Spring Striped Bass Fishing Massachusetts
Oh yeah we are starting the season of right this year with a 38 inch striper. Now that may not seem like a big deal to some but I consider this to be a very good sign, let me explain why. On any given day fishing you need a certain amount of luck to be successful. Even the most experienced fisherman (which I am not) get skunked. Sometimes all the skill in the world won’t bring the fish to the boat. On this particular day we were not targeting Stripers, we were after cod and we were having some success too. We were in 115 ft of water a few miles off of Plymouth fishing around a structure using a cod fish rig (PENNEL RIG) with bright red teasers tipped with clams. Drifting over and around the structure we (my Dad and I) were bouncing the rigs along when he landed what we thought was a good sized cod. I reeled up and got my setup out of his way while continued reeling in his line. This first thing I noticed was that instead of reeling the line up (which is usually the case when reeling in a cod) he was reeling the line in from way behind the boat. Of course the reason for this is that this was not a cod at all, it was a hungry striped bass. He must have been lurking around the structure on the bottom hanging with the cod. This is the first time I have ever seen a large striped bass take a clam on a cod lure before.
The striped bass measured in at 38 inches and it is the first keeper bass of the year. Two things make it special:
1.) It was a gift form the ocean since we were not fishing for stripers.
2.) My dad caught it on our first fishing trip of the year.
If luck plays any role in fishing then things are looking good already!