Saturday October 4th we set out bound for Chatham to fish for stripers but found the east side of Monomoy too rough with huge swells to make it up 10 more miles. Disappointed, we turned around and right at the southern Monomoy tip we ran right into albies everywhere. We spent the day chasing schools of albies and following the birds. We followed them all the way up around the western coast of Monomoy. We found it hard to hook them as they breached and dove deep back down and coupled with some lost gear, we had to improvise a bit with what we had. I actually caught a couple casting an A27 diamond jig into the breaching schools, something that was new for me.
Sunday October 4th the word was that the tautog were at Bishop and Clerks off Hyannis. We headed out there with a big bucket of green crabs and tautog rigs. As the morning rolled on so did the seas and wind. Being the only boat out there, we stuck it out and we managed our limit of tautog and about 6 shorts for every keeper. With 4 people on the boat and some decent size tautog, we had a good amount of fish in the box. Being anchored in that wind and sea certainly made it more challenging and setting and weighing the anchor was not easy but the reward was certainly well worth it.
I am hopeful for some calmer wind and seas this coming weekend as we are headed to the tuna grounds east of Chatham and hopefully some striper action as well.