5/11 Buzzards Bay Striped Bass- not my boat

[ktm_2000]

I got an invite from a buddy who just repowered his Grady 33' with Yami 300s and he wanted to get some break in hours on them. I've been working stupid hours in work and to top it off we are doing a gut reno on a house we bought in march so I have been burning the candle at both ends and some time one the water was just the thing for my soul. There was no expectations of doing anything more than going for a boat ride and I was pleasantly surprised.

Late start we left out of New Bedford harbor and went out into buzzards bay. about 1/2 way on our way to Quicks hole, we came accross groups of terns working over fish. We setup up wind of them and started casting, early the fish were low in the water column and we were able to pick them up on bucktails with grub tails.

It was fairly slow getting one fish per pod for a while, then we came accross a giant pod, must have been thousands of Bass 400yds across in sort of a line working their way north east towards the Canal. The Bass turned the water pitch black as they were closely packed together. We had the boat setup upwind and were sitting drifting, the fish approached us and I had a hopking's jig on and I casted furiously and could feel the jig and my braided line go ove the tops of the fish. No bites. I got in 3 casts before the line of bass came accross the boat and continued on their path. As the fish approached I could see all their black backs and stripes as they were tightly packed together slowly swiming their migration route. When they went under the boat, the fishfinder was just one blob of marks, top to bottom on the water column. The sight of this was amazing, it was kind of like going to a Trout hatchery and seeing all the fish filling up their pens. The amount of life in one small area of the ocean was stunning. Once they got to the boat, I just stood their flabergasted. I've been fishing quite a few years and have only experienced something like this one other time 20+ years ago.

After that big pod we worked other much smaller pods and were able to catch 10 bass between us with the largest being 37", crystal minow and 6-10' deep did the trick. In the mix, we were able to catch 2 slot fish and those went in the cooler. We stayed out till noon and headed back and cleaned up the boat.

My buddy is thrilled with his new engines and I got one heck of the day on the water. Tonight we had fish tacos, marinated the bass in olive oil and lime juice and with a fair amount of old bay seasoning. on the grill for a few min a side, they came out great.

I got to get my sorry a$$ to clean up my rig and get it out on the water ASAP.

[Amberjack]

I came across something similar last summer. We had spent a couple days in Port Madison 9 miles across the Sound from Seattle. I was watching the Garmin as we came around Sandy Hook and saw a curtain of fish starting at 50’, solid down to 75’ then tapering for another 20’ or so. This went on for 1/2 mile as we followed the bottom contour.

The father of one of my high school friends was a commercial purse seiner in the 60’s. I remember looking at his charts with x’s and notes where he had good hauls. I bet this was one of his spots.

[Carl]

Getting out on the water is great, getting to fish a bit- is better, catching steps up the game, and being able to sit an watch the water full of life...Amazing. It not only recharges the batteries, but the soul.

I've never seen them swim through, but our bay is kinda murky...I did get to see a huge mass of Bass boiling last year. That was breathtaking... had to be close to a half a square mile alive with flocks of birds over diving in...crazy to be in the middle of that.

[Amberjack]

being able to sit an watch the water full of life...Amazing. It not only recharges the batteries, but the soul.

I've put in a lot of hours on Amberjack and I've gotta say the best were when we shut down the engines on a calm day and just drifted in the middle of nowhere.

[Carl]

I've put in a lot of hours on Amberjack and I've gotta say the best were when we shut down the engines on a calm day and just drifted in the middle of nowhere.

I agree