Saltwater Adventures
Posted: Mon Sep 20, 2021 9:10 am
A few years back I got the opportunity to do some land based fishing around the cape and north shore of Boston. While I was somewhat unsuccessful, but I did hook and land my first striper and bluefish. The fight that saltwater fish put up is just different than that of freshwater. I tried to scratch the itch with Lake Ontario king salmon, and that worked for a couple years, but there was always a nagging urge to fish the unknown. This spring I managed to make that happen, purchasing a 1971 hiliner 222 that needed a repower, I tossed a rebuilt 200 etec on it, and started to fish. I set up base out of the Merrimack river.
The adventures started off with a crappy learning experience, on the way home from picking the boat up in CT after it’s repower and maiden voyage, we stopped at a holiday inn for the night. I left my gear locked under a tonneau cover, only to come out in the morning to find all the gear I had just bought stollen. Luckily after 2 months fighting with insurance my renters covered the losses. The fishing started off very slow with a steep learning curve. I had never been in a boat on the ocean, I had never captained a boat on the ocean, and frankly I don’t often cast, jig, or live bait. I’m more of a troller, so the style is different too. The first trip we only landed sea robins. The next trip we managed to land small pollock, cod, and a small schoolie striper. Over the next couple months spending every weekend in Newburyport on the boat I started to piece things together and we started to put some nice stripers in the boat.
We started to expand our fishing area with goals of trying to catch some other species, we worked our way out to Jeffries ledge trying for tuna on the troll, and bottom fish. As the season progressed and I became more comfortable we were able to push further out and eventually were able to target some sharks. That had been a goal of mine since I started to think about the ocean. We were lucky enough to get into a few sharks in our first attempt, and I have to say I’m hooked on that now.
As summer started to draw to draw to a close I put my focus on trying continuing to learn new things. We spent 10 days fishing out of Rhode Island trying the tuna trolling game, ground fishing for sea bass cod scup and fluke, and fishing blitzing stripers blues and Albies.
I’m hoping to get in a couple more trips before calling it a season on the ocean and shifting focus to Champlain and the fall bite there. Hoping to get myself on some fish there before frostbite derby time.
The adventures started off with a crappy learning experience, on the way home from picking the boat up in CT after it’s repower and maiden voyage, we stopped at a holiday inn for the night. I left my gear locked under a tonneau cover, only to come out in the morning to find all the gear I had just bought stollen. Luckily after 2 months fighting with insurance my renters covered the losses. The fishing started off very slow with a steep learning curve. I had never been in a boat on the ocean, I had never captained a boat on the ocean, and frankly I don’t often cast, jig, or live bait. I’m more of a troller, so the style is different too. The first trip we only landed sea robins. The next trip we managed to land small pollock, cod, and a small schoolie striper. Over the next couple months spending every weekend in Newburyport on the boat I started to piece things together and we started to put some nice stripers in the boat.
We started to expand our fishing area with goals of trying to catch some other species, we worked our way out to Jeffries ledge trying for tuna on the troll, and bottom fish. As the season progressed and I became more comfortable we were able to push further out and eventually were able to target some sharks. That had been a goal of mine since I started to think about the ocean. We were lucky enough to get into a few sharks in our first attempt, and I have to say I’m hooked on that now.
As summer started to draw to draw to a close I put my focus on trying continuing to learn new things. We spent 10 days fishing out of Rhode Island trying the tuna trolling game, ground fishing for sea bass cod scup and fluke, and fishing blitzing stripers blues and Albies.
I’m hoping to get in a couple more trips before calling it a season on the ocean and shifting focus to Champlain and the fall bite there. Hoping to get myself on some fish there before frostbite derby time.