JFK Library, Dorchester, MA Fishing Report

JFK UMASS Boston Bluefish

Went out of the night of the 16th, into the morning of the 17th, the day after/of the boating disaster.

Conditions were ideal. Choppy water, incoming tide, birds everywhere. Unfortunately, our bait was not. I was unable to find fresh mackerel so we had to use frozen, bait store garbage.

I got one pull for a second, but was unable to set the hook and that was it. 6 hours spent, countless numbers of crabs fed.

The next day, I was planning on taking a break, but at 8PM, a guy I know who is a commercial fisherman, called me up and told me he had fresh mackerels from that day. He had fish of all sizes. I personally love the small ones because they're easier to bait onto the hook. Yeah, you need more of them, but they last longer. I immediately met up with him and bought $50 worth to cover me for the next few days.

A lot of people freeze these, but it completely ruins them. You ever cut open a mackerel and see that paper pulp type color? That means that it's gone. Nothing will bite that. Here's the trick. Have a cooler and a bunch of bags of ice. Lay down a layer of ice, then put down a row of macks. Lay another layer of ice on top, then put down another row of macks, etc. This will keep them in fresh FRESH condition for 3-4 days, which will then in turn turn up your bite ratio.

These things are SUPER fresh. The color on the fish is green, the stripes look like they've been painted on precisely... You cut them open, the insides are blood red, almost gelatinous.

Anyway. I went out that night and much to my dismay, the water was dead. Completely still. You couldn't even tell that the tide was coming in. No birds, nothing. I was expecting another skunk night, but after a couple hours, I finally took a hit and pulled in a little 24" snapper. No hits for another few hours and then took in a 27". Then, on my final few macks, I decided to not chunk them but put a whole one on a hook. I had it out there for not even 5 minutes when my baitrunner went insane. Before I could set, it stopped. I started reeling to pull in the line and rebait, but there was nothing at the other end... Whatever bit took the whole damn thing.

If any of you are still reading, any idea what this could have been? I've had this happen to me in this same spot 4-5 times this year... On occasion I've had the rod in my hand and it almost feels like a striper thump, but way heavier, and the line always snaps. Keep in mind, I have 80 lb braid on my rods and my knots are always good...

Anyway, the season is almost over, I will be going out tomorrow and using up the rest of these macks.

• Added By: jessekayboston on 10/20/11 01:38 AM
• Location: JFK Library, Dorchester, MA
• Report Date: 10/18/2011 - 10/19/2011
• # of Hotspots: 2
• # of Photos: 2
• # of Fish Caught: 2
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