7/9 Padanaram / MV Report

[riptide]

We ran out of Padanaram this morning about 0600 to see if we could repeat the Gay Head experience of two days ago. No charter today, just a female friend on board who was more interested in the sun than the fish. Weather forecast didn’t look good with big wind forecasted by noon, so we tried for a quick half-day. We ran into birds and fish right outside the jetties at Padanaram, so we stopped and found good numbers of little rat blues in the 14” range. The ride over to Gay Head was a little bumpy but we got there in good time. The swells were sizeable out there in the 4’-5’ range but mostly rollers. The birds were there and the fish were too but the big water made seeing them and moving around quite a chore. They were doing the same sporadic moving that was so typical the other day. The only way I was able to hook up was SUPER LONG casts with the 7’ spinning rod and a 3/4 oz. Hopkins. When the fish would surface you had 5 to 10 seconds to fire the long bomb and hit them in the boil. Distance and accuracy was key. I was able to land 4 fish in about an hour this way, I missed several more good shots with poor lure placement. The tally for this spot 3 blues around 7# and one bass 28”. As the saying goes “The weather started getting rough the tiny ship was tossed” so we ran over toward Menemsha Pond. A quick stop at Dogfish Bar produced nothing but a good look at a bass in the 35” range cruising the flats. He was not interested in what we had to offer. Once inside Menemsha we proceeded to hammer the schoolies in the 15” to 20” range on small rubber shad. The wind began to whip up the pond so it was definitely time to head back to the main land. It was a relatively slow and bumpy ride back, with no more signs of fish. The SW really started to whip up the sound and Buzzard’s Bay on that end. It was what my friend called “a nice BEACH day” not a nice boating day. Water temp was 63.1 at Gay Head, 66 on Dogfish Bar and 69 near Dartmouth.


Capt. Terry Nugent<BR>Riptide Charters<BR>www.riptidecharters.com