Out three times this past week - Tues the 28th fishing was much better. We started out of Sandwich at 6am. Trolling bunker spoons was our method of attack. Around 6:20 we had a 38 # Striper boated. For the next hour and a half we only had one more hit. The talk of the week was Race point, so that's where we headed. Our plans were to troll tube and worm, but when we arrived we were flabbergasted with boat traffic. Everyone and there brother who had a commercial license, were drifting eels. Lots of fish were boated of commercial size. We tried our best to troll between the pack, and managed 3 more fish. As the tide left, off to Sandy Neck we journied. Boating two more 20 # ers on spoons,our day was over. Wednesday was the day that we ventured out of Chatham, back to the Tuna grounds. Upon a one hour ride through the heavy fog we landed on a huge pod of bait. The bait ball was surrounded by whales, also Stripers and Bluefish. Working the Sandeel batch, we found no sign of Tuna. Working feverishly for the next eight hours we never hooked up. At times we could barely see the bow of the Doubled Up. It's too bad that the fog was so thick, only two 65" fish were landed from the fleet. Thursday we loaded up with eels to hit the race hard ! As usual the weather man was wrong again ! Calling for the seas to be calm in the morning, we left port in a 20 +mph sw wind. This wind would keep us away from the Race for a while. We decieded to pull spoons in the wind and the rain for a while. The weather dictated that we stay within a couple fo miles off the beach. This only brought us one rod pinning strike, with the hook pulling after a short fight. As the day went on the weather broke, and we ran to the race. Things looked much brighter as there were only about three dozen boats, versus over two hunderd on Tues. On the first drift we boated our first bass of the day. With the tide diminishing we were fortunate to land five more keepers. All of these fish were between 14 and 25 pounds. Giving the Cape a break for a week or two, off to Ontario I go for a couple of trips. I am excited to see the numbers of fish we marked, and look forward to a excellent August. Look for a new post in about a week.

Sorry this blog is missing a couple of weeks . We have been hitting the waters regularly-but the computer blew up! This report is our Trips July 13,14,15,18 &19. On July 13 we fished off Monomy Island for a 5 keeper Striped Bass(up to 33")with numerous shorts. Most of the fish were caught throwing topwaters although the larger Bass were caught jigging parachutes.The 14th was the first day of commercial season. We headed to Martha's Vinyard to fish the rips off the southeast corner ( ). When we arrived we found very warm water (72`), along with many bluefish. We recieved a phone call from a friend whom was fishing out of Barnstable and doing quite well. We decided to pull the boat to increase our chances to catch saleable fish (>34"). We arrived to a slow outgoing tide and decided to chunk. Again, numerous schoolies was the only thing to hit the deck. Off the water to dinner,we went. Arriving back at the ramp at dark, we would fish till 11pm. Again nothing but schoolies ! Wednesday the 15 we decided to hit the offshore grounds for some Tuna action. Around 9 am we had a fish come up and hit our long outside bar. Mark perfectly fought the 150 # plus Tuna for 25 min only to have the hook pull. Not quite sure what had happened ? The 18th we had a last minute cancellation and decided to play around the Vineyard for a few hours. We never wet a line that afternoon, our Lowrance HDS units told us not to waste out efforts. The 19th one of my favorite groups decided to let us venture off shore in pursuit of Bluefin. Trolling until 11 am we never raised a fish, though there was a lot of radio chatter of fish being caught. Back to the rips of Monomy we went for out last couple of hours. When we had arrived there I had noticed a angler pulling a 30 incher over the rail. That fish was the only live thing that I had seen for the next 3 hours. Including any birds ,seals or crustaceans ! Sunday the 19th will go down in history as to be my first GOOSE EGG Charter ! As the water temperatures set up, my belief is to see the fishing pick up. Last August was our best month, let's keep our fingers crossed.

The McLaughlin's joined us on Fri (July 3) for a trip to Monomoy.Tyler and myself tried to catch bait (bunker)in Stage Harbor before the trip, with no success. We picked up the group at 7 am and headed to the rips off Chatham. The tide was not running when we arrived there, so we back tracked to the flats off Stage Harbor. Caught a few small Blues (2 pounder's) and headed back thru the fog to the rips. Dumped a 100 yds of wire off the reels , and throttled back. Tyler (The Jig Master)explained to the group how to work the parachute jigs. Ward immediately hooked up with a nice 20 lb Bass. As he was working the fish close to the boat Tyler hooked up on the other rod. As they were bringing the fish close to the boat in the pea soup fog, I noticed some large Bass busting the surface. Grabbed the spinning rod, and now we had three on. Unfortunately,the fog was so thick we could that we could not stay on top of the busting fish. Back to jigging we went,now Meghan was on the wire. She was the next to hook up with a 25 # Striper and bring it to boat side. After landing that one,She Beat Tyler to the next one. She repeated this several more times letting Tyler hook up once and awhile. William (he 6yr old trooper) , was even in on the action. Teaming up with his dad he managed to wind in a couple. Bob and his boys, concentrated on casting to the surfacing Stripers. They did manage to raise a few and bring them to boat side as well. The only thing that could have been better for the trip, would have been less or no fog. You couldn't see 50 yds, and if you could have you could have filled the boat casting to the breaking fish. We kept loosing sight of them ! Back out next week ! <'////><