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

Blackstone Gorge- A most Pleasant Surprise

The last week of March I went exploring one day. I decided to go to the Blackstone Gorge in Blackstone, MA just across the Woonsocket line on Route 122. When I went, my area had been snow free for a few days. However, when I pulled into the parking lot, there was a few inches of slush on the ground. I was unprepared for this, and I was wearing sneakers. I didn't go down the short trail, but I did vow to return.

On a whim, Laurie and I decided to go there yesterday. It could not have been a better idea. The weather was comfortable, the trail was dry and the scenery was gorgeous. Right below the parking lot is a dam with a waterfall going over it. Just upstream from the dam is a canoe launch. Just downstream is a trail that runs along the edge of the river for half a mile. The river runs through a small gorge. It narrows and there are cliffs along both sides. The description says the cliffs rise 100 feet. I don't know about that, but I'd say there are spots you can look straight down at the water forty or fifty feet below.

The place reminded me of Purgatory Chasm, except it has a river running through it. I was dam near shocked at how wild the place felt knowing downtown Woonsocket is a mile away. There were some nice seats on top of the cliffs where we could dangle our feet over. The walk is pretty short, but there are some steep pitches and plenty of ups and downs. Because the trail was so short, I'd hesitate to call it strenuous, but in sections it was steep. None the less, the term I'd use for trails that have steep pitches, and smooth rock to climb would be...fun.

Another positive unexpected side note was that the place was full of mountain laurel which was in bloom. With all the eight foot high bushes in full bloom, it felt a lot like a microcosm of Eden. I was amazed by the beauty of this place. If you live within driving distance of the Woonsocket/ Blackstone area this little pocket wilderness is worth the trip.

Blackstone Gorge parking area is at the end of County St, which is off of Route 122 in Blackstone

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Amazing Fishing in Buzzards Bay

    Today I woke up at the ungodly hour of 4 am to fish with my friend Eric Meyer and his son Zach
on Eric's boat boat. Our target was black sea bass in Buzzards Bay. Hopefully scup would be a nice bycatch, and of course any stripers or blues would also be welcome to come aboard the boat. We were in the water by 5:30 am. I was given information on where the fish should be and how to catch them. This info wasn't just helpful pointers. more like a tutorial with all the info we needed to put fish over the boat.  This info was absolutely invaluable. Thanks again!

I brought two rods. One was set up for bait, the other was set up for lures. I never ended up using the bait rod. For lures I used  a three quarter ounce bucktail jig, a 3/4 ounce jig with a 4 inch zoom fluke, and a Kastmaster XL. For the first half of the trip Zach used a bait rod with two hooks. When Eric saw my fish caught on bucktails, he started using them tipped with squid.

To make a long story short, we each caught a hundred fish. While Zach was using the bait he was catching scup after scup with a few sea bass thrown in. When he switched to a bucktail tipped with squid, the percentages flipped to mostly sea bass. However, by that time he had proudly earned the nickname of the "Scup King",

Eric caught almost all his fish on the bucktail. His bucktail was at least an ounce and a half. If you seperated all the big sea bass from the smaller ones we caught today, although we didn't count, I think Eric caught the most over three pounds.

As for me, I had my best luck on the bucktail. I was doing well on the jig/fluke but was going through flukes like crazy due to the pulling nature of the scup and sea bass. The same can also be said of my curly tail grubs I had on to give my lure some action. Scup were chomping the tails to bits.  Sometimes I would also put a small squid strip on any of the three lures I used. I probably caught half my fish with squid tipped hooks and half without. I fished the Kastmaster XL the least, but still caught about five fish on it.

I caught one sea robin. Surprisingly we did not see a any blues or stripers. Most all the scup we caught were over the 10 inch limit. We caught some real monsters at least fifteen inches. I'd say over half the sea bass were keepers. Tons of them were in the 13.5-14.5 inch range (legal to keep is 14 inches and you can keep 8). After the initial few minutes, Eric was only keeping fish over 16 inches. Wanting to go home with fish, I kept a few in the "just over 14 inch mark). I limited out and brought home more scup than I wish I did. Not knowing when I would get back out, I wanted a couple meals
I can honestly say that today was one of the most epic fishing days on my life, but here is the amazing

A typical sea bass for the day by size,
but one of the pretty blue ones

thing; it was just a typical day for Buzzards Bay

photo credits; Me for the pictures of Eric
Eric Meyer for all other photos

One of Zach's huge scup

One of Eric's bigger and prettier fish

Summer Plans

    The last two nights I have not gone fishing. For the first time in weeks I was home on two consecutive nights after supper.I spent my time after work cleaning up my yard. The most fun and also beneficial of it was working on my garden. Although a couple weeks late, in a couple months I will have tomatoes, cucumbers and leaf lettuce (planted in the shade so it won't bolt too quickly.

    After I came in I ate shrimp while watching a live streaming Jimmy Buffett concert. If gardens, shrimp cocktail, and Buffett don't scream that summer is upon us, then I don't know what does. I had a fun spring, but sadly it is just about over. I like spring more than summer not only because of the cooler weather, but because more of my favorite things are peaking then. None the less, as Cher poetically said, you can't turn back time.

   My summer plans are not nearly as diverse as my spring daytrips. For the most part they consist of the ocean and the mountains. Starting with mountains: simply put, I want to go to New Hampshire hiking and trout fishing as much as I can.

   Going to the ocean does not mean hanging out at the beach to me. I have a couple days planned for the next couple weeks. There is a place in Newport that fishes very well the first couple weeks in June when high tide lines up with sunset. This will happen roughly June 1-4.

   Secondly, I know a place also on the island that has big sea robins at high tide. I actually wanted to go there tonight and blow off the yard work, but got out of work too late. I may try again Sunday.

   Third ocean daytrip would be going to Prudence Island. I love going to Prudence but haven't been in years. There is a shallow bay where I snorkle. The south end of the island has a wharf where I once caught big scup. There is a large deer population also. The people are laid back and it id just a fun place to go.

   My last summer daytrip is the Charlestown Breachway. Behind the breachway are mudflats. In late summer, migrating shorebirds stop to rest there. It is fun to see all the birds and to play in the warm water. I am not rushing away the warm weather, but I am looking forward to that trip.

   That is really the stuff I most want to do. Of course, we will probably hit some Cape Cod Baseball League games. I will certainly see some fireworks and I usually go to a zoo at least once.

    My advice, is to put a list together of fun things you want to do this summer. See how many you can cross off. They may have nothing to do with the mountains or my ocean ideas. Still lifes to short not to have fun!

Bass and Carp over Birds

I had an unexpected day off Wednesday. I found out fairly late Tuesday night. I did not have much time to plan a fun day. Being that it was a Wednesday, my instinct was to go to the Joppa Flats bird walks in Parker River NWR. There is a morning and an evening morning walk the Audubon Sanctuary sponsors. I could kill two birds with one stone making the long drive well worth it. In between the two walks I could have gone to Ipswich River or gone shad fishing. The tide ended up being terrible when I checked it, so that left me only Ipswich River, which was fine with me.

Wednesday morning came and I got a 5 am phone call from work that didn't know I had the day off. I couldn't go back to sleep, but I was pretty tired. I got up at 6:30 and started packing my lunch. It was very windy. As much as I would have like to gone on two walks on the same day with experts, I just didn't think there would be a lot of active birds in the strong southwesterly.

It was still early, so when it got to a more appropriate hour I texted my friend Dave to see if he was fishing. He called me right back and said yes. I told him, if he wanted company I could be at his house in 20 minutes. I had packed all my carp stuff in case he said yes.

We went to a venue that he did quite well the day before. We had almost the same weather conditions, but not the same luck. I caught a 22 pound carp within  minutes and we thought they would be in thick. No such luck. It was the only carp caught all day.  We left around 3 pm.

On the way home I started to get a migraine. By the time I got to my house, I knew it was time for a nap. I didn't set the alarm and shut my eyes. I woke up at 5:45, just in time to make a trip to the bay. Wednesday was the last good tide for a couple of days so I didn't want to waste it. I went to a long sandbar. For two and a half hours I was the only one fishing this mile and a half of shoreline. I did not kill them by any means, but I ended up with two stripers and my first blue of the year. I got home about 9:30.

Certainly not the best day fishing, but I still made the right decision to go fishing instead of birding. I read the report from the walk, they didn't see too much. So although, I can say the same, I did save about twenty dollars in gas, and I caught my first blue of the year and a 22 pound carp.

Picture of carp to follow

Birding my Weekend

As mentioned in the shad post below, I birded Thursday and Friday. I did manage to "squeeze" in five

Purple Martin

hours of fishing, but with over fourteen hours of daylight, there is plenty of time to do other things also.

My original plan involved doing a couple of "paid" bird walks. There was a walk at Plum Island on Wednesday night, two different walks on Thursday morning at two locations in Newbury, and another at Plum Friday morning. Somehow I managed to not make it to any of them. After work on Wednesday, it was very windy, I knew there wouldn't be many birds around so I chose to leave early Thursday morning. This saved me about fifty bucks (33 for a campsite and 12 for the walk, and food for supper).

 So I left Thursday morning hoping to make it to either of the two Audubon walks. However, traffic was really bad and I knew I wouldn't make it to either (one started at 8:30, the other at 9 am). There was no way I'd make it through Lowell rush hour traffic, so I changed plans and went to Oxbow NWR in Harvard. I saw some nice birds but nothing new for the year. The highlights were American Redstart, many Red Bellied Woodpeckers, Wood Ducks, Baltimore, Orioles, Red Eyed Vireo, and Yellowthroats. I also saw another Blandings Turtle and heard a Pileated Woodpecker.

After the morning rush, I left Oxbow around 11, and went to Rough Meadows Mass Audubon Sanctuary. It was small and I was there about an hour. I did see a Rose Breasted Grossbeak,Great

Blandings Turtle

Crested Flycatcher, Greater Yellowlegs.

From there I went shad fishing. After fishing I grabbed a campsite at Salisbury Beach (33 dollars). I saw some seals on the rocks, Common Eider sea ducks,and Black Bellied Plovers while walking on the beach. I went to bed about 9 pm. For the day I saw 54 species of vertebrate.

Walking up to light raindrops hitting me in the face, I was packed and ready for my day by 4:50 am. I went to Parker River NWR. My plan was to bird for a couple hours and be back at Joppa Flats to meet for the bird walk at 8am. I lost track of time and when I looked at my phone it was 8:10 am, which meant I went 0-3 on my planned walks (however I did save forty four dollars, but I am positive I would have seen more total species going with experts).

By far the highlight of my five hours of the morning was a coyote that was hunting in the Hellcat area. It was stalking something in the brush. Besides the coyote, I saw Northern Shoveler, Bobolinks, Turkey, and Willet, I drove to the end of the road at Sandy Point. There piping plover and least terns were everywhere. On the way to Sandy Point, a guy pointed out a Willow Flycatcher which was a life bird for me. At this point I realized I missed my walk.

I went back to the Hellcat area which is famous for warblers. I found a Bay Breasted Warbler and a Magnolia Warbler. Both were life birds for me. A guy pointed out the call of a Black Billed Cukoo, that I distinctly could hear. I also saw some other Redstarts, Yellow Warblers, and Marsh Wrens. All total I saw 44 species on the island.

I had lunch and drove to Mill Pond Rec Area in West Newbury. This was the site of one of Thursday

y morning's walks (the other was Rough Meadows). I didn't see much there, but did see my first ever Indigo Bunting. I listened to it call and got great looks. When I got back to my car and listened to it on my bird calls cd. Kind of a neat way to learn calls.

After Mill Pond it was only a five minute drive to my shad fishing spot, where I caught three before making the one our and fifteen minute drive home.

All total I saw 76 different species. I had a total of six life birds, but I'm only counting four (counting the Bay Breasted, Willow Flycatcher, Indigo Bunting, and Magnolia. I heard the Cukoo which counts in the birding world, but I want to see it. I also saw a female Cape May Warbler in a bush, but it was a quick look and couldn't identify any field marks.) I also had another nine first of the year animals (piping plover, least tern, bobolink, coyote,cedar waxwing, and black bellied plover, American Shad, eel, mummys,) All in all a great two days off from work.

Piping Plover

A Successful Shad Run

I spent the last two days in the Newburyport area. I did quite a bit and never stopped "playing" from 5:30 am till dark both days. I have a lot to write about, but I'll break it down into topics in individual posts.

One thing I was hoping to make time for was shad fishing the Merrimack River.  I used to fish for American Shad in the Indianhead River in Hanover. I haven't gone in almost a decade. The drive is long and I'm usually playing for a fish or two. I had never fished the Merrimack for shad. I know there is a large run. I had read some OTW articles about where to fish.

I found out that high tide was about 3 pm yesterday and the spot I planned on fishing is best from high to two hours down. I got to the spot I wanted (a spot within a spot) and thankfully no one was there. I casted out my 1/8 oz. lime green shad dart. AS with any new type of fishing, although I had a game plan, I really didn't expect to score. Luckily for my confidence level, I hooked into a shad right away. I got him in (it was a male) and took some pictures. I was happy to get my first shad in a decade. Only ten minutes later I had another. I thought how much easier this was than fishing the Indianhead. Then for the next 90 minutes...nothing. That was okay, I was more than thrilled to catch even one shad.

So of course I went back today, after sleeping overnight at Salisbury Beach and birding Plum Island in the morning. I landed three in the 90 minutes that I fished after high tide. I got there early to snag my spot long before the tide was high, only to find it occupied by four bottom fishermen. They left right at high tide and I was in that spot before they had drove away. Catching five shad in my brief time fishing for them was very unexpected. At the Indianhead River I used to HOPE for one hit an hour, never mind land them. So in my book the last two days fishing were outstanding!