Now Booking 2011 Trips!
February 21, 2009 by Capt. Bob Paccia
Jim Borrebach's 39" striper
We’re getting ready for the upcoming season. Now is a great time to book those trips for the prime season.
Think May and June for big stripes, July for those excellent bluefish trips, and August/September for the Albies and other migratory species we love!
Oct. 20th 2010 – Last Day on the Water
February 21, 2009 by Capt. Bob Paccia
Striper fishing continues to improve throughout Buzzards Bay. School after school of hungry stripers from 20″ to just keeper size are feasting on silversides, baby bunker and juvenile blueback herring and alewives. Much larger bass are appearing with increasing frequency as the fall migration gets underway. We have had particularly good results on these big bass using large weighted crab patterns fished on the bottom. A prime location to use these crab look-alikes is along the sandy drop-off where the large bass patrol along the edges. If you can establish a drift that allows your fly to bounce (in crab fashion), you have a good chance to land a trophy-sized linesider.
Bluefish continue to smack anything that moves above or below the surface. If you’re looking for some great topwater action, now’s the time to use a floating line or better yet an intermediate line with poppers, sliders or gurglers. The trick here is to be sure that you are using enough line to get your cast out to where you want it, but no more. The mistake that most novices make is to have too much loose line left over either in their stripping basket or on deck. You want to be able to start your first strip as soon as the fly hits the water. This is especially important when you are using an intermediate line, as it will start to pull the popper under if left unattended too long. Remember, these are fast moving saltwater fish, not freshwater largemouth bass, and you only have a few seconds to attract their attention. If you get a strike and they miss your popper, stop and start your abrupt strip again, as often times the wake caused by the approaching fish actually pushes the popper away and out of their reach.
False albacore have been a here today and gone tomorrow type deal so far this year. Expert fly angler and good friend, Marc Feldman from Townsend, MA knows firsthand how frustrating these speedsters can be. Marc, as usual, booked a half dozen trips this year for stripers, bluefish, false albacore and bonito. He has caught all the stripers up to 30# that he has wanted, more bluefish than he’s wanted and has had dozens or so shots at false albacore, but has had only one false albacore hook-up. When I told Marc about Jill Gardener, from Peabody, Ma who on a recant trip took three false albacore on her maiden trip, which was the first time that she had ever fished with a flyrod! Marc just gave the headshake expression of the Aflac duck. I guess that why we all fish so hard for a fish that you can’t even eat. It’s the quest!
The bonito scene is still pretty slim in our waters. Once in a while you’ll see a pod or two, but we’re still waiting to see them in catchable numbers.