Stellwagon bank 9/9
Posted: Sep 9th, '23, 16:34
this week I tried calling around looking for crew and came up empty, so next best thing, tell my 6 year old girls we are going on a "whale watching" trip. Since we were going out with the kids we had a leisurely start at the Sandwich ramp in the cape cod canal and went out into the bay. The rid e out was flat as a pond and we quickly got over to Ptown and I fired up the radar and started looking for boats. There were a group on the SW corner of Stellwagon bank and we headed over to find a group of whales feeding but not much other life under them.
I tried predicting the whales course and set up in front of them then cast a butterfly jig and let it drop, multiple attempts came up with macs so I caught 20 or so and kept them going in the livewell. Do you think I was smart enough to bring my offshore tacke box and any tuna capable live bait hooks? nah I am not that smart.....
My girls did love the whale show, so I technically didn't lie to them about the trip
https://photos.app.goo.gl/cr5yT1BYivdeTFiT8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ELsUNB6VjpErz2R97
We weren't marking any tuna with the whales so I set out some 13" squid bars on my 50s and put some large jet heads on my 30s and put a mac on each of the jethead hooks and ran them up inside and under the bars and proceeded to troll around. We did figure 8s around the boats staying tight to the whales and after about an hour I did have 1 swing and a miss on one of the macs. I am somewhat happy that I didn't hook up as it wasn't a small fish and on a 30 with 2 6yo girls and my wife for crew I would have been in a world of hurt.
We ended up trolling out east and off Stellwagon and found some bait but didn't see too much life working it not many tuna marks on the sounder.
The ride back to the SW corner, we stopped and checked in with the whale watch boats and the whales were resting on the surface, no life under them, jigging only brought up some dogfish and a few more macs.
The ride back to the canal was un-eventful. It is so nice to have a rig that gets 2.8mpg and cruises at 25kts. We had the radio blaring and the girls hung out on a cooler in front of the doghouse.
fun day.............
I tried predicting the whales course and set up in front of them then cast a butterfly jig and let it drop, multiple attempts came up with macs so I caught 20 or so and kept them going in the livewell. Do you think I was smart enough to bring my offshore tacke box and any tuna capable live bait hooks? nah I am not that smart.....
My girls did love the whale show, so I technically didn't lie to them about the trip
https://photos.app.goo.gl/cr5yT1BYivdeTFiT8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/ELsUNB6VjpErz2R97
We weren't marking any tuna with the whales so I set out some 13" squid bars on my 50s and put some large jet heads on my 30s and put a mac on each of the jethead hooks and ran them up inside and under the bars and proceeded to troll around. We did figure 8s around the boats staying tight to the whales and after about an hour I did have 1 swing and a miss on one of the macs. I am somewhat happy that I didn't hook up as it wasn't a small fish and on a 30 with 2 6yo girls and my wife for crew I would have been in a world of hurt.
We ended up trolling out east and off Stellwagon and found some bait but didn't see too much life working it not many tuna marks on the sounder.
The ride back to the SW corner, we stopped and checked in with the whale watch boats and the whales were resting on the surface, no life under them, jigging only brought up some dogfish and a few more macs.
The ride back to the canal was un-eventful. It is so nice to have a rig that gets 2.8mpg and cruises at 25kts. We had the radio blaring and the girls hung out on a cooler in front of the doghouse.
fun day.............