Black Rose Charters Fishing Report

This past week, Stellwagen Bank has been flush with cod.  Up until last week, we’ve been getting great numbers of cod and haddock at the SWC, right on the western edge.  It didn’t matter much about where you started; some of the drifts were a mile long.  As it often happens, though, that didn’t last.  It became more and more important to watch your fish finder and mark a solid school of fish on the bottom, plotting that spot with your chartplotter.  Find the school, mark it, and precisely drop your baits on that school.  Hook up, reel up, then redrift over that school again and try to stay on it as it moves around.  Leaving the SWC, we made our way up the western edge, marking schools, catching them, and moving on.  Reading my reports and notes from past years, the end of May was incredible on the northern part of the bank.  So…I’ve been there every day since Friday with tremendous success.

 

What we’re finding is that the fish are active in the morning..early.  Then the bite dies down and you really have to be precise about your drifts.. Or…you relax and drift, catching what you may until the bite picks back up in the late morning.  I suspect that the fish are full all morning, then go on the feed again a few hours later.  That next bite has been one for the ages.  Just drop and catch.  We’re not using bait, but rather a 7oz Jig and a rubber shad teaser a foot above the jig.  We’re finding that gold is a better color for the jig in the morning, while silver is better later in the day.  Bright pink teasers have been better, with long white teasers coming in second.

 

 A huge school of stripers has moved onto Stellwagen Bank and that got me excited yesterday as I saw birds working as if they were over tuna.  We had our tuna spinning gear on board in case and it was ready in an instant as we sneaked out of the fleet to the working birds.  But…it was stripers.  Tuna will be here any day now; check out my site for daily reports.  We’ve got some great fishing ahead of us this year with a banner cod and haddock season under way and promise of some big fish to come!

 

As you probably know, mackerel are in right now with a huge school of fish off of Green Harbor in 30-60′ of water, with loads of cod underneath them.  Always keep a livie in the water away from the boat when catching mackerel to get any hungry stripers that are going to be shadowing those mackerel schools. Why not?  See you out there…

  

 

Capt. Rich Antonino

Black Rose Fishing Charters

http://www.blackrosefishing.com

Phone number 508-269-1882

Specializing in 1-4 person charters for cod, haddock, sharks, bluefin tuna (casting and trolling), and stripers.

Life is too short, so have fun out there while you can.