New England Sportsman's Network

I'm heading out of Hampton harbor Saturday at 7:00am to follow a charter boat out to do my infamous Mackerel run.

I'm making the offer to anyone looking to follow me out to join the fun. I can't promise anything and I don't suffer fools easy....so make sure your boat is sea-worthy as I'm not looking to have to tow anyone back in.

I'm going to be in a 19 foot aluminum Starcraft (silver and grey) with enclosed bow and a bimini top. There will be 3 or 4 people in the boat. I'm launching at the Hampton launch in the river. I will be going out from 7:00am until about 11:00am.

If everything works as planned I'll have a cooler full of macks in about 2 hours. The weather is calling for sun, 74 degree temps, and 7mph winds. If things change, then I'll be heading out on Sunday.

Reply if you'd like to tag along in your boat.

Looking for the report from this trip Mikey

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Have Fun, Be Safe and Good Luck!

Quit Wishin, Go Fishing!!!

I'll be sure to put it up.

Bubba....you gotta show me what your doing in the surfcasting department to catch these linesiders. I went the other night and got completely skunked. Threw clams, seaworms.....even cast some eels on Plum island just inside the mouth.....all with absolutely positively no luck.

I'll accept an invite

you'll have all the bait you need in 15 minutes..they are thicker than they were last season.good luck.

good luck mike,...it worked ,..and thanks for the help

Glad we got you back online.

Roccus.....any tips as we head out? I'm up in Hampton so it might not be your neck of the woods. I'm planning on fishing the chum slick of the party boat about 4 miles off Hampton beach on the humps.

Hi Mike,

Getting bait wont be a problem, I can get a jig down to codfish at times they are so thick..

I set up Last friday on the inside just south of Hampton off the ocean front over one of my favorite hills....after a morning of ground fishing. the bite took awhile to materilize, but once the fish got into the slick it was pretty steady... find the Macs... find the bass seems to fit the bill, Mackerel 6-8' down under a ballon and a chunk on the bottom for luck ... dont know what this week of weather has done out front, BTW.. Saturday was dogfish central... big pregnmant females.

Hey Mike,
would love to get out with ya. Been playing a lot with the groundfish this season including this one caught on Sat trip (pic below). It was 42 lbs, biggest of the season for me this year. Between 3 of us, we limited out on Cod.

When the wind/waves dont allow me to get out in my little 18 footer than I play with dem line-siders. My biggest is 42 inches so far this year. Biggest in the boat was a 45. All on da sluggo (along with the 30+ others)..

Haven't even had the chance to chase Macs yet this year. Hoping to soon, and now I find out the Bluefish are in too..

Gotta love the salt.. (and tasty...)

Hey Rocco, are you the same guy that introduced yourself to me at the Rockingham F&H Expo????

_________________
Have Fun, Be Safe and Good Luck!

Quit Wishin, Go Fishing!!!

Well, following a mackerel charter worked again. However, knowing when NOT to follow is what really worked.

Seems like the word is out about my technique. There were 4 boats trailing the Miss Audrey Mae from Eastman's. I let the other 4 boats follow the big girl in a circle as she was using sonar to find a school. Once I saw her anchor I ran the 6 miles to belly up behind her.

The captain was bitching "these outboards make the mackerel scared and hard to catch" or something stupid like that. Guess he was having a hard time finding schools on the fishfinder!

He settled in on a hump about 4 miles due east of hampton harbor. He stayed for about 15 minutes and a few macks/pollocks were caught, then he left in a huff because of the small boats fishing around him. He should have been a little calmer as he left and he might not have caught the anchor on a nearby lobster trap bouy

So....he left and the circus of small boats followed. We had noticed some real small rings on the glass smooth surface and so we decided to hang around. After about 5 minutes it was quite apparent that there were a lot of macks around and we started hauling them in the boat. Caught about 65 macks/20 pollock and 4 decent cod on this one hump. We called it a day around noon once the tide changed and the bite shut down. Diamond jigs (real small) and sabbichi (sp?) rigs are what worked.

Blue fish, lots of them ,are what are making the Macks skittish.. not outboards.. like his big noisy diesel doesnt bother them...

Rob..not me.. I'm not much on fishing shows.. but you did come over to my boat last fall on the South west hump amd inqire about a tuna boat anchored there...