Captain Eric Stapelfeld's Cape Cod Fishing Blog
January 20, 2010
Summary of Hairball's 2009 Cape Cod charter boat season - May was a hectic month with putting the new Yamaha 250's on my charter boat. We raced around and finally splashed her in Falmouth harbor. Our first voyage took us off Cotuit MA for a nice Cape Cod squid fishing trip were we filled a five gallon bucket with foot-long squid. The beginning of the striped bass season was a little broken up because of the the foul weather which can be expected with New England charter fishing. In all, the numbers of keeper stripers were average with some trophy stripers mixed in. The big fish of the month goes to Ron Fowler with his family aboard managed to catch a 45", 37-pound striped bass. What a joy to spend a spring time family fishing charter with your loved ones.
August 08, 2009
Went fishing out at the Canyons today. We were into lots of big Mahi Mahi (also known as dolphin) all day. Many of those fish were in the 20+ pound range. Then, on the last run of the day we hooked into an absolute beast. After a 45 minute fight, we boated a Mahi that weighed over 62lbs and measured 68 inches in length. As soon as the paperwork is filed, this dolphin will become the new Massachusetts state record! The old record was about 47lbs - we beat it by 15 lbs!
July 13, 2009
Caught a monster striped bass in Vineyard Sound today. It weighted in the mid 30's. It took two people to handle this striper it was so big. I'll be chunking and trolling for bass over the next couple of weeks.
July 11, 2009
Tuna fishing offshore today. Caught a beautiful bluefin tuna weighing in at over 250 pounds. Give me a buzz if you want to do some offshore tuna fishing from Cape Cod.
July 01, 2009
30 striped bass over 40 inches today!!!! We headed east to Monomoy Point and Nantucket. Our Cape Cod charters are unreal right now. Don't miss out on the striper fishing action. Spice up your Cape Cod vacation with a trip out on Hairball Charters.
June 30, 2009
I've never seen fish move around as much as I've seen this year. I've been fishing everywhere from Gay Head to Monomoy Point and all over Vineyard Sound chasing striped bass. Boat traffic is increasing with everyone vacationing Cape Cod, but that doesn't affect the fishing. Today we caught many stripers in the mid 30 inch range and three fish over 40 inches.
June 29, 2009
Plenty of striped bass around right now. We had lots of fish in the 40 inch range, and one over 45 inches!
June 22, 2009
Continued foul weather has hurt my Cape Cod fishing charters, as we haven't been able to get out. Today's nor'easter will certainly churn up the waters creating bad visibility underwater, which will help the fishing really turn on when we can get back on the trail of Cape Cod's striped bass.
June 19, 2009
Foul weather has settled over Cape Cod canceling most of my charters. Can't wait to get back out there when the weather breaks over Vineyard Sound.
June 17, 2009
We had to do a lot of running on the morning charter, yet all anglers still managed to catch decent stripers in the 30 inch range. The afternoon charter proved to be quite different. We didn't get into fish until late in the charter, but the bite really turned on. We caught over 30 stripers in two hours. All had a great time. Rick Gerrish's son caught his first keeper!
June 16, 2009
Randy Masters' annual trip included the owners of Mad Fish Outfitters. Their manager, Tim, caught a nice 40+ inch fish. It was one of several in that size class that day. All had a good time reeling in good solid stripers.
June 16, 2009
Greg Hermina made his annual trip. The night bite was fantastic. Greg's friend from Canada caught a trophy striped bass over 45 inches. Welcome to the world of striper angling!
June 15, 2009
Today was the second of two days fishing with Dave Chase and Mike Keeting. Both of them have caught some of their best stripers ever while fishing with me. In two days we caught 54 striped bass with 20 of them over 40 inches!
June 15, 2009
In the afternoon I brought out some friends for a bachelor party. An amazing bite was on. We had multiple double hook-ups with Paxton Mitchell catching his biggest striper of 46 inches. Congrats to his brother Camden who got married this weekend.
June 12, 2009
Today we combined two different groups of two anglers into a single charter. Stayed inside between Falmouth and the Vineyard battling the mung weed in Middle Ground to catch three fish topping 45 inches. Tough work, but a good day. They started the day not knowing one another, and ended up great friends.
June 08, 2009
Today's trip with John Curren took us on an exploratory trip out to Gay Head. We caught 40+ solid stripers. Two of these monster striped bass were over 45 inches. This was John's fifth year coming out with me.
June 04, 2009
Did my annual trip with Scott Grassy and friends from Philadelphia. We did their annual two-day striper trip - this is their fifth time doing this! All hands caught multiple stripers over 40 inches. Another successful year.
June 02, 2009
Today's trip brought Frank Bowman and his friends who were entered in On The Water's Striper Cup Tournament. Everybody had a fantastic time. All of them caught striped bass weighing between 18-26 pounds.
May 29, 2009
Fishing in the sound has opened up wide. Middle Ground, Half Way Shoal, and Wood's Hole have all come alive. Got four triple hook-ups and caught over 40 stripers today.
May 26, 2009
We've been catching striped bass in the 40 inch range with a few exceeding 40 inches on each charter off of Martha's Vineyard and in Vineyard sound. The average striper has been in the low to mid-30 inch range so far. Jigging with three ounce green and white Hairball Lures seem to be doing the trick so far.
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