Bound for Boston

For about the last 25 years I’ve wanted to fish for Striped Bass. Having tried to put a trip together or join someone else’s it hadn’t worked out, I wasn’t sure it would ever happen. Ideally that would have been on a beach or rocks and preferably at night, but it wasn’t to be. My 60^th birthday gave me the reason to eventually go and get it done.

I chose Boston as it was pretty much fly in and fish, did some research and made some calls. With that being done and the Tartan Army having left the city, a lone Scottish foot soldier jumped on a flight with high hopes. My fingers were crossed for better results.

I opted to stay in Winthrop, just outside the city and a 5-minute walk to the boat ramp of my skipper Joe Gugino. After a quick F2F intro on day one we drove down to the dock, he handed me three Costa Del Mar truckers caps, I picked the one I thought looked the luckiest and we set off into my first Boston sunrise. First stop live bait, mackerel had been thin on the ground, we needn’t have worried as I made short work of filling the live well in 20 minutes. I was thinking, was this a good omen?

With the back up bait collected it was off to find some fish on lures. With about 8 rod set ups to chose from, Joe handed me one which was set up with a glide bait attached. He went on to explain how he wanted to hate on them initially. I felt the same way. At 9 inches long and about 5 oz it was going to be hard work. Being assured of their effectiveness I started making some casts watching how the lure worked at various speeds and on the pause and twitch. About 30 mins later I had a follow and then my first Striper exploded on the lure. In the early morning sunshine, it was one of those anticipated moments you get in fishing which didn’t disappoint.

At this point we were fishing amongst the islands, and I had another couple of fish in quick succession. In all honesty if the day had ended there, I would have been happy. Joe then got a heads up from a contact that there was a blitz on a few miles outside of Boston light. When we arrived it was absolute mayhem, being a weekend there were lots of boats but also lots of birds, bait and Stripers! Keeping your eyes peeled for breaking fish and running close to them to set up your drift for your best guess as to which direction they were traveling was the name of the game. It was some of the most exciting fishing I’ve done. Casting up front gave me a great view of multiple fish following my lure, missing it numerous times, hooking up coming off and being hit again.

Day 1 had been an absolute screamer. Joe assured me it wasn’t always like this just to keep my feet firmly on the ground. I knew this to be true as invariably this is how fishing is. Like football, it’s the hope that can kill you. For today, it was fist bumps all morning and a few beers when I got back to my Airbnb. 

Great session at the weekend

 

Rumours of my demise

Just about two years since my last blog post. I’ve met a few lads recently that wondered if I was still alive, thankfully and for the time I am 😊 To be fair I’ve not pestered the fish too much this year, but here’s a few from winter, spring, and summer.

I’ve spent some time getting into MTB over the last 2 years, it's been great. I’ll never make the Red Bull Rampage scene, but I’ve had a lot of fun (and some injuries) trying.

Anyhoo, van time this weekend, if you look into my blog, good health, tight lines, and bent rods

Martin

Seat with a view

No van or fishing this weekend, we climbed a local hill for the sunset on Friday night and chilled out over the weekend. Even up there with the sun going down, I was angling with the Mrs. I think we'll be be on a ferry shortly. Just about where the sun went down, I would imagine they'll be decent winter Pollack waiting.

Making the most of the weather

 We had a nice van day on the beach on Saturday, followed by an excellent BBQ as we watched the sun go down.  I guess it was too much to ask that the aurora showed this far south, as it did in some areas of Scotland over the weekend.  We did have a look, but the warmth of the van was way too tempting.  This was the first time I’ve used the Propex gas heating in anger and we were glad to have it. 

Jamie joined me on Sunday morning and after waving goodbye to my wife and dog on the beach, we set off in mirror calm conditions. The sun was low and blinding, the fishing was initially rock hard. There weren’t many signs of life, but I picked up a couple of bass and a little pollack. After suggesting a move Jamie was way out in front and I got on the radio to say I had two bass back to back when trolling, he turned tail and joined me.  Over the next few hours, I picked up bass and pollack on a regular basis. What I found interesting was how the results were much better in terms of how I was able to set the kayak up on the drift. The direction of the breeze meant that I could drift across the direction of flow and cast up tide.  This isn’t always possible, but it made a big difference presenting the lures like this and resulted in over a dozen bass.  

It was nice to pick up a few better pollack as well.

As usual with pollack, there's always the one that gets away.  The fish kelped me but I took my time and held the kayak as stationary as I could and fed it some line. It managed to swim free and just as I was getting it moving again, the hook pulled!

All in, another good days fishing and a weekend with great weather for September. We know this wont last. When there's the odd break in October, I'll be rinsing it any opportunity I get.  The next six months will be tough.

Talking Pollacks!

 

                                  The less you talk Pollacks the better....

Gear Review

I thought I would share my views on a few items that I’m currently using.  These have made life a little easier both on and off the water on my trips. These have been bought by me, not given to me, this kit works for me, it might for you.

On my last boat, the Hobie Outback, initially I ran a Lowrance 5HDI with one Hobie 12V 9AH battery. This equated to one average days usage on the water.  When I swapped this out for a Lowrance 7Ti, I had to carry two of these batteries. They were heavy and despite the connections being waterproofed to a point, the salt does everything in eventually. The old battery was mounted in the rear hatch, off the waterline and out of way.  Eventually I had to replace the pigtails and over time, the batteries degrade with use as well as cold weather.  When I moved to the Hobie Revolution 16, I had a look at the options on Lithium based batteries, there were lots of options going down the DIY route. There were no options available retail, at that time, in the UK, circa January 2019.  As such I opted for the FPV 12.5 17AH as I didn’t fancy risking my DIY skills, lithium batteries and water. The advice from the guys at FPV was good, the delivery from Australia was decent. 

The battery which you see in the bottom right is waterproof (heard that before?)  The weak point that I could see was the rubber washer connecting the female cable to the battery block, this looked over tightened to me, even marginally crushed. If it were to fail, other than the connections corroding, this would be where.  As such, I decided to encase the battery, connections and fuse in a Lock & Click box.  I drilled a hole, installed a gland and even kept the FPV inline fuse inside the box.  It might well be overkill, but if you’ve every driven 3 hours to a new venue to fish for two days and had kit like this fail, you’ll understand. The connections have a rubber o ring to provide a seal, if you were to install it without a watertight box. It's rated IP67 when connected, just make sure not to over tighten the connections. The weight saving versus SLA batteries is huge, this is just over a pound, against about 6 pounds on the old battery. Every ounce counts when I'm hauling out at the end of a session on some of the trickier launching spots. I also purchased caps for the connections, these keep all the components clean and out of harms way. All in, it should now be bomb proof and it has been so far. In terms of usage, it’s been faultless. The 7Ti is a thirsty unit but I can get two average days usage from this, without playing with the brightness settings to conserve power.

Speaking of power, this All Powers 372wh portable power supply has been great in my van.  It’s got AC sockets, 3 USB, 1 USBC ,2 DC outputs and a 12v cigarette socket. If you have a mobile that supports wireless charging it also does this.  It’s simple to use and while it's not switched on in the image here, it displays how much power you’re drawing and how much battery time you have left in use. It’s a lightweight and compact unit, check the detailed spec online. It’s been great for powering our phones, iPad and recharging things like headlight batteries or topping up the FPV battery. I went for this rather than another battery and split charger for the van for a few reasons. I could probably stretch a 5-day trip in the van, off grid, before it would need charging. I’ve done 3 so far and it’s been spot on. Add a solar panel and some Scottish sunshine and you’ll be good to go longer.  It has it’s limits in terms of what it will power, but it does what I need it do, so far at least. There are detailed reviews online, check them out if you’re in the market for power for camping and the like.

As far as coolers go, this is loud. At least we like the colour! I was in the market for a passive cool box after discounting installing a fridge and anything powered by gas.  Icey-Tek have a good reputation and after spending some time researching the options, I went for this. On unpacking the box, the first thing I noticed is that it’s incredibly sturdy, especially in comparison to the rubbish I’ve used in the past for bait or going to the beach for the day. It’s also heavy and has lots of insulation, I went for the 40L. This might go someway to the claims Icey-Tek make about keeping contents cool for ten days. In practical use, I would doubt it. When you factor in opening and closing and the variable volume of contents and the human factor, it would be a stretch. That said, I left 3 beers with some food in the van as a test, day 5 and I was so pleased I had 2 of the beers. It passed the test.  It has a drain plug on each side if you use ice. I got two of their large gel packs as this keeps the contents dry, throw in some ice on extended trips and you’ll be sorted. It closes with two heavy duty rubber toggles, if you keep these unfastened when not in use it will extend their life, they won’t stretch over time. I also added a cushion, so it doubles as spare seat inside the van or outside. In terms of capacity, they supply these from 25L to a huge 1100L commercial option. I’m really pleased with it. Just mind how you lift it when it’s full, less bottles might help of course….

Getting a 16ft 30+kg kayak on top of roof bars 7ft off the ground when you’re 5ft 8, presents a challenge. I can do it without the Rhino Side Loader, but somewhere shortly down the line, I would damage the van or myself. After a few shots at it I’ve got it working well. I add a towel on the roof, just about the side door, to protect the paint, then lift the front of the boat up on to the bar.  From there, I take the end of the boat, climb the step and push the lot across the bars. They’ll be a mistake made somewhere, probably the steps at the end of long day; I just need to take my time. To be fair I couldn’t consider some of the other loading options. The boat was overweight for two of them and the other looks like you’re carrying a selection of angle iron attached to the roof. It’s well made, has a few fitting options specific to different fittings at the roof bar end.  In terms if this, it looks like it would fit most roof bars but it’s worth checking.  It hooks around my Yakima Whispbars snug enough that it wont budge.  The support poll adjusts to height and it all packs away in the travel pack provided.  If you use it properly, it will help load a boat on to any vehicle if you need some assistance.