Something different

[j mo]

I thought Id share some pictures from my trip to Sandwich Massachusetts last week. The fishing turned out to be epic by my standards: I got to see my 3y old co-pilot get his 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd bass from a kayak. We got into plenty striped bass and blue fish too which is somewhat rare for this creek. I also got hooked up with two Hobie demos from John at Sturgis Boatworks in Yarmouth which made fishing the big tidal swings a breeze.

This is Sandwich Creek,

during high tide the striped bass come in looking for a meal, the schoolies will work bait up these inlets to feed and all you’d have to do was look out for the birds and you’d know which inlet to fish in.

If the birds were out you could toss a small popper up these narrow canals and pick up schoolies on nearly every cast. Here are a few of the numerous schoolies we caught,

most ranged in the 20-25” inch range biggest one went 38” to my uncle who is the fishiest guy you’ll ever meet.

The tide was drastic; you’d have about a four hour window to fish, 2 hrs prior to slack and 2 hrs after. At low tide many of these inlets would be dry.
This is where we’d bait up prior to pedaling up current and drifting “the grounds” where the bigger models lurked.


here is the same view at low tide

This is the only fish we kept, my sons 31 incher!

One of the days we saw birds working far down the creek so we went to have a look. Turned out to be a thick school of blue fish. Hands down, pound for pound one of the best game fish you’d want to catch. Like a yellowtail with teeth and capable of making blistering long runs and many of them would breech fully out of the water 3-4 times.

The light tackle we were using made it that much more fun. The only problem was without a steel leader we were loosing metal left and right and the plastic I had came back shredded after one fish

Good times were had....

[Nic D]

great report and photos.... very cool trip



thanks for sharing

[bigbarrels]

Nice! Looks like an amazing place to fish

[Jzo]

Precious, fishing with your kid. Thx for the report.

[deepdvr]

Sweet report Josh! Bloodworms, bluefish and old linesides. All that's needed after that is the clam bake and some good brews.

Congrats to your son, a 31" striper is one heck of a fight.

[shortstack]

I lived in Sandwitch for 3 years in the 90s, The fishing was epic, Casting Sand eels at night for Stripers, Awsome!!! The Stripers out there get to 60+ lbs, 10 times the fight of a WSB! I cant wait to go back some day and fish with my yak. Some of the fresh water lakes are good fishing to, Chain Pickeral, The most agresive fish I have ever caught. Not to mention they stock most of the on Cape ponds and lakes with trout. If I was going to pick any other place to live other than SoCal, it would be Cape Cod Mass.

[dmrides]

Yeah Josh! Looks like a rad trip. Fishing for stripers and blues is pretty damn fun, but to be able to do that in a yak with your boy, man that is epic. Nice pics, great report.

[BTF_David]

Wow...what a trip. I got excited about it just reading and seeing your photos. I guess it reminds me of my own fishing trips in years past that was just pure joy. Hoping to introduce my 3yr old to an adventure like that one of these days. So far, it has only been to the pier.

Thanks for sharing.

-BTF_David

[RedSledTeam]

Great report Josh! Great pictures too. There's a deep self-satisfaction that occurs in our minds as "hunters" when our offspring learn and are successful at the art of "fishing". Good job Josh!

[Billy V]

Nice...
I grew up fishing for bluefish off the beach, on the jetties, sandy hook n.j etc.

Those teeth would easily bite through any mono. We would make wire leaders and chunk for them offshore.

They are like a yellowtail but with strong teeth. Kind of like a piranha.

Here is a pic of a small one.

[jorluivil]

Cool pics.........the worms look creepy

[lterrero]

Yes indeed, the Atlantic is more like the Caribbean, wire leader where ever you go. Very nice post Josh & also nice hearing from you.

[lterrero]

Originally Posted by deepdvr

Sweet report Josh! Bloodworms, bluefish and old linesides. All that's needed after that is the clam bake and some good brews.

Congrats to your son, a 31" striper is one heck of a fight.

Cat son! hunt mice!!

[steveooo]

Awesome report/story/photos! Those "schoolie" stripers look fun!

[j mo]

Originally Posted by deepdvr

Sweet report Josh! Bloodworms, bluefish and old linesides. All that's needed after that is the clam bake and some good brews.

Congrats to your son, a 31" striper is one heck of a fight.

Congrats are in order to you to E. Looks like you came into some loot at the tourney.
Those blood worms are nasty! they have liitle fangs and if your not paying attention thell get you.

Originally Posted by Billy V

Nice...

They are like a yellowtail but with strong teeth. Kind of like a piranha.

The state record is 23 lbs. Can you imagine the fight that would have put up!

And Shortstack I agree. if it werent for the winters the cape would be ideal. There are 365 ponds in the cape and all stocked well, we took a little pole with us whenever we went into to town and would catch sunfish and small mouth bass on almost every cast and there were plenty of trout around too
.
And as for stripers the state record is 73 lbs, 40's and 50's arent uncommon, next time....

[CurtyL]

@ Billy V: I'm an LBI'er 1967-1999: Old south jetty at Barnegat was my hangout. Blues and Stripers on the outside - Weakies and Fluke inside. Strangely not alot of yak fishing happening there - yet. I think I'm the only guy in the cove who fishes a teaser rig - east coast stylee.

[fishinkid2010]

Great report! Looks like you and your family had a blast Josh!!! You better be careful how intense your son gets into fishing... just ask my dad... he got way more than he bargained for. haha
Definitely beats fishing here in texas that's for sure!... went out on a fully rigged bass boat today on Richland Chamber Reservoir (since weather was too bad to go offshore), and got skunked on LMB... only stupid hybrids, and yellow bass. That and every time a Gar bit they'd cut the line or get off...

[dfroggy54]

Nice trip Josh! Looks like an epic trip!

[surfnutnj]

Originally Posted by Billy V

Nice...
I grew up fishing for bluefish off the beach, on the jetties, sandy hook n.j etc.

Those teeth would easily bite through any mono. We would make wire leaders and chunk for them offshore.

They are like a yellowtail but with strong teeth. Kind of like a piranha.

Here is a pic of a small one.

are the east coast version of a baracuda. I remember growing up in LBI we used to follow the birds and get into HUGE schools of them ....blood all over the deck of the boat. Don't wear sandals on a trip like that!

[Zurc]

Originally Posted by surfnutnj

are the east coast version of a baracuda. I remember growing up in LBI we used to follow the birds and get into HUGE schools of them ....blood all over the deck of the boat. Don't wear sandals on a trip like that!

I wouldn't consider it the east coast baracuda.... I've fished in North Carolina and in eastern and south eastern Florida and belive me we have some big Cudas there!.... I would say more like the east coast Phirana!

You don't wan't to be in the water when these things are schooling either... We had a Surfer on Onslow beach ( Beach on Camp Lejeune) that lost a toe when he didn't realize he was in the middle of school!