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WOW! What a boat ride!!

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WOW! What a boat ride!!

Old 08-12-2011, 07:52 AM
  #11  
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Hey Phil, With Tidal currents that strong you will probably need a lot of weight to keep your rig on bottom. Those sinkers you mentioned with the # 6 on them weigh 6 ounces - probably a good weight to start with if you decide to use bait.
For a bait rig - just tie one of those big sinkers on the bottom and space two # 6 or #8 forged hooks on short dropper loops above that, but still close to bottom - bait up with chunks of clams or worms and have at it. There is probably a bait shop where you can get the frozen or fresh clams around there somewhere.
I quit using the bait a long time ago, because you are apt to catch most anything when you do that. Spiny Dogfish sharks - Skates and Rays and sculpins and ling and these things are all a royal pain in the butt when you are wanting the Cod and Haddock.
You be careful out there - especially in the fog - that some bigger boat don't run over you. I almost had that happen to me a couple of times and it is some scary. Our little boats don't show up too well on their radar most times. It is real spooky, when you are just idling along in the dense fog and all of a sudden a Lobster boat appears 10 feet off your bow. You need to have an extra pair of underwear along on days like that.
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Old 08-15-2011, 06:17 AM
  #12  
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Warren,

Thanks for the info. I took my brother in-law with me yesterday as he says he knows the water pretty good. He grew up in the area we were fishing in. So I got him to go out with me. Even though we had marked a lot of fish we came up empty again. He also told me that after all the trawlers drag the place back in the 70's and early 80's the fishing has never been the same. He was surprized to find out all the herring are back in the bay now. He was also surprized at were I had been marking a lot of fish at. He wanted to mostly catch a good feed of mackeral so I made sure he did before we got back.

The fish I have been marking he told me is were they catch a lot of halibut so we have no idea what they were again. I did have so pretty heavey hits that I missed. They were down around 170 feet of water. It was a great day out any ways and we saw a whale going by us as well as plenty of seals. I also saw something come flying out of the water just above the old sow. We do not have any idea what it was though for sure. It was huge maybe 12 to 14 feet long and gray on the back and all white on the underside. I am thinking maybe a shark as we could not hear it blow any air and those harbor dolphins are darker than what that was. There was a lot of current where it jumped out of the water at. So who knows what it was though it was neat to see. We had traveled nearly 27 miles down into the bay.

On the way back up I had bumped a ledge and did some damage to the prop I will be needing to get repaired when I put the boat away for the winter. I can still use it for another month or so as it is right now. We also saw what I am thinking was some huge strippers hitting the water in closer to shore by a couple of sandy coves. The water was spraying up into the air pretty high and to me that is what it looked like. Years ago a 45lber was caught on the Canadian side of this area. Unfortunately this week I will be working the night shifts straight threw until Saturday then back in on Sunday day shift. So it will be a while before I can get back out there. I am thinking about going after those fish jumping that looked like stripers for now though. Then if I can boat one I will try the other fish again.
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Old 08-15-2011, 09:21 AM
  #13  
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It sounds like you had a great day on the water Phil.
Those fish you saw spraying water up in the air, were most likely Bluefish. I have never seen big Stripers feed like that. They might swirl on the surface - but Bluefish are the violent surface feeders like you describe. Besides - I read in a fishing report today - that the Blues are definitely there now, so look for the Mackerel to be moving out pretty soon. They don't much like those Bluefish.
Man - I wish you weren't so far away - I would bring my boat up and we could go out buddy boating and then we would see about those fish!
By the way - on a different subject - my wife and I were just sitting reading and it was real quiet and I heard this Peep - Peeping sound - and I looked out the window and the yard was full of wild turkeys. There were three hens with their broods and from what we could count there were around thirty of the little varmints running around. It was like a three ring circus there for a little while. The young ones were all sizes, from 4 the size of banty hens to 10 that were about three quarters grown.
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Old 08-17-2011, 05:17 AM
  #14  
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Yes we had a great day Warren that is for sure.. It is always great to be out on the water IMO..Sunday when we were out the swells were running two and ahalf to three feet. So we kept out quite a ways and could not really tell what was causing the water to spray up like it did. I was thinking stripers only because when I was down Southern Maine I saw stripers coming completely out of the water. When they hit the water they sounded like a large piece of pulpwood landing in the water. We couldn't hear or see what exactly was causing it though. We saw this several times when coming up through. They were alot closer to the shoreline than we were. Maybe blues though I wouldn't really know. The mackeral normally stays in the bay until around mid September or a little later. They have come in a little early this year though and are running small for the most part.

I have not seen many turkeys since last spring but they are around here now. I got a chance to shoot both my allow toms this spring. One of them was a jake though. We have a doe and a fawn or two around the house here and I live right in town. I have not seen any fawns but the doe has her milk bag so I know she has at least one around my house some place handy. I am sure they will be showing up together before to long.
Take care,
Phil
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Old 08-17-2011, 12:33 PM
  #15  
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It's really interesting, to hear that you have seen the big Stripers come clear out of the water like that down in southern Maine. I have just never happened to be in the right place I guess. I have seen Schoolies do that lots of times though. Just goes to show - you can always learn something new. Thanks.
I've never hunted Turkeys before, but I have a shotgun now and I think, with all these birds around I will have to give it a try this year. We live in the country - just outside of town - so I can walk out my back door and be hunting.
Best of luck Phil,
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Old 08-20-2011, 02:36 AM
  #16  
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Hi Warren, Here is something about the bay I have been fishing in. The only difference is that this is on the other side of the bay.. It is about a young great white shark said to be 600lbs.. So now I do not know what to think of some of the activity I have been seing.. Here is what was in yesterdays news paper up here..
http://bangordailynews.com/2011/08/1...east-seaboard/
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Old 08-20-2011, 04:40 AM
  #17  
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Hi Phil,
How goes the night shift?
That was an interesting article on the great Whites - thank you. I can't say it surprises me though. I have been predicting that more of the big sharks would start showing up pretty soon, as there are a lot more seals along our coasts now than in many years. Back about 2002 I think it was -I was doing a lot of Striper fishing around the Isles of Shoals off New Hampshire, and on some of those Islands - the rocks would be covered with seals, and other fishermen and Lobstermen were talking about seeing big sharks around at that time. I didn't see any myself though. I remember thinking - I hope some big sharks do show up and help control the growing seal population. There are way too many seals now.
Like that article said, back before that Jaws movie - after which they started killing as many sharks as they could - there were enough sharks around to help control the numbers of seals.
In Alaska - At the Power plant where I worked - one of the shift engineers was an old Salmon gill netter, from the days when they could only use sail to power the gill net boats, and he told of having to carry a rifle on board to shoot the seals out of their nets because they would go along and just bite the heads off all the salmon caught in the net and making them useless for sale. He said that there would be whole herds of seals doing this and it would ruin all their hard work if they didn't shoot them. He said that sometimes, they would take an extra hand along on board just to kill seals. Now - the do- gooders and bunny huggers have got laws passed that wont allow this any more - so there have got to be way too many seals today. The balance of nature needs to be restored.
Like the article said - the Great Whites are not interested in eating people - but it still might not be a bad idea to get you a little bit bigger boat? as they might mistake you for a funny looking seal.
I am thinking real strongly about selling my little fresh water boat and getting another center console salt water boat, as I have found that I really do prefer salt water fishing. I have noticed there are some very good deals out there on used boats right now and I am thinking real strong on taking advantage of that. I am thinking - maybe a 21 foot Parker boat.
Tight lines and bouncing bobbers.
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Old 08-20-2011, 12:20 PM
  #18  
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Those long 12 hr night shifts has been rough to say the least. We had a quite a few runability issues. Then my relief called in one day shift which made me work an eighteen hr shift in the middle of it all. I am glad this past 5 and 1/2 shifts are done so I can start my day shift in the morning. I am also glad this coming week wil put me back to my normal shifts as well. So it looks like I will be back out fishing again on Thursday at the latest.

Yeah, I am not used of fishing around sharks period although we do have those smaller sand sharks and dog fish forever it seams like. Great whites are a whole different ball game if you ask me.. Just like in the JAWS movie.. They are nothing I will be wanting to mess with.. I did find the story in the paper an interesting read though..

The seal population also arises from less harvesting being done in the early winter months because of all the enviro crap going on. They put toughter restrictions on them in Canada. So not so many seal pups are being taken also adds to our seal problem.
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Old 08-20-2011, 05:13 PM
  #19  
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Hey Phil, Glad you are done with those night shifts for awhile. I am very familiar with 12 hour shifts and relief guys calling in sick. I have even worked a few doubles in my day. I was a power plant operator and shift supervisor for thirty years until I retired in 1997. Man - I always hated those 12 hour night shifts - trying to stay awake after 3 am was almost impossible for me, especially if there was not too much going on and the plant was running smooth.
My wife and I are going to be gone fishing over to Lake Champlain for the next 6 days, and I wont be on line till we get back next Saturday.
Good luck on the fishing Phil and take care.
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Old 08-24-2011, 07:04 AM
  #20  
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I hope you and your wife have a great time out there.. Good luck on the fishing, I have heard it was great fishing out there. I hope to go to up state New York one of these years to try the fishing. I have heard that was great fishing as well.

I will be heading back down to the bay fishing tomorrow and will be trolling a couple of eels to see if any stripers are still there. Then going farther down again to try my luck again. On the way back up I will catch a few mackeral for a friend that has asked me for some. Maybe even try for a few flounders. I am planning to make the day of it..
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