Mac Attack!
August 14, 2019 Bellevue 3 photos

Trip Summary

Mack Attack! What a day! Had a blast. The plan was to do a variety of techniques. Live lining, cast and jig on breakers and trolling for Macs. We put a dozen spot in the tank and off we went. Stopped at the bridge to live line, had a few hits and 1 run off but lost it. The birds were working South of us and I couldn’t take it anymore. Off to the birds we went. Loads of mainly 18 inch Rock. Moved around trying to find some keepers. Put a spot over while casting and jigging and sure enough, the drag starts peeling. Dave got it in and it’s a 21 inch rock fish. Sweet! We kept working with the birds and got 2 more by casting jigs. Awesome. We needed 1 more for a limit. Birds were all over the place but just couldn’t get anything to bite. We decided to troll and see if there are any blues. We put out 4 rods and couldn’t keep up with them! Finally after about 10 throwbacks a nice 20 incher. That’s a wrap for the Rock. Let’s go look for Macs. South bound and down we go. Got to where I wanted to try and didn’t see anything happening. No breakers. No boats. Just a few birds here and there sitting. We put out our 4 rod spread to see what happens. Nothing here let’s cut across and up. Few small rock at 5mph! Ok speed it up. Come up on a ledge and I turn as I didn’t want to be too shallow. Bam Fish On! It’s a Mac. Dave had never caught 1 before. Get it close and as I leader it in and go to swing over the side of the boat. Yup you guess it Dave still hasn’t caught 1! I lost it. That’s alright make a turn go back and fish on! Dave grabs the rod. I grab the net this time. Uh oh no Mac it’s a bluefish. Ok let’s try again. Few minutes later fish on! It’s a Mack and Dave got his first Spanish Mac! Yea mission accomplished! Now let’s see if we can get some more. Sure enough we worked the area over and got 8 total and lost some. It wasn’t hot and heavy but it was steady. The were concentrated in that 1 little area. Go North or South and nothing come back and fish on. Never saw a breaker or another fishing boat. Coming back in and birds are still working at the first place from the morning. I will say the rock that we caught today were pretty for sure. Fat and healthy. Hard to believe it’s mid August already. Summers almost gone. We still have a few dates available. Half day $350 can be AM or PM. Full day $450. Live lining, casting and jigging, and troll for Macs & Blues. If you want to do a specific technique just let us know. We always try to accommodate.
Richard Phippin
Bellevue, Maryland, United States
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Other reports from this charter

Rockvember
Rockvember
November 10, 2025
Fall fishing is in full swing! The Striped bass are schooled up and feeding for winter. Water temps are in the mid 50's. We had a bit of a warmup Friday night with air temps at 58 to start the day. Wind was a little more than we like but still doable. We left the dock with the intentions of trolling first then switching to jigging. Sure enough the birds were right where we left them last week. We dropped 4 rods in and started trolling. Birds were working but not hard and they were jumping around a lot. Once I marked fish I could see that they were deeper than previous trips. So we readjusted and deployed all 6 rods accordingly. It took about maybe an hour and we started getting hits. Usually this is fish hitting the teasers and not the hooks. But we kept at it and not long we had a fish on. Josh was up first and before he could get the fish halfway to the boat another rod goes off. Kyle jumps on and then a 3rd rod goes off. We boated all 3 fish. Beautiful fat fall keepers. Nice and healthy. In the box they went. We circled back and after a few passes another fish on. Thats 4 in the box and 1 more to go for a limit. A couple more passes and fish on. Before that fish gets to the boat another rod goes off. We boated them and that makes a limit with 1 to throw back. We made a couple more passes and managed 1 more throw back before the bite died. This time of year the fish may or may not feed for a long period. At that was the case. We stowed the trolling gear and went looking for a jigging bite. The wind was dying down perfectly. Its hard to jig on fish with 1 to 2 foot waves but it was dying out like predicted. We went to a reef that is old bridge decking and concrete rubble. There was a boat there and they were catching. After a few minutes they pulled up and left. We made several drifts and sure enough Josh hooks a Nice 26 1/2 inch Striper. Couple more drifts and several more Stripers and I notice commotion off the Starboard side about 100 yards. They are busting on the surface. With no birds around. We motor over as quiet as possible and everyone is hooking up. They didn't stay on the surface long as there was a boat that kept trolling by. But they did pop back up several times and we were able to get the them before they went down. We caught and released numerous healthy Stripers. Mostly over the 24 inch keeper size limit. After a while Josh hooked into something huge. It wasn't a striper that's for sure. We had to follow the fish so he didn't get spooled. It came near the surface a couple of times. With the fall water being so clear on the last time near the surface I was able to make out the color. It was copper, a big Bull Red. Unfortunately after a 15 minute battle he got it near the boat and it went straight down. It stayed there, then wrapped the reef and pulled the hook. These are some powerful beasts that is for sure. We got back at it and caught a few more Stripers before calling it a day and heading back in. The ride back in the water was almost glass smooth. Back at the dock we measured and weighed the fish. Then filleted and packaged them for their ride home. The smallest was just over 4 pounds with the biggest at just under 6lbs. They made for some nice dinner filets for the table. We still have dates available. This cold snap coming should fire them up even more. Big ocean run fish are on their way. We usually start seeing them within the next week give or take. Every year is a little different. The largest fish ever on my boat was a 46 1/2 inch Striper caught on Veterans Day. That was definitely the fish of a life time. You won't know if you don't go. So contact us to set to a trip. Till then Tight lines everyone. We are going to get back at for now.
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