fly rod tuna

Snuck one in the other day. Steve and I had an awesome day with many spinning rod hook ups. The first fish of the day to make it boat side came on the fly. Steve made short work of this fish, putting the right amount of pressure and keeping him tight. After a 16 minute battle we had the fish to the boat and iced him down. Great job. We then went on bunch after bunch, hooking up and having a lot of missed takes on the fly stick. All in all a great day on the water with ideal conditions for October. The year is winding down for us up here on Cape Cod, the water temps are in the mid fifties, the fish will be around till the end of November but we shall see if they stay in the numbers that we've been seeing. I would like to give a big thanks to my friend Captain Jeff Smith for throwing me trips when he was too busy during the '09 season. This has greatly helped me, as this is my first year chartering full time.

tuna days

slideshow

tuna video

Today I fished with Alan and his friend Matt -- an action-packed day on the water, awesome conditions. The fish were all over halfbeaks, balling them up and crashing through the schools at Mach speed. The takes were some of the best I have ever seen on topwater. All fish were taken on OCEAN LURES plugs. Just a great day.

tuna and more tuna

Had another great day on the water with Capt Jeff Smith and Capt Gill Burke. We went 1 for 4 on fish that were charged up after the blow yesterday. They were brutes, most fights went for a half an hour. The bait is not as thick as the day before but we managed some nice fish. The takes on plugs OCEAN LURES have been very explosive and the vertical RONZ still gets it done. I'm totally spent after today -- way too many fish in the last couple of weeks. It will only get better as the fall is upon us and the fish will feed heavy. Just hope the weather will hold up. Back at it again tomorrow, hope to get one stuck on the fly. Thanks for an awesome day off. Looking forward to doing it again.

Capt Josh.

topwater tuna

The last couple of days have been epic for the topwater tuna feed. I have enjoyed some of the best fishing ever. The fish are averaging close to seventy inches and the spinning tackle has brought them to the boat in good time with an average of 15 minutes per fight, with clean releases. The single hooks all have been in the corner of the mouth and the fish have been easily swum and let go to fight another day. If you are looking to tackle one of these bruisers look me up as the fishing should only get better with the fall upon us. Today I had 10 hook-ups, brought four to the boat; the others were clean hook pulls after a short battle. The troll bite will also get hot so if you prefer to do that we can accommodate you.

Capt Josh.

bassachusetts

The other day I had Mike, Tac, Frank and Ed out for a half day of bass fishing. The topwater feed was on and we nailed lots of fish on top. The jigs also caught a fair amount with most of the big stuff coming down deep. This was a great morning of fishing. I know the guys had a great day, lots of fillets to go around. Till next time.

Josh.

the boyz from wellfleet

Today I had some great boys out for some bass fishing -- Juan, Eli, and Lavi. The fishing started out a little slow but we managed to get the bass to bite. Lots of 5 to 10 pound fish, and we did boat about a dozen quality fish in the 15 to 25 range. The weather left a lot to be desired with pea soup fog but the fishing made up for that. Glad they came out and had some fun before they head back to school. Great day I will see you next year.

Capt Josh.

Yesterday I had Blake on the boat for a short day of combo fishing. Sundays are so hard on the water -- the googens are all over the place -- but it was his last day on the Cape and the only day I had open. We started off at all the local haunts, seeing some splashers but nothing to get worked up over. Ran a few miles and set up with vertical jigging outfits, marked some tuna but had no luck. We did manage to pull out some nice bass up to thirty pounds. That put a smile on our faces. Working out east only to find groups of humpbacks and not a lot of feed for them so we pushed on and found the mother lode of pushing fish up on top. It was a mixed bag of tuna, some in the one hundred class range and some much bigger. We left them for the stick boats. Blake had multiple shots with not a lot of joy, but that's tuna fishing. It takes patience. As the fish get bigger they are acting more like giants every day, and with the amount of live bait kite fisherman out there It can be hard to get bites. The fish are getting an early education.

Capt. Josh       

top shelf fishing

The light tackle fishing has been getting better and better every day this week. My guys today -- Andy, and his sons Sam and Theo -- had a top shelf day with fish coming on every cast on top water baits and vertical jigs. I think it was the best day of the week so far, we boated at least thirty bass from 15 to 25 pounds.  Andy decided to pick up the fly rod and caught fish on every cast; the fly-caught fish were some of the best of the day till the pressure pushed the fish out and to deeper water. Then we moved to the parking lot to catch a few small bass and some monster blues. All in all a great day with the boys. They are great anglers and I am looking forward to having them again.    

Capt. Josh

hundreds of cow bass on top

Today was an epic day. I have not seen as many cow bass in a long time, there were hundreds upon hundreds of cows lazying around on the surface and we had a great time catching them on light tackle and the fly. Dick was amazed at the sheer amount of fish we encountered, quite mind-boggling. We spent the better part of four hours catching them, and as the sun came out of the clouds the fish sunk out and you would never know there were any fish in this area. The next spot we tried held monster blues that were tackle busters to say the least. I am always impressed by how hard they will fight to be free again. All in all a great light tackle day on Cape Cod Bay. I think that Dick will be back with his son next week and I will work hard to put them on the quality fish of this morning.

Capt. Josh

mid august

Today I had the pleasure of taking Sam Gotoff and his family out for a half day of light tackle fishing. Right out of the gate we had some really nice fish, some on top and more down on the vertical jigging set ups. Sam's son in law was the high hook of the day, with his son James a close second. The fishing was steady all morning and the conditions were just right, the guys were tight on every drift and you could not have asked for a better morning. Looking forward to doing it again, hope you guys have a great summer on Cape Cod.

Capt. Josh   

dunes edge

On Friday, I had the pleasure of fly-fishing with Frank Vari. He is from my dad's neck of the woods: the Tampa area. We started off teasing blues and bass to the fly -- after a while of this I decided to check out a couple of places that had produced big fish the night prior, but they had moved on. We headed to the parking lot to see if we could bail a few on the vertical jig; this proved not that easy as the fish are so keyed in on live eels. So we went back to the original spot and spent the next four hours catching keeper bass on the fly, bent rods on every drift. The super hair sandeel was the ticket as the tide was reaching its max flood. Just a great day on the water with Frank, looking forward to getting him out again and sharing some more memories. I think next year he will be staying on the Outer Cape as his family loves our beaches. Hope I made your vacation here a good one. 

Capt. Josh      

summer daze

On Wednesday, I had a great father and son trip; Andy and Chase were up to the sporty conditions. We were attempting to do a combo bass and tuna but the wind had other ideas. Pushed up to the bank we did find some life and started marking stuff, plenty of bait and tuna at 50 feet. We worked it pretty hard as other reports from out east were null. Managed to pull some quality bass out but no tuna joy. Moved back inshore to find blues and bass in the melee of boats, this was only a 6.5 hour trip so we worked things pretty quickly to fit it all in. At the end of the day we pulled some of my lobster pots and they went home with a nice dinner of bass and lobster. Hope to get them back in a couple of weeks and we can get some better shots at bluefin..

Josh.     

Fishing the lights

Today I had the pleasure of taking out Steve and Cheryl, what a nice couple. We had a slow start as the launch was delayed because of the fireworks being loaded to the barge outside the Pamet. Once we got rolling things were fine despite the foggy conditions. I checked out a couple of spots that had fished pretty well days prior but the fish were being uncooperative, so we moved to find some stuff that would eat. The fish were on the deep edges suspended, but were happy to take anything you threw at them. They are still packed with squid and sandeels and any other baitfish that might be paddling around the bay. All in all had a real nice half day trip with great light tackle results. Looking forward to doing it again.

Thanks,
Josh.

Guides' day off

Today it was guides' day off so Jeff and I geared up the Osprey and figured we would try something different. Launched out of Chatham and ran east, loads of mackerel all over the place with nothing in chase. It will be something to see when the tuna find this bait. Ran a little more northeast to find lots of dirty water, a few whales and not much bait. A friend was in the area and he had some activity on the troll, so we pushed out to where he was to find the mother lode of shearwaters and bait. Started the vertical jigging. On the second move we got bit and managed to get out of the bird melee; the fish ran a couple of hundred yards of line off the reel. I quickly got some line back and put the screws to this fish -- got it to the boat in 10 minutes, pretty impressive the drag pressure you can get out of the right spinning reel and rod combo. The setup was a Stella 18 and a Van Stahl jigging stick, both very well matched. The fish was 64 inches. By this time the south wind kicked up and we had a good run back to the inlet. Great day on the water.

Swing and miss

Today I had some great kids on board, Jason and Michael, and Jason's father Dan. Started off with some topwater fishing that netted some keepers, then went to vertical jigging. We caught plenty of keeper bass and packs of large bluefish on light tackle. Dan suggested that we might go looking for tuna so off we went, found plenty of life with fish free-jumping around the boat but did not get bit; we watched whales for a little while then decided to make a move. Ran into the bay and found fish pushing, got set up and fired the baits right into the mix. I think both Dan and myself had fish boil on the bait but no luck. We did get to see the fish up close as one almost bounced off the side of the boat. All in all a great day on the water - I look forward to seeing them again next summer.

Foggy days

Today I had Mike and his family out for a day of bass,blues and tuna. The bass fishing was great, though we did not spend that much time at it as we were in search of charlie. Ran into the fog big time; we did find some life but not quite what we wanted. Ended the day back on the bass grounds with lots of bass and blues. Had a great day with the guys -- hopefully they will be back to do it again and next time I will get some pics as I was busy releasing all the topwater fish we could handle.

Thanks guys, I will see you soon.

Topwaters

Today I had the pleasure of taking out Mike and his friend Doug. The morning brought us thick fog but we managed to get some fish boatside. After a couple of moves we got onto the crazy topwater bite that went on for miles. The fish were thick all up on top and would strike at will, what a great morning of fishing. Thanks for the day guys looking forward to doing it again...

Capt. Josh

Fished with Carrie and Hugh the other day. We had a great time despite the weather, wind and rain but that's fishing. I am looking forward to getting them back for a better day. I hope their season in Vermont goes well, also that the sun shines for them on their vacation. Take care, I'll see you next season..

Capt. Josh   

Tuna Fever

Today I had my first tuna trip of the season and it was just an incredible day on the water.   Tommy and Lou and Lou's son Stephen, who are all accomplished anglers, had their work cut out for them. We had multiple swings and misses on the topwater -- finally got hooked up on the vertical. Stephen fought this fish like a veteran angler but had to pass the rod off to his dad due to fatigue, and after a short battle we pulled the hook boat side. Then we moved a little south and got back into the game. On the third drop, Tommy got tight again. This fish did make it in the boat, taping out at 62 inches (and I'm guessing at 140 pounds), and was full of sandeels. We also caught some bass and blues in the mix, and had a great whale show to boot. Even the weather cooperated. Just a great day on the water. Thanks for the trip, guys. Looking forward to having you out again. I would also like to thank Capt. Jeff Smith who put me in touch with Tommy and Lou.                

Capt. Josh 

South Southeast

Today I had Chris Gates and his friend Chris from Colorado for a half day of bass fishing. Lots of wind and rain but that's what makes for great fishing. We had more topwater fish than you can shake a stick at, and were finding the quality fish down in the water column. Great morning with these guys, hopefully we can do it again when the weather will cooperate a little more. I hope the sun will shine for them on their vacation on the Cape.       

Thanks   

Titanic days

Fished the last three days with Andy and Jay, what great people. These guys met on a plane going to different fishing lodges in Tierra del Fuego. They have been traveling to angling destinations all around the world ever since — what a great friendship. Over the last three days we caught some awesome topwater bass and blues on Jay's new Titanic slider. If you want a really quality topwater popper that produces some of the best takes on top, is very durable and reasonable to cast even in 20-knot winds, this is the one. Check out his website at www.amazingflies.com. This was their first trip to the Northeast for striped bass and bluefish, and I think it exceeded their expectations. Can't wait to get you guys back out here, and get Andy that first 150-plus pound tuna on the feather.

Cheers mates