This past Thursday we were east of Chatham. We stopped at Monomoy on our way to Chatham but it wasn’t happening. We got to Chatham at 8am and the stripers were there in full force. We caught up with the commercial fleet and caught over 20 fish and ended up selling 10 fish over 34 inches. The bite shut off around 1pm and that was it. We tried Monomoy on the way home but it was tough so we called it a day. Most of the commercial guys that were out early limited out by noon.
On Friday, we stopped at Bishops to see about sea bass but it was slow going so we left and went out to our typical July spot in deeper water in Nantucket Sound. We absolutely killed the sea bass up to 6 pounds along with the typical 2 to 3-pounders and even managed a couple of keeper fluke. It was a great day and we ended up with fish for the neighborhood.
Saturday we went back to Chatham for some fun but unfortunately got there late in the day. We should have known that the bite was going to be over early based on the tide and previous days but we gave it a shot anyway. We saw a couple of stripers being picked up on umbrella rigs, but it was slow going. The vertical jigging was not working. We called it a day and headed home. On our way around Monomoy we came upon Bearses Shoal and the rips were still active so we slipped in and saw stripers breaking all over the place feeding on squid. Luckily we had some frozen squid on board and we started tossing them over with a simple hook. We also threw some surface plugs out and bang we were hooking up left and right. The sun was setting but we weren’t leaving. I was slicing open stomachs of the keepers to get more quid for bait.
Eventually the rips died down and we had to make our way back to Bass River 10 miles with that 20 mph SW wind in our face. It wasn’t fun, but Bearses made it worth it.
Jim Egan
Nice fish!
Even though I’m living in Falmouth now – am I still considered a neighbor (I didn’t get any fish …) ???? Congratulations on your catches!!