Cape Cod, Massachusetts

Cape Cod is just like I pictured! Its like stepping back in time to when the pilgrims landed hundreds of years ago. Its also like a picture perfect old fishing town along the coast like something you would see on the Hallmark Channel. The house we are staying at was built in 1782 and is in the town of Sandwich, Massachusetts about half way down the Cape. Here are some pictures of the cottage and barn:





Justin and I arrived very early in the Monday morning from a late night flight from Chicago Midway to Boston. We then drove a rental car about an hour to the Cape. Upon arrival we decided to sleep for 2 hours and then up and out onto the Bay to look for some monster Bluefin Tunas with local Tuna guru Rocco. Here is Rocco on his Tuna Chaser:


We drove around and around for about 45 miles just looking for Tunas chasing bait on the surface. We were going to try and hook up with one of the beasts via rod and reel, and also stick one with a harpoon! The tunas in the area right now are running about 225 lbs, but Rocco's buddy stuck a 970 lb bluefin last week! Getting a tuna is a big deal, cause at the local fish market they sell for about $15 per lb live weight! Rocco, his brothers, and their 93 year old grandpa-pappy harpoon about 15-20 big tunas every summer!! They don't typically waste their time on potentially bad tuna fishing days, but we only had monday available, cause stripers are tues-thurs.

Unfortunately we didn't get the opportunity to hang out with some tunas up close and personal, the wind was blowing from the East and the sun never could shake off the clouds. Generally for chasing tunas in the bay you want it to be calm and sunny. Anyhow I snapped a photo just to break up the monotony and add some scenery to this story. The big hook in the picture is not the harpoon, it is just a gaff that we would have used to get the tuna into the boat.

We didn't catch any tunas, but we had an awesome time on the Bay just relaxing and not WORKING!!! When we got back it was time for dinner! The next door neighbors are commercial lobster fisherman and they hooked us up with 10 fresh lobsters for dinner!!

Justin ate 3 lobsters, Brett ate 2 lobsters, Katy ate 1 lobster, and Nate ate 4 lobsters! Oh yeah, we are staying with Katy and Brett. They are clients and good friends from back home. Brett is in the process of building the best Jumbo Yellow Perch lake in Illinois. They stay in the Cape for the month of July to commercial fish and they invited us out to help out! We hopped on a plane at the last minute and the rest is history....

The main fish we will be after are Striped Bass. Commercial fishing for them is a major deal around here and is only open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. You can keep 30 stripers per boat and they average about 15 lbs and bring in about $4 per lb live weight. You only have to go 1-2 miles offshore to fish for them with jigs and lures so you don't have much expenses in fuel or bait and you dont have to clean the fish when you get back to the dock. Just drop them off with the fish trucks lined up to take them to the market!

The lobster neighbor lady said she would love some striped bass fillets so we definitely are motivated to catch some fish tomorrow so we can feast again. Stripers and Lobster sounds pretty good eh?