Back in Buzzards Bay

Fishing was so good last week fishing on Eric Meyer's boat in Buzzards Bay, that he decided to go again this week (weather permitting). Of course, I was invited to go again. We started a little later today than last week. We hit the water sometime around 6 am. The weather couldn't have been any better. All day long the water was glass calm. On the water the temperature was around 80 degrees (about ten degrees cooler than the high inland)

To keep this some what short we ended up finding the fish again ( it wasn't difficult). There are so many sea bass in the fishery, it would be almost impossible to not hook some. Last week it was no exaggeration that we each caught 100 fish. Today, it was more like 50-60 a piece. Trust me, it did not feel like fishing was only half as good. The bite did not seem to turn on until about 8 am. Once the fish started hitting it was non stop.

There were two glaring differences today compared to last Friday. Both days one member of our team (last week it was Zach. this week it was Eric's friend Jim Schmidt who is a great guy) was using squid for a few hours on a high/low rig.  That means he had two hook baited with squid. Last week, Zach reeled up at least 40 scup, most over a foot. Today, Jim caught about 6-8 scup. One was huge, but mostly they were of more normal proportions.

The other difference was that the sea bass today were much bigger. It seems sea bass do not school by size. You could catch a five pounder while your buddy reels one up under a foot. Obviously if each member of the boat catches between 50-100 fish,  there are going to be plenty of shorts, an average size, and hopefully a few trophies. I would say that at least 75% of our fish today were over the 14 inch minimum. Of those many were in the 15-17 inch range. We got a half dozen over eighteen inches, and Eric caught the biggest at just under 20 inches. Comparatively, last week we had three or four over seventeen inches ( however plenty in the 14-16 inch range, but percentage wise it was probably two shorts per keeper Keep in mind that means we still let go a hundred keepers last week.). I thought fishing couldn't get any better last week, but I was wrong, I loved catching the big fish today.

If you go:

It won't be hard to find sea bass, but if you can't look for the boats.

We launched out of Wareham, it was a fifteen minute ride to the fish

As I wrote above, one member of our crew was using squid. Last week Eric used a bucktail jig (about 1 1/2 ounces) tipped with squid. I used mostly a bucktail last week sometimes tipped with a curly tail grub or a piece of squid. Today, I used my 3/4 ounce homemade jig exclusively. I never tipped it with bait. Eric started with a piece of squid on his bucktail, but switched half way through. Jigging a Kastmaster XL or a Deadly Dick will get sea bass over the stern also.

The wind with the biggest waves in Buzzards Bay is a southwest. Make sure you check the nautical forecast.

Make sure you bring lures for blues and stripers because they can pop up anytime.

Good luck, and if their are any typos, I admit, I am not proofreading this right now. My baked sea bass is cooked and it looks delicious