deep. The best method once again was to snag the bait with a weighted treble and just let the bait flutter down below the school. WIthin seconds it was hit by a bass or big blue. We saw most of the other boats were using wire leaders to fend off the bluefish. That might explain why we had a much better catch rate than the other boats in the second group. We ran 60# flouro and no wire. The flouro had to be tended to after any bluefish hit even if the fish was lost. Retying was a constant process. I hate wire leaders and avoid them at all costs. The flouro cost us 3-4 trebles but it was worth the loss in order to hang the number of big bass we got.

Overall a great morning of fishing the Haba. We figured we were going to get slpshed arou nd and rained on fishing the cape and islands, so the near 70 degree weather and FAC conditions were a very welcome surprise. The fishing in the haba is very good and even not being a regular of the haba anymore it has not been hard to go up there and land good numbers of quality fish. The down side to the haba has been the number of boats and the pushy behavior of some of the boaters. WHile this happens everywhere, the tighter confines of the haba seem to make the crowds seem worse than when we fish the more open waters around the cape. The calm waters also allow allot more small boats to get into the action and we loose the advantage of the larger boat and the ability to run off and find quieter waters. The great catching of quality fish outweights the crowds most of the time and getting out early seems to help as well. It's been years since I fished the haba on a regular basis, and it's great to see the fishing has only gotten better with time.
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Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com

BluewaterTops

nice`report.....

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Custom Built T-Tops/Towers/Hardtops, Etc...
Bluewater Tops, LLC CLINTON, CT

blackhullcharters

Glad you have a good day in our neighborhood!
It's been madness up here with all the boats and most who have NO CLUE, running over schools of bait and each other !

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Capt. Ronnie
Team Ave Maria
www.blackhullcharters.com

74Formula233

Good report Terry!

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Riptide Charters

We were joking about only being able to take the craziness in small doses. I'm not sure how you guys do it for an entire season. I'd loose my mind!

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Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com

codfishshark

went out yesterday did some damage on the old bass with 6 fish in an hour all in the 20-25 range. we had guys full throttle right next to us and i finally lost it and started screaming at them about a little thing called respect. good day all and all we were the only boat constantly on bait with the smaller boats chasing. dont know how long this will last. plus most of us get away from the "bird fleet" during the summer and fish the night or go into the scary places where half them wouldnt even think of going.