March Eastman's Redfish

Deep sea fishing fleets around here start allday trip from the beginning of April. This year, Eastman’s announced they would start the first trip at the end of March, Friday and Saturday before Easter. As long as I knew from the report of the past years, season starts with red fishing. Actually I was interested in red because I heard it tastes excellent. Weather was the only concern but the forecast for Saturday was clear with very light wind. So I made a reservation for two spots. A family with teenage boys I came to know at school also joined.

Eastman’s is really a popular fleet and the boat Lady Merrilie Ann3 was almost full although it was March. We got into the boat before 7 but found rods in 70% of the rod holders. I kept rail positions for 5 at port and the father and boys came soon.

I used UglyStik 6’6’’ and Okuma Classic Pro XP-452L with 300YD of 65 lb PowerPro. My daughter used SturdyStik 6’6’’ and Okuma Classic CLX-450L with 150 YD of 65 lb PowerPro. As for rigs, I used 2-hook high-low rig with Gamakatsu Octopus #4/0 and 30 lb mono line. I made rigs with live bait #5/0 and 40 lb mono as well. This hook is not so skinny as Octopus #4/0 so I thought it would work better to keep haddock, making hook size small enough to catch red fish. I hooked Gulp on my daughter’s rig not to miss bites in case clam bait was gone.

Although it was still cold and temperature was low, weather couldn’t be better, clear, sunny  and no wind. The boat went out for two hours and started fishing for haddock. Soon a few haddock came into the boat but it didn’t last. The boat moved in 30 minutes. The bottom seemed rocky at new spot. I caught a 10’’ red fish shortly. The bite happened at the bottom. Typically fish hit when I slowly took up the rig from the bottom.

After a few resets, red fish bit actively. We enjoyed drop and hit with occasional double for a while. Some nice ones of 14’’ mixed in. Boys caught small cod as well as red. The father of boys got nice one, too. At the time of tangle, I cut our rig to keep fishing time. Sometimes my daughter got fish on gulp only. We stocked fish to cover the bottom of the cooler box by noon. It seemed that the modification of her reel worked because she could easily reel in double. All I had to do was put bait and drop the rig in the water. She fished by herself and could take care of a rod when the other had a trouble. It was really helpful.

Although the captain went back and forth between the haddock spot and the red spot a few times, red were the only active species that day. The fishing ended around 2:30. We caught 23 in total. The family of boys also kept similar number. Although we lost a few sinkers with snag, the boat offered substitutes for free, that was really helpful. We used all 8 rigs I prepared because of snags and tangles.

I made sashimi using the largest one. It was firm, similar to blackseabass and striper. I could not find any worms even on gut. I filleted or cleaned rest of fish and frozen except for a few I cooked fresh. My family loved them and the stock were consumed very soon.

It was very good trip for us. Weather was excellent and we could catch some tasty super-fresh fish we wanted. Hook size was good. For just above 9’ fish, #4/0 was the best. Considering snags and tangles, it would work best to prepare 4 rigs per rod or so. A spinning tackle might work although the captain always tried to catch haddock.

Cod Tackles

When I went to an allday cod trip for the first time, I wondered if I would use a rental rod or buy one. To have an idea, I went to Dick’s with coupons to see stocks. There were several choices of rods and I found some rods are not expensive at all. I picked up Ugly Stik Bigwater BWB 1140 6’6’’. It was relatively light weight and looked sturdy enough to use 16 oz sinker. It was also reasonably priced around $60. As for a reel, the only one I liked under $100 was Penn 555GS. I asked a clerk to show me the one in the showcase and I decided to buy it. He said it was the only stock so 25% off from the price on tag so I paid $75 for it. After a few months I found it was usually sold at $130 in other tackle shops or online! I spooled 300YD of 65 lb PowerPro with it. What I found soon after the first trip was it was too high speed and reeling load was too heavy. Although I think I didn’t understand how to reel comfortably at that time, I decided to buy a third party power handle at ReelPowerHandles through Amazon. After switching the handle, it became perfect.

I bought another set of tackles for the trip with my daughter but I modified a little after the first trip. It was difficult for her to fish over the rail because of her height. She placed a rod under the rail that made scratches on the clear coat of the rod. I thought it was better to use a solid glass one, which is less expensive and never break with its flexibility. I bought Shakespeare SturdyStik 6’6’’. It has a little less power for jigging but absolutely no problem for bait fishing. As for a reel, I got Okuma Classic CLX450L for her but I found level wind had a trouble. So I removed level wind from it. In addition, I removed backing mono to a few yards and spooled only 150 YD PowerPro. This arrangement minimizes the spool diameter and reduces the load of reeling dramatically at the cost of speed. At the all of the trips I went so far, we fished 300 feet depth at most so it should be fine. Actually, this tackles worked perfect at the fishing. She could reel in double keeper cod by herself without any help and complaint. At this trip, she reeled in 9 keepers in total! Maybe OK for a big pollock as well. The only thing I had to take care was that I had to help her reel after recovering my rig at the time of reset because it was too slow.

When I first used Okuma Classic, I liked level wind as well as light load. Disadvantages of level wind are; more line trouble, finger accident and compromised castability. However, I found that the trouble was very minor once I got used to use it. Actually, reeling was much more comfortable and casting was not so bad. I decided to remove level wind for my daughter and bought a little better model Classic Pro XP-452L for me. I bought the reel at Walmart online & store pick up at less than $50 in winter. Trouble was that I could not specify the model number. Pull down menu only shows line capacity. I compared the line cap and catalogue spec at Okuma web site side by side and thought 25 lb 430 YD was the one I wanted. I spooled 300 YD of 65 lb PowerPro with some mono backing to make it almost full spool. Now I use this reel as a primary for both jig and bait. I go fishing for cod at most several times a season so it is durable enough.

I usually tie 10 YD of 50 lb mono leader to the PowerPro main line. A few yards of mono is necessary to grab fish into the boat but not so long leader is necessary. The only reason to make it longer is that I don’t want to tie again in the case of line break from such as snag or blueshark. Leader is consumed faster than you expect so 1/4 lb spool such as Trilene Big Game or Ande works better than a specific leader material of 50 YD spool. I use a big spool of mono line for bait rigs as well. As for the connection of the PowerPro and mono leader, I use SF knot. I have never had a break at the point of SF knot. I think a dropper loop for a teaser is much weaker.

Columbus Day Al Gauron Mackerel

When I went to a cod trip on Labor day, I thought it would be the last party boat trip in the season. However, I found Al Gauron gave up bluefish trip and got back to the mack. You can catch mackerel from shore as well in October. Probably, fishing area would be near shore and fish are very active. Above all, mack tastes best at this time of year. I called Al Gauron Sunday morning to hear what was going on. The office lady said they would go out Monday morning and still had spots. She also said she had no idea for catch because they didn’t go out on Saturday and some information would be available after morning boat returned. I thought at least we could catch 20-30 at this time of year. After I made sure if my daughter would get up at 6 and go, I reserved two spots.

When I checked in at the office, I found 4-5 reservation on the note. We still had time so I went to Dunkin Donuts, got a cup of coffee and got into the boat. Although the number of people was actually small, StarFish was assigned to the halfday. Just before departure, a family of 4 got in. A boy was a class mate of my daughter. Quite a coincidence! I heard they had guestimated total catch of the day as family on their way. The mother’s number was 4, the father’s was 15, and the boy’s was 20. I thought we could at least catch 20 for two if we went to the Isles of Shoal and better around Hampton. Anyway, we would see.

I used Shimano Sellus and a small left handled Daiwa reel with 15 lb PowerPro. As for sabiki, I chose 2-hook mustad 34007#1 instead of Chinta#11 I usually used at that time, expecting larger fish. Sabikis were hand-tied ones using iridescent film. Below sabiki I set a 1/2 oz mackerel jig. For my daughter, I brought 6’6’’ Daiwa freshwater medium rod and a small right handled reel from a cheap combo. The line was mono around 10 lb originally spooled at the time of purchase. The rig was one-hook sabiki and a 1/2 oz mackerel jig because triple would be too heavy for her. I brought a back-up set that day so I had the boy use this set with sabiki for better catch than rental tackle. The rod was 5’6’’ a little sturdier than medium and the reel was medium size Daiwa with 20 lb PowerPro. The rig was 2-hook sabiki of Iseama#11 and 1/2 oz mackerel jig. I set a depth marker with a bobber stopper on all of the main line at 20’.

When I finished setting all tackles, the boat slowed down and was anchored. When I saw the web site, it seemed that they were fishing at Shoal but it was off Hampton this time. It was lucky because fishing time would be 3 hours instead of 2 hours for Shoal trip. In summer time, there are 25 people at one side of the boat.  It was October, so there were only 6 on port side. Super spacious! Clear sky, no wind and no wave. Fish were the only piece to make it an excellent trip.

At the beginning, I told kids how to; drop rig, stop at the marker and jig up and down. After a few minutes, a school came in and hooked as double or triple. Kids said, ‘I can’t reel in!’ Fathers helped out but they learned soon. However, they could not unhook so fathers kept doing that part. I pulled fish in the boat but some left during I took care of my daughter. Non-stop action lasted for a while.

Fishing slowed down a little around 10:00. I counted catch while I mixed cube ice in the cooler. We got 47 at that time. It was almost 3-digit pace but it didn’t last. After a break, some flurries came until 11. Meantime I got a nice one of 13’’. I decided to use this for sushi mackerel

Half an hour more. Tide got close to the low and current became weaker. Although the temperature was not so high, it got warm with sun shine. Kids got tired of fishing and started exploring the boat and eating snack. Only when flurries came, they got back to fishing. I enjoyed the slow time with her rod, which is softer than mine and double was fun. Fish faded out and fishing ended at 11:30. We got 89 fish. The boy's family got similar number. I filleted bigger ones, head and gutted middle-sized one and froze small ones as a whole. Sushi mackerel was delicious with rich oil. Baked fish was also good.

I would like to thank Al Gauron, who went out with a dozen of people on Starfish. I think it was a merginal number. It was definitely an excellent trip. As long as weather is good, this time of the year is the best season for mackerel fishing. I would not be surprised if this fishing became more popular with 20-30 people on board in October.

River Squidding

It was in middle August. When I went fishing for striper in the evening, I found lots of squid chasing bait mackerel during retrieve. Although there was no action of striper, I found squid fishing there would be promising. Next day I went to the same place with squid tackles.

This spot is nothing but river. I wore a chest wader and stood in the knee level of water. To 5’ Shakespeare micro series, I set a small reel from Shakespeare LadyFish ice combo with 10 lb NanoFil. For leader, 20’’ of 12 lb Trilene fluorocarbon was used. I started with a Yamashita Naory RangeHunter BS #1.8.

When I started fishing, it was just a low tide. There was still slight outgoing current but it slacked shortly. I could see schools of squid here and there. I casted the jig under the light and retrieved with slow jigging action. In a few casts, I got a small one. I was a little nervous about the roughness of the bottom here when I planned because there were lots of mussel shells in this spot. However, the squid jig worked without problem.

I enjoyed a cast and a hit time for a while. After a while, tide begun to move. I kept using RH but had trouble tracing the bottom with it. Also I had several line troubles during the casts. Seems like this braid line needs conditioning a little. I switched jig to the Colman’s non-weighted bullet head jig custom. It worked well for keeping the bottom in the current. I caught a few larger size ones with it. Two hours after low, I wrapped up. I caught around 25.


This was one of the most impressive fishing experiences for me. Sometimes squid schooled in very shallow BEHIND me. When I dropped the jig around them, a squid chased and hit. Squid were verrrry close and I felt like I could touch them in the water. You can also see crawling crabs, swimming skate, jumping schoolie, and even a family of raccoons. Tremendous! This is what you can never experience on a pier.

Harbor Blue

It was a summer weekend in early August. I went to H-mart for the first time in a while and bought miscellaneous. There was a buckwheat noodle in the cart. When I drove home I recalled I had seen a school of herring at the pier a few days before. They didn’t look so big, 8’’ at most. However, I wondered that they must be perfect for topping on buckwheat noodle so decided to go fishing them in the afternoon.

I loaded 12’ telescope light rod and 6.5’ Daiwa light rod with light leader and hooks. I also picked up a few mackerel from the freezer for bait. High tide was 1:30. I got to the pier around noon. As I looked around, water looked like milk tea. Processing of salted herring was still going on and there were tons of seagulls flying up and down. Off the pier a few seals were turning around. I casted a small spinner but there was no reaction. I started to think about moving to another place but a local fisher man showed up and started to catch herring with his sabiki rig. I couldn’t see fish but they were there.

I made a float rig with a telescope rod. Under a slip bobber, a small egg sinker and a swivel were attached. Under the swivel, a small Sode#12 hook was tied with 30’ of 10 lb mono leader. Stopper was adjusted to the depth of 8’ and a small piece of mackerel was put on the hook. I casted the rig and started to put the lure rod in the car. As I watched the bobber, it sank and ran horizontally. Typically like a hit of mackerel. I set hook, actually wanted to do so but the line broke before I felt something. I looked into the rig but I didn’t find any signs of wrong knot or too big fish. Should have been a blue.

I needed wire leader but I didn’t carry any because the game was supposed to be tiny herring! I looked into my backpack and took out the heaviest mono/flurocarbon line and the biggest hook. I took the leader I spooled in a reel. It looked like 30 lb fluorocarbon. I also took a single hook from a crippled herring. I made a heavy rig and casted again. I also found a mackerel jig and thought it might work better. During making another rig on the short rod, fish hit on the bobber rig again. Fortunately I had loosened the drag and didn’t lose the whole tackle but the fish was gone.

I made a mackerel-jig rig on the short rod and put a larger piece of mackerel. As for the telescope rod, I reset back to the light rig for herring. Soon after that fish hit on the unfavorable tackle. Gone less than a second! When local fishermen came to the spot, I talked about what had happened. They kindly shared me a sturdier black mono-rig. I made a rig using it but there were no hit after that. It was a short time action around high tide.

I saw two teenage boys caught a few bule of 14’’ class. Should be these size of guys schooled and cut my rig. For herring, it might be better fishing shallow. I knew small sabiki works better but I wanted to enjoy bait fishing this time. Unfortunately, I couldn't catch anything. I was not sure what was wrong because water was so cloudy and nothing was visible.

 

Carry wire in August!

August Al Gauron Halfday

In early August, I was missing summer mack season. I thought that halfday mack trips would end soon. However, blue didn’t show up even in the middle of August and I found a report of halfday mack at Al Gauron catching good size ones. I didn’t think it would be excellent like October but it would be most likely as good as July trip. So I decided to go to Sunday morning trip. Two of my friends also came.

I had three options of rod selection. One was Shimano Sellus 6’8’’, which is the one I usually use. I can use both sabiki and jig only. If I use sabiki and catch big mack, a sturdier rod works better. Shimano Sojourn 7’ was another choice for this purpose. I had used it for scup so I knew it could easily handle triple mack of nice size if I caught. Last one was an ultralight rod. I bought a 5’ Shakespeare micro series rod a week before for squid fishing. It has better stability compared to the 6’ UL one I had. I wondered it would be fun if I used it with a single jig rig. I couldn’t decide when I left home so I loaded all three.

After checking in at the ticket office, I decided to pick up Sellus and micro series. To Sellus, I set a small reel with 12 lb mono line. Originally I spooled 10 lb line with this reel but I checked the strength of the knot of 10 lb mono and found that it held only 5-6 lb of tension. So I re-spooled with new 12 lb mono line, which held up to 9 lb when you tied a swivel. To micro series, I set a mini reel from ice fishing combo with 10 lb braid and 30’’ of 12 lb fluorocarbon leader, which I used for squid fishing.

The fleet used Starfish and Whitestar for halfday trip. We got in Starfish and kept spots around stern. There were slightly less than 40 people on board. I thought the boat would go to the Isles of Shoal but it stopped off the beach in only 20 minutes from the dock. I was a little excited because it meant we could fish more than 3 hours! I started with Sellus with a 1/3 oz mackerel jig. There were a few flurries in the first 30 minutes and fish bit on both jig and sabiki. We got 5-7 pp before 9:00 that was much better than the trip in early July. Meantime the action became slower although the captain did a few small resets. One time there were a few seals turning around and a seal chased the fish I caught when I hooked one. Oh, it was scary!

We had a slow and steady bite by 10:00 so I switched the tackle to UL. I casted a jig and retrieved with a short pitch jig & fall action. Sometimes I could have a bite tens of yards away from the boat. It was super fun to reel in a long distance with a short ultralight rod and a mini reel. I used both vertical jigging around the boat and cast & jig method depending on the action. There were fair bites in 2^nd half and I got a few nice size ones too.

I kept fishing with the UL tackle until the captain called the end at 11:40. I had a sabiki rig in handy in case of big school but didn’t try throughout the trip. It was just a good trip overall. I got 27 including 5-6 larger ones around 14’’. My friends got similar with jig & sabiki rig. Larger fish tasted vary good, almost like fall run!
 

 

My friend took this photo. It is definitely a super shot!
 

Labor Day Captain's Cod/Pollock

It was the end of summer. I wanted to take my daughter to party boat fishing once before it got cold so went to allday cod trip at Captain’s. I knew mack or scup was better. However, halfday mack trip had been switched to blue and going to cape was just like to get caught in terrible traffic. When I checked weather forecast, it looked good so I made a reservation.

I had two rods at that time but had only one conventional reel. It is very important to have a reel of light load for a kid. I researched and found that an entry model of Okuma CLX-450L has relatively lower gear ratio. I bought it at three lantern and spooled 150 YD of 65 lb PowerPro. This reel was set to UglyStik BWB1140 6’6’’ for her. Another rod was a 7’ refurbished one I bought at Raf’s bait wagon. I set Penn 555GS w/power handle to this rod.

The fleet had a marathon trip on the day so probably Captain’s Lady III left early morning. Allday boat was Captain’s Lady II. When we got into the boat around 7, rail spot was still spacious. I kept spots at port near stern. The boat left the dock at 7:30 with 30 plus people. She was OK in cabin for a while but got a little dizzy so we went to the upper deck. After two hours, the boat slowed down and got anchored. Once we started fishing, she was all right.
 

I hooked clam on the bait rig and let it down to the bottom for my daughter. A mate tied her rod to the rail with mono line not to drop the tackle from the boat. I started with jig but snagged immediately. I shook the rod but couldn’t remove. On pulling after tightening the drag, I lost the jig. Meantime she hooked something. She reeled in with my help and got a small cusk. I also switched to a bait rig but the rig got lots of scratch very soon. Bottom should be very rocky. Soon the captain gave up the spot and reset the boat.

As the captain said the next spot was rocky too, I started with a bait rig. She had a hard time handling the tackle because she was caught her finger with level wind. It was no good so I exchanged rod with her. She got a baby pollock and a dog. I released after taking photos. There were actions but catch was no good. The boat moved again.

At the new spot after 20 minutes of sail, fish bit upon setting her rod. It was too big for her to reel in. I reeled in and got double of decent size pollock. I set jig to my rod and got double pollock immediately. She hooked another one and I reeled in a good size pollock. They didn’t fit in my 50 QT cooler box so I left them under the bench but they became too many. I got a coffee bag and put them in it. Although I wanted to fish while school were there, she got tired and didn’t want to reel in any more. I asked her just hold the rod when she got big fish. When she hooked a small one, she managed to reel it in. It was a keeper cod. Jig fishing was non-stop and fish were mostly big. Double pollock were really nice fighters. We kept fishing for about two hours. The boat moved although we had still actions. At this time, we kept 12 pollock, 2 cod and 2 cusk. A few Pollock were over 15 lb and the total looked more than 100 lb.

When we started fishing at the last spot, it was 1:00 pm. One more hour or so left. During my daughter took video, I got a cod and a pollock. When I got the third fish, a mate said to me that blue shark was chasing after, reel in! Although I speeded up the reeling, it was too late. A 7’ blue shark bit on a pollock. I couldn’t shake rod because I used a jig. Finally I pulled a head of the pollock. As the mate unhooked the head and put it back to the sea, the blue shark ate it on the surface. Wow! She took all of that to a movie!

I got another pollock on jig and a large cod of 10 lb on bait by the end of fishing. We got 20 in total 14 pollock, 4 cod and 2 cusk. The biggest pollock was over 16 lb and half of pollock seemed more than 10 lb. A jigging regular, who was high hook and won the pool, got more than 25 fish. Unfortunately, he had his rod broken by a blue shark because he didn’t loosen the drag after he pulled snag at a rocky spot. Bait guys also got around 10 although overall size was a little smaller. Mostly pollock but it was a very good trip. Also super fun for us!

 

 

 

Smart Mackerel

One August afternoon, I went to State Pier. I thought there might be harbor blues at high tide. I packed some metal jigs, wire leaders and some mackerel jigs in my backpack. I also picked up a few bait mackerel from the freezer and put in a cooler box.

When I got to the pier, lots of people were fishing. A few locals caught nice mackerel. Some used float rig and others used just a two-hook drift rig. Lots of mini-size blue up to 8’’ were schooling and biting on bait casted. In the school of mini-blue, a few mackerel of 10-12’’ were swimming in shallow.

I casted a mackerel jig and traced from shallow to deep but mack didn’t even chase it. So I gave up and tied a hook at the end of fluorocarbon leader. I put a piece of mackerel on it and casted 40’ or so. As the bait sink, blue fish bit on and ran. I caught several blues and released. Meantime I caught a mackerel. Those who kept mack did the same thing, caught a mack during fishing tens of mini-blue.

Mack were completely visible. Even when a mack came across the bait on hook, it just passed by. It didn't mean they were not interested in the bait. Actually they did eat a small fragment of bait without hook. What was happening? I looked at them and found that mack distinguished bait without hook from the one with hook! When a mack found a piece of bait, it approached but didn’t bite on it immediately. After circling around a few times to confirm it was natural bait, it ate the bait. During circling around, mack looked like measuring the speed of sinking. If the bait was at almost the same depth, mack bit on it. If the bait went deeper, they just ignored. Mack were also waiting for blue tearing the bait. When bluefish bit on the bait on hook, mack followed them and ate safe fragment of bait blue tore. That was incredible for me but did happen. How smart they are!

In three hours of fishing, I managed to catch 4 mack and kept one relatively large bluefish. There are lots of mysteries at just off the pier.

Mackerel Evening Trip

From the end of June, Eastman’s and Al Gauron started 2-hour evening trip for fishing mack. Although it is a short time trip, evening sounds good for cool temperature, beautiful sunset and better action. I called Eastman’s first but they had only bass trip on the day. When I called Al Gauron, they had a room for a mack trip so I drove to Hampton. When I got to the pier, lots of people were waiting the boat. Seems like many people were tourists to Hampton beach and I was the only person who carried own rod.

Starfish left the dock at 6:30 with around 30 people. I brought a 6’ ultralight rod as well as Shimano Sellus so started with the UL one with a Shimano 2500 reel with 10 lb power pro. Twenty inches of 12 lb fluorocarbon leader was tied with SF knot and a 1/4 oz of mackerel jig was tied with loop knot. The boat anchored in 20 minutes or so. There were seaweeds floating near the boat so I dropped a jig in the pocket of seaweed. May be mackerel were chasing bait fish underneath. After counting down for 7 seconds and jigging once, I hooked up a fish. It seemed like a nice size so I looked for a route to pull the fish from the weed bed but could not find easily. Anyway I could not stop reeling because it would definitely increase the risk of losing fish. I gave up and tried to just pull the fish with seaweed. Fortunately the fish did not catch any seaweed on surface and I could grab leader to bring it in the boat. It was a big one, just 16’’.

Soon after that, weed bed was gone. I caught a few smaller one but felt a little nervous about using UL. So I switched to Sellus with 10 lb mono line and 1/3 oz mackerel jig. Current was strong so I casted toward bow and retrieved with short pitch jigging. The father of a family asked me if I needed fish because they didn’t want to keep fish. I replied yes and they put their catch into my cooler box. After a few times of resets, I got 3 more by the end of fishing. The boy in the family also got a good one. I kept 10 in total including three from the family. Not so bad with a big one and beautiful sunset.

July Scup

Scup is an easy target in the water south of cape. I once went to Hyline Cruises in early July. In a 4-hour trip, I kept more than a dozen, releasing several smaller keeper size ones. Fish are not so big in this season compared to the spring run but you can easily fill a middle size of cooler box. It is the right volume to eat. If you carry plenty of ice, you can enjoy super fresh fish of solid flavor.

Rod & reel

Ideally 6-7’ medium power saltwater rods are the best. I don’t have this type of rod but if I could buy one I would choose UglyStik BWS1101 6’6’’. However, many others also work as long as the rod can handle 6 oz sinker, typically line rating within the range of 10-30 lb. What I picked up from my stock is Shakespeare Alpha 8’. It is sold as an entry glass spinning combo. I like the softness of a glass blank. As for scup fishing, you cannot hook up at light bites. For waiting until a sure bite, softness of a glass blank works very well. When the rod tip goes down a foot, it is time to set hook. For main line, 30 lb mono works well. Unfortunately I don’t have a reel for it either. So I use an Okuma reel with the bait runner system with 50 lb PowerPro. It is the one I bought for striper fishing. This combination is never the best but better than the rental tackle, which consists of a super sturdy glass rod with a heavy duty conventional reel.

Rig

Most fleets use 6-8 oz sinker for the rental tackle. A few bank sinkers of 6 oz works. If you use light tackles, you may want a 4 oz one. I use a kind of high-low rig. A 5’’ branch for the higher hook is tied at 10’’ from the top swivel. A dropper loop is made for a sinker at 20’’ below the branch and the lower hook is tied at 12’’ below the dropper loop. I prefer to use half an inch of dropper loop for the branch connected with a small swivel. It keeps the branch away from tangle with the main line and twist during retrieval. As for the hook size, baitholder #2-#1 works best for 11’’-13’’ scup. I use 30 lb or 40 lb mono line throughout the rig. I connect braid main line directly with a swivel at the top of the rig.

On the boat, what you need is just to keep the sinker at the bottom. If scup are there, you feel the bite very soon. Once you catch a sure bite, you need to set the hook. It is very simple. So, the most important thing is that bait is on hooks. Scup nibble clams and steal from the rig. Choosing hard part of clam to hook first helps to retain the bait longer. If you found no bite when fish are caught in the boat, most likely bait is gone.

 

December Mack

It was warm and calm Saturday afternoon in early December. I went fishing to Willows pier with my daughter. I carried a few frozen mackerels and a crab net, too.

I set a high-low bait rig with 1/2 oz sinker, put pieces of mackerel meat and casted from the pier. I used 12’ telescope light rod and small Daiwa reel with 15 lb power pro. Hooks were Gamakatsu split shot/drop shot #2. For fishing with bait, skinny hooks work better because they hold bait much better than heavier hooks. It is especially important when silversides are nibbling the bait. There were lots of people in November but none to be seen this time. We also set a crab net and got some crabs. She was excited and we kept them in a bucket for a while.

Soon after that, a fish hit. Rod tip ran. Should be a mack. I set hooking and asked her to reel in. She struggled at the beginning but got a nice one around 11’’. In an hour, she got two more. She reeled in much better at the time of the third one.

I carried a pocket size video camera so could take really cool movies. I couldn’t believe it was December!

 

Halfday Mackerel Trip

Several fleets have halfday mackerel trips from May to July. The earliest trip starts in the middle of May. Late May to early June is the season you can catch a number of mack. It is very easy to catch double/triple with a sabiki rig. All you have to do is to keep the rig at 15-20’ depth with some up&down movements. I usually tie a float stopper on the braid main line as a depth marker, which also helps kids to catch a bunch. Once I caught over 90 at Captain’s in early June.
 

In late June, fishing becomes slower. From this season, NH fleets such as Eastman’s go to Isles of Shoal. You can enjoy really scenic view at this trip but it takes an hour to arrive. It means you can fish only for 2 hours during 4 hours of trip, compromising the catch.

In July, a sabiki becomes less effective. Single mackerel jig as used for a rental rod works better. I use Shimano Sellus 6’8’’ freshwater drop shot rod and a small spinning reel with 10 lb mono line. A 1/3 oz mackerel jig is tied with loop knot. This setting maximizes dart action when you jig and fall. I cast a jig, count down for 5-7 seconds and jig in fast and short stroke. This technique is what party boat crews usually use and effective to catch fish in relatively slow condition. At this time the evening 2 h trip starts. You could catch a really big one at evening trip although the number is not so many.

As bluefish show up in August, halfday trip is switched to a bluefishing. Most of the fleets close a halfday bluefishing at the end of September. Al Gauron got back to the mack trip in late September last year and we enjoyed a super trip on Columbus day. Fishing is similar to the early June season. Fish are very active and easy to catch. Mack in this season is the best for table, oily like toro tuna.

 

A bobber stopper is useful for a depth marker.

Sabiki Rig

When I started the mackerel fishing from shore, I used a Mustad white film sabiki. However, mackerel always bit on a jig. I wanted to hook up on a sabiki rig as well because it enables double or triple when a school comes. In addition, if you can catch fish on a sabiki, you can use a sinker instead of a jig around the rough bottom. I found that people using sabiki rigs not only with film or skin but also with feather or fiber were successful. I got a rig of ahi USA at a local tackle shop and caught some mackerel but wanted to make my own rigs. My idea was that if mackerel bite on a jig, a sabiki looks like a metal jig works.

I looked for materials at AC Moore and Christmas tree shop when I had time. I picked up several materials and tried. I also bought some bulk hooks.

Films

What I tried first was iridescent gift wrapping film. It worked well for catching fish but easily tore if you fish more than10 at a party boat or long cast with a 2 oz jig. So I looked for more durable ones. Now I am using mirror film for windows. It can catch fish as well and much more durable. Various types of ribbons also work. I tested silver holo and pearl white, both worked well.

Fibers

Nylon hair for girls is easily available and you can choose from several colors. I use cotton candy pink as well as white. I blend a few strips of silver or gold holo hair.

Hooks

Inline (non-offset) hooks work better. For long shank ones, I use O’Shaughnessy #2-1. I also like sharp point short shank hooks such as Chinta.

The detailed method is written in another post. I use 2-hook rigs mainly for party boat and 4-hook rigs for pier fishing. Rexbait is another design of sabiki with solid plastic. Although making Rexbait takes more time and effort than film-based sabiki, it works very well especially at a pier. 

 

 

Spring Mackerel

Mackerel come close to shore in the middle of May in this area. They chase bait fish so sabiki & jig are good lures. Willows is one of the best places but it is tough to keep a spot. The most impressive fishing I experienced was at State Pier.

When I checked during day time, some locals were catching mack and there were plenty of bait fish. So I decided to try in the evening. I thought spring mack was mainly tinker size so I prepared ultralight tackle. The only UL rod I had was a 2 pc 6’ trout rod I bought 15 years ago. It is one of my favorites, super lightweight and fun to use. I added a Shimano Sienna 2500 reel with 10 lb power pro to this rod. This reel is a little too large for 10 lb braid but I wanted casting distance. I usually used 15 lb for mack so this setting was a kind of unique.

I arrived at the pier around 5:30 pm and the tide was still low. I set a two-hook sabiki made with Rexlace in winter time with a new Daiwa 7 g jig. The sabiki was 1’' small size of Rexbait silver holo with #6 Gamakatsu octopus hook. I started fishing around the bottom but snagged in a few casts. There are lots of ropes at the bottom so it is common in this spot. I always tied a treble hook with mono line when I fished here so I didn’t lose jig but snagged twice in a row. Unfortunately, this time the sabiki hooked on structure as well and I lost a brand new jig very soon. Ugh..

I reset a rig with 7 g Kastmaster blue/chrome and started again. Although bait fish were near the pier, I fished a little farther out to avoid snagging. The first hit came in 30 minutes. During reeling I saw a few mackerel chasing after my hooked fish so I slowed down a little hoping more would hook up but I lost the first fish in the meantime. Ugh..

Yes, fish were biting in this low tide. I started again. After a while, I found a small blitz close to the pier. I casted the jig diagonally, retrieved through it and got one. It was 12’’, a nice size. I chased the blitz, casted in the same way, and got 7 in an hour including two doubles. It was just a shallow game. By sunset, bite became slow. Small fish were found in stomachs of caught fish so they had been preying on bait fish. They tasted good, just a little less oily than fall ones.

In fact, double 12’’ mack were too heavy for the UL rod I used. It felt like a snag when I had a hit and it was not always comfortable to fight with this rod. All I could do was reel in withouht using the leverage of the rod. However, it worked best to cast and retrieve 1/4 oz jig. Light rod and light line were best for controlling the jig.

I hadn’t seen any surface blitzes of mack in fall so it may be unique to spring season. I saw another blitz at Beverly Pier later in May but haven’t ever seen such a long lasting one like this.