As the song goes, “Happy days are here again” — at least on the local fishing front. First, we got a nice bump-up in water temperatures, which are now pretty much in the low to mid 60s everywhere. And right on cue, with the water temps going up, the bluefish arrived.
There were significant numbers of bluefish in the bay on Saturday from Wood End to Race Point. They were camped in the deep water off the edges and very hungry.
I was running the Beth Ann for Capt. Rich, who was in Connecticut with his new grandbaby, and we were trolling swimming plugs in the deep water and catching bluefish ranging from about three to 10 pounds. Just inshore of us, in much shallower water, the boats were fishing for and catching striped bass really well. There were a lot of boats here from as far away as Plymouth and Sandwich, which tells me not much was going on anywhere else.
The number of sand eels in our waters right now is beyond belief — the most I’ve seen in quite some time. I’ve been checking the stomach contents of the bass and bluefish we are catching, and it looks like they’re eating nothing but sand eels. Mackerel are mostly up on the south end of Stellwagen Bank, but some are still showing up in the Horseshoe Cove every now and then.
We knew this already on the CeeJay but had a customer prove it to us again last week: age is just a number. If you’re young at heart, you can defy the years and have a lot of fun.
When 85-year-old Bob Lynch from Dorchester walked down our gangway and told us he’d been fishing off Cape Cod his entire life, we thought it was nice that he wanted to take a boat ride, but we figured he’d probably retired from the fishing. Tammy Rabbett, who is the CeeJay’s mate and also a registered nurse who specializes in caring for older patients, took an immediate shine to Bob and promised to hook a fish for him and hand it off to be reeled in.
Well, guess what? Bob did not need anyone to hook a fish for him. He picked up a rod and reel and hooked and landed his own 31-inch striped bass — a keeper just within the slot size. Tammy fileted it up so he could take his fish home ready to eat. Way to go, Bob. Turns out that happy days do not have an age limit. He has promised to come back for another trip soon.
Commercial bass season opened last week, and the quota is the same as last year: 683,773 pounds. Commercial open days are Tuesday and Wednesday, with a potential for Thursday opening up as the season progresses, depending largely on how quickly the quota is nearing completion by July 31. Minimum commercial bass size is still 35 inches, and a 15-fish bag limit per day is still in play. We should start seeing it in the local fish markets soon.
