Canal friday the thirteenth
A little late but hopefully informative.
I left the Weweantic in Wareham @ 6:30 am friday morning. I battled through the Buzzards Bay chop(17 ' Hydra-sport center console) to west falmouth. The conditions made it near impossible to spot, let alone cast, to breaking fish. Seeking shelter. I decided to hit the west end of the canal. As I inched up the canal towards hog island I had multiple shots at albies and or bonito. As usual they would surface within casting range and either quickly move or sound. With the wind blowing right up the canal and the tide going out I found that killing the engine and drifting was the best method. After 10 exceptional shots(crippled herring and 1oz. deadly dicks) at pods with no takers I motored up to the maritime academy. A boater should require a special course to fish this area. Take wind 20 mph out of the w/sw, an 8 knot tide, heavy boat traffic, and add multiple pods of albies everywhere. Now add about 7 boats all doing their own version of the run and gun. I'm surprised no-one got hurt. Now you have to understand, I tried to do the tight thing. I would drift about a quarter mile stretch where the albies were feeding, engine off. I would get a few casts off when the albies surfaced near me. Inevitably, every time my patient method would pay off, two - three boats would rip right into the school and start casting. On one occasion I had a school all to myself and two fly-fisherman motor right up to me, cast over my line, and start stripping. I could have shaken these guy's hands, although at the time I wanted to give them both a good punch. Immediately the fish sound, the guy on the bow turns to me and says with a straight face, "boy they are fast aren't they". I decide to move except I'm pinned by a 28' center console with twin 150's and two guy's throwing atom popper's over my bow and another flats boat loaded with two more fly fisherman just standing there. As I look back at them I notice Albies breaking right off their transoms. Now I'm ****ed, a few choice words and I gun out of there. The run and gun olympics are now on. I spot a pod about a quarter of a mile away and full throttle it the whole way. The infidel's give chase. This went on for two straight hours. It was so ridiculous that it became fun after a while. I would run full throttle for about a quarter mile and as if on cue, everyone else would give chase. Half the time I was just moving out of the channel. Not only am I trying to outwit pods of nervous albies in skinny water but also the infidel's. Justice is served when I boat two strong albies and lose another right in front of my opposition only after switching to the smallest deadly dick in my bag. Game over. In any case I'm amazed that these fish are in the canal in such numbers, seemingly unaffected by the high traffic and noise. I can only confirm one pod of bonito in the mix. Upon returning to the weweantic river, I stopped at the dock to observe no less than five balls of peanut bunkers riding the tide out along the shore. I've never seen so much bait. I can only guess how many pb's this weeks rain emptied into the bay. I think the next two weeks should be fun. :mad:
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