I’ve been slow on reports lately between weather, holidays, and work. Now that the summer is in full swing I’m in offshore mode.
Yesterday I met up with Kevin and Patrick for the trip we planned to take before Arthur (that one ended up with an afternoon shark trip). This time we left in the dark and were greeted by glassy smooth pastels. 1 hour into our run we started seeing breaking fish and bait about every 50 yards. We stopped seeing breaking fish 7 miles later. Yes I said 7 miles of bluefish. We found the same on the ride home although more aggressively feeding later in the day. I have never seen such a large congregation of bluefish rolling n the surface as far as you could see for 7 miles on the GPS. We found more of the life we were looking for at our target destination 15 miles later. Out went the Hogy Lures jet head chains and small squid bars as well as a few Hookup splasher bars rigged with smaller squid. Soon after going lines in we started picking up bluefish. The rest of our day was good, but one of the most memorable sights was watching a 6 ft thresher shark tail start beating the life out of a bluefish Patrick released 50 yards away. We just stood there and watched. After a couple hours and the life dying out we decided to save the rigs from being trashed by bluefish and picked up to stretch our legs a bit.
A short run brought us into warmer water and more life. Molas, dolphins, whales, halfbeaks, frigate mackerel etc. Despite what seemed like a sure thing, we came up empty again after a few more hours. Faced with the urge to run farther into the warmer water I trusted my gut and returned to the northerly life. A few extra shearwaters and a whale made me stop 4 miles from our waypoint. By the time rod #3 was out the bird/chain shotgun was singing. We settled in after trying to tease up another bite, by then the fish was well into the backing and still dumping line. Patrick made a nice long reach gaff shot while Kevin leadered and a fat fish stuffed with sand eels landed on the deck. In no time we had rods back out and circled back on our waypoint. 2 bars were swapped with 2 bird/chain combos and sent to the end of the 100 yd top shot. All it took was one pass and down goes another rod with a second bird/chain. Patrick went to work and quickly had out second fish boat side. This one was tailed, and quickly buried on ice. I didn’t want any marks on the fish at all, considering its destination at Fished Impressions in Salem.
With time running short we made another 2 passes over our waypoint and sure enough a third fish boiled on the right short rigger twice. We teased and teased but could not get that third fish to come back and take. 2 quick work trips and a bunch of offshore trips over the coming month. Weather permitting I’ll come up for air somewhere around the end of August just in time for Bonito and Albies!
Shaun Ruge
Riptide Charters
Cape Cod, MA
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