3 Bluefish, One Striper, JFK/UMASS
Had a great night the other night. Fished the incoming high for three hours, and the outgoing for another two.
Used very fresh chunks of mackerel. By fresh, I mean, it looked like jello inside of these pieces. None of those flaky, white chunks. Check the Vietnamese fish markets in Dorchester. Many of them have fish that were caught that day. Plenty of fellas were using the old frozen, 2 bucks a pop, chunks from baitshops and only one of them caught. Freshness definitely made a difference.
No other stripers that night. Lost my line, hook, and weight twice from giant hooks.
Steel leaders are an absolute must. Most everything being caught around here are blues, all above 30 inches. Setting the hook as quickly as possible and keeping tension on the line is also important as those suckers spin back and will chop your line in half if you give them the opportunity to.
The striper was caught on the right side (if looking out onto the water) not far from shore. The blues were caught from the left, middle, and right.
The water was moving great. Sometimes I'll catch at this spot when the water is still, but when it's really rocking all over the place and you've got really fresh bait, you're bound to hit eventually. Just make sure you aren't goofing off so you can set the hook! Seen plenty of guys miss fish because they are busy chatting, dawdling about somewhere!