Fishing Buzzards Bay

I went out on Buzzards Bay with my friend Eric and his son Zach on Friday afternoon. Eric had to work in the morning so we planned a trip for later in the day. Eric is an early morning guy that likes to be at the ramp at 6 am. He was itching to get his boat in the water for the first time this year, and I was itching to catch a sea bass. The only way we could go out was for an afternoon trip.

   After we put in at 3:15, we headed south for a few minutes. The waves were rougher than predicted making the ride pretty bumpy, but still perfectly safe. We went to a spot that Eric had marked on his GPS that he had success before. Although I always plan on getting blanked when I try something new, Eric was positive I would catch a sea bass.

My first black sea bass

    Eric and his son used a two hook fishfinder rig while I opted for a bucktail jig. I knew sea bass could be caught on a lures and I really wanted to catch them that way. Keeping in mind that I really didn’t know what I was doing, I dropped my ¾ ounce bucktail over the side. I tried to keep contact with the bottom and let a little line out when it started to rise on the drift (thanks Dave!) Luckily and fortunately within a minute I had my first sea bass. It was 14 ½ inches making it a keeper. I was thrilled to have caught one on my first drift. This gave me confidence that I was doing something right. I proceeded to catch a bunch more (all shorts) on the bucktail

   While this was going on Eric and his son were using bait. They were using squid on one hook and crabs on the other. They caught a few sea bass (shorts) but they were really putting on a clinic on how to catch blackfish.  Zach struck the first couple tautog. Then Eric caught a couple, back and forth they went with sea bass thrown in for good measure.

   After a few sea bass I switched rods to the one I had rigged up for bait fishing. I kept on pounding away at short sea bass, but for the life of me I couldn’t catch a tautog. For at least four drifts I tried. I did manage a little scup to add variety to my day. Not catching any tautog was surprising since sometimes Eric and Zach would be hooked up at the same time. I took some teasing about it while they were reeling in another one. All in all they caught 11 including five keepers. Some of their keepers were huge.

A couple of nice blackfish

   Around 7:30 we headed in when a large dark cloud formed. We made it back really quick since we were going the same direction as the waves. I had an awesome time. Not catching a tog became more of a running joke than anything. “ Dom the Captain can put you on fish, but they can’t make them take your bait”. I would rather have caught a sea bass anyway. I’d never caught one or even seen one before so I was really happy with that. Also I can catch tog from shore but not sea bass so I could still add them to my species list. What a fun afternoon!

In case you go…

I can’t give a lot of advice about boat fishing Buzzards Bay since I’m by far an expert. Here is what I picked up. Buzzards Bay is loaded with spawning sea bass from late May through early June. Find any structure and you should find bass. Tog like rock piles. The crabs took most if not all of them.   The jig I was using was ¾ ounce but it was bit light for the fast drift. For bait we were using six ounce sinkers. They used mono, I used braid. I had very good feel for the bottom with the braid as it sliced through the water. It sunk quicker than their mono, but it sure didn’t help me as I got out fished 11-0 for blackfish.