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6/7 with Capt Ray

2K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  Adrian 
#1 ·
My dad and I got up at o'dark thirty in central CT to meet Capt Ray in his driveway at 4:30 am. We hit the water before sunup and then went searching for bait. After a while we hit a nice mud flat and two schoolies were taken, and then from dead low to a few hours later we had nothing but a few bite-offs from bluefish.

After seeing a large gathering of boats at one particular spot in the bay, we went just past the fleet and found a few nervous schools of large adult pogies. Blues were streaking under and through them, and although a few were connected with none were landed. My dad snagged a pogie that was immediately grabbed by a large blue that we assumed was hooked....after a minute, half a pogie was brought alongside the boat with a large blue still following. The fish circled the bait, took it, and ran again. Still not a hookup, but it played tug of war with my dad for another moment or two before leaving.

One more schoolie was caught towards the end of the outing. Finding bait (aside from the pogies) was tough....nothing really seemed to be concentrated. Capt Ray took us all over in search of fish, but we didn't see anyone really knocking 'em dead.

Highlights: Comaraderie among the crew, the experience of spending time on a great fishing boat, my dad's pet pogies :)D ), and seeing dad out chasing fish after last year's bypass surgery

Lowlights: Seeing over a dozen deer along the highway on the way to Providence, and seeing a handful of dead deer along the highway on the way back.

Thanks Ray....we had fun. Next time we'll invite the stripers. :)
 
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#4 ·
Ray,
Good to hear you back on the water. Remember some fish is better than no fish. Sounds like all had a great day even if there was a lack of willing participants of the finny persuasion. Big blues on big bunker are always fun though and I found a way to catch them on the fly when they are in that feeding mode. Just put on the biggest fly you have and cast into the melee, let sink and strip two handed as fast as possible then stop, usually illicits a very vicious hit and hookup. Stumbled on this one a few years ago and it has worked everytime since. Big blues on the flyrod though are a pain in the A** if you know what I mean. Very difficult to control and land, and I value my fingers far too much to play with them often. I have been into hit and miss bass fishing the last week or so, when it is good it is real good and when it isn't it's awful. The weather is really playing havoc with the fish, they don't seem to be into a pattern yet with the unpredictable weather pattern. Once it stabilizes I think we will see some very good fishing............But when will it stabilize is the question.

Tightlines,
Mike Mayo
 
#5 ·
Striper said:
Big blues on big bunker are always fun though and I found a way to catch them on the fly when they are in that feeding mode. Just put on the biggest fly you have and cast into the melee, let sink and strip two handed as fast as possible then stop, usually illicits a very vicious hit and hookup. Stumbled on this one a few years ago and it has worked everytime since.
Mike....tried that as my first method for about half an hour and still no results. Glad to hear that I was on the right track though. :)
 
#6 ·
Sounds like you guys had a blast!

Interesting how we tend to put stereotypes around fish - particularly the likes of bluefish and barracuda which fall into the "vicious - aggressive - slash at anything that moves" mold.

I've encountered many barrcuda with as good a case of lockjaw as any permit. I've also seen big bluefish finning in the bathtub at Chatham completely ignoring anything and everything thrown at them. Then the feedbag goes on and we encounter that mysterious selective feeding behavior.

Something to do with hormone levels and genetics no doubt!

But it does make the game that much more interesting - if every day was a fish per cast it wouldn't be fun anymore.
 
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