Found myself in home water yesterday and got out fishing with best bud Tim McKenna and guide Nat Chalkley. Pushed off from Woodshole at 5 a.m. to fish the immediate surrounding waters between Woodshole and Naushon Island (great striped bass territory) and in water just east of there along the shoreline for black sea bass, which are thickly schooled up due to a pre-spawn. Striper fishing was a little tight though we tried yoyos and chunks and surface lures in some of the hottest zones on the Cape. Managed two nice early but very few bites so we headed a short distance to hit the black sea bass, where we did far better bottom fishing with double rigs that looked like clouser streamers baited with a bit squid. We dropped the lines straight down in 30-50 feet of water and the bites started immediately. Some scup in the mix but we caught about 20 and kept 11 that were big enough. I'd never caught black sea bass before, and more importantly never ate any. That night it was striped bass and black sea bass poached in water and butter. If anything, black sea bass is even better than striped bass, and both fish just fresh out of the sea — incomparable.
Striped bass and black sea bass fishing with Nat Chalkley off Woodshole, Massachusetts
