4/25/12 by Corey Pietraszek
Well after a few rough weeks of boat issues both of the tools to carry us to the fish are in the water and are now “All Systems Go”. As usual just when you think your getting ahead and your close to being ready something else comes up. You find what was not a huge issue last fall has now become a huge mess. Between wiring, pumps, gel-coat, waxing and some light glass work….finally the boats are floating. Word around the shops locally is that the Blackfish bite has been great when people have been able to get out. The issue I’m having is getting a reliable source for green crabs and something you can actually call bait. The crabs are like the size of a quarter and mushy seriously come on guys lets get some real “Greenies” please. Also you go ahead and call a few bait shops and they reply…”O Yeah, we have plenty” and 30 minutes later you arrive to nothing. Green crabs are the best bait for the Blackfish right now but you gotta get em fast.
Well today was the official “shackdown” for the Contender. The last 3 days have been filled with heavy winds and some well needed rain. I woke up this morning and saw a window to at least try and get the boat off the slip and take a look and see what was actually happening out there. My main objective was to look in the harbors and marshes which tend to hold fish this time of year. First spot was quiet with very little activity and also really poor water quality. Move a harbor down most of discovered the same thing except the water quality was much cleaner. Not 5 minutes in this spot and we were tight to our first Striped Bass of 2012. Loaded with small sea lice this was a sign this fish was not alone. We fished for another hour or so releasing roughly 10 small fish ranging from 18″-25″ nothing much larger. Either way not a bad way to start the 2012 season and with what I saw this morning my guess is this time next week we could have our first REAL good push of Striped Bass in Buzzards Bay. Welcome 2012 season and I’m super excited about the weeks to come.
