On Thursday July 24, 2014 we plowed through the thick fog to get to Chatham. It was a little daunting without radar but we made it and caught up with the commercial fleet early in the morning. The striper fishing was great for the first half of the day. Vertical jigging continues to be the way to go and once that bite shuts off guys were going to wire line and umbrella rigs. We ended up catching 27-28 stripers that were all over 32 inches. We had our chances but lost a few big fish next to the boat. The fog cleared in the early afternoon which made for a much better ride back to the Bass River.
Back at the dock I heard that Handkerchief Shoal was doing well, if you want to snap wire line all day.
We also got out on Saturday, July 26th. The wind was blowing 15+ knots out of the SW so we decided to not go very far. We tried right out in front of the Bass River for fluke. We got a tip that there were fluke there last week and we were successful there last week. Despite the 4 footers and wind, we managed to boat 5 keeper fluke. They were not huge (17-20 inches) but to only have to travel 1.5 miles outside the river was great on the gas tank and considering the wind, I didn’t want to go much further anyway. 5 keeper fluke was plenty for a few meals.
Jim Egan