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Boston Harbor & South Shore-Stripers

From: B-Fast Charters
Date: 17 Jun 1999
Remote Name: 206.190.193.82

Comments

Boston Harbor and the South Shore-Stripers

On Friday 6/11, we hosted the editorial staff from the Fly Fisherman &VirtualFlyshop, Greg McDermid, Ross Purnell, Ben Ardito and Tom Keer. We started out off Rainsford Island in the Harbor with birds working breaking fish feeding on silversides. Tom and Ben worked from Tom's 18 ft. Maritime skiff, LIZA B, while Greg and Ross worked the platforms on my 20 ft. Hydra-Sport, B-FAST. We were into the fish immediately, with chartreuse half & half's and epoxy-headed deceivers working equally well. It was a pleasure to have two guys that could throw the fly line to the backing, both on the forward and back cast. As the tide flooded in the feeding activity increased off Gallop Island. We raced to a pod of breaking fish and Greg hooked what proved to be his biggest fish of the trip--a "keeper" of about 28 inches. We headed to the outer-harbor next in hopes of fishing some of the rocky promontories the Harbor Islands and the South Shore has to offer. On rounding Pt. Allerton, we spotted some birds working bait in the deep-water. We arrived first and Ross "T. Boss" fired a cast into the sounding school. As luck would have it, Ben's line was tangled. Big Bass were practically bouncing-off the bow of Tom's skiff with Ben , in the bow, powerless to do anything about it! Meanwhile, back on the B-FAST, Ross T. was doing battle with what we hoped to be a real "slammer". Tom, sliding off to the north following the moving school, fired out a big deceiver and hooked "Walter". Ross's 27" bass was photographed and released. We turned back to follow the action on the LIZA B, arriving just in time for a "photo-opp" of Tom landing his 40", 22 pound Striper. The fish had a 12 inch pogy or menhaden in it's gullet. Heavy sea, with rollers crashing over the structure, precluded our outer-harbor exploration. On Saturday 6/12, due to a last-minute cancellation, I guided Ross T. and Greg "packy" Dermid to the South Shore ledges off Cohasset. Tom opted to serve as mate on the B-FAST, wielding the net and the one-liners with equal deftness. Fortunately, the seas subsided allowing us to get close enough to fire casts into the wash on the ledges. On the first stop, both Greg and Ross doubled on a pair of bass in the high twenties. On most of the ledges, the results were similar. Nothing really big, but great fun targeting specific locations on structure. Accurate, long casts, both forward and back from the platforms, keeping contact with the fly, brought frequent hook-ups to the Westerners and a flow of entertaining expletives from mate Keer. Sunday, John Bowman and friend, avid trout fishermen from PA, fished the inner-harbor. We found the fish, on the incoming tide, off Rainsford and Gallops feeding on silversides and herring. "Pea-soup" fog kept the competition down. At one point, we found ourselves virtually alone in acres of birds, bass and bait. With Garmin's G-Map GPS, we were able to run back to the school, consistently keeping both angler's fly rods double-over with fish between 20 and 27 inches.

Capt. Mike Bartlett B-Fast Charters bfast@bigfoot.com www.spav.com/progc/bfast/

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