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January 16th, 2004

Shine on Harvest Moon

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It's a great time to be on the water.  The full, bright Harvest moon has been rising early (that's why they call it the harvest moon, it is bright enough that the farmers of old were able to put in a few extra hours in the fields), sparking quite a bit of nocternal feeding and making things easier on fishermen working the evening tides.

I've always been partial to large sillouette flies in black or dark colors when working under the moon.  Something like a large deciever or a grocery fly, while a staple in many others boxes are the Tabory snake fly patterns.  I occassionally reinforce the sillouette by dipping the first 1" of the fly in softex so that it will hold the sharp V pattern, rather than folding back as they normally will.  A little flash added with metallic nail polish works well too.  It adds a hint of sparkle, sort of an iridescence.

A long rabbit strip tied to a hook then finished off wooly bugger style will do a good job imitating an eel, but I have to admit, I find the fly gets wrapped around the hook and line a lot.  Not quite as bad as the eel knots the real thing will create, but sometime close.

The fall is probably the best time of year for fly fishermen.  The fish have the feed bag on now, and reports are coming in of blitzes up and down the coast.  Get out there, before things start to wind down.  You can sleep in November.

Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...

Tight Lines!

Mark Cahill

Boston Harbor

Capt. Bill Smith of Draggin' Fly reports:

Sunday, Aug. 31 Dana Wiebi, Chris Londo and Doug Miller of Boston and Jim Frey of Somerville were on board to celebrate Doug's birthday. Captain Bill expected trouble when he learned that all of the crew were originally from New York and were Yankee fans. Chris was the first to score with a 30 inch linesider caught in seven feet of water in Dorchester Bay. Jim followed with a 32 inch bass. Dana caught two that measured just short of legal size. Doug practiced on smaller schoolies. The lures of choice were rubber shads. After the tide
turned, Captain Bill moved the Draggin' Fly inside Quincy Bay. The first stop at Sunken Ledge was not productive so the crew moved into skinny water. Several fish from 26-28 inches were hooked and released. Dana landed her biggest, a fat 30 inch bass and Doug's football shaped 32 incher took top honors as top fish of the trip.

Dave Gale and Bruce Moyer of Sharon were aboard the Draggin' Fly on Sunday, Sept. 7. It looked like the slow fishing that was reported to Captain Bill over the past few days was going to change as a good size school of bass had bait trapped along Hangman's Island. But the bite lasted only long enough to get one bass to the boat on a Bass Assassin. The next stop on the Deer Island Flats was not much more productive. Only two fish were hooked with one being boated. There was plenty of peanut bunker but very few fish. Back inside, the crew managed only one more bass before calling it a day.

Tacklebox7 had this from last night:

Found some birds working on the east side of Spectacle Island this evening. Bunch of boats around us, but had some success with a couple of blues and stripers.

Johnny P. grabbed his first striper at Wollaston the other night.  The worm has turned for you!

Wollaston Beach - Finally My First Striper!!!
Got to the beach at dead low last night...about 6:00pm. Strapped on the waders, loaded my new TFO Lefty style w/ a great silverside fly and dredged way out past the water line.

Once in the water the silversides were showing up everywhere, not a ripple to speak of, sun was burning out and putting on a fantastic show behind me...I was so pumped!! Told my girlfriend before I left the house that "tonight was the night," I could really feel it.

So I get out about shin deep and start casting to deeper water, getting a feel for the new piece. About 15 minutes later, I see a small wake about 150ft. ahead of me. Start stalkin', tensed up...get within about 70ft. and all activity stops. 'bout 10 casts later I'm like "SH_ _ I spooked'er..." At least I saw one (also a first) and the night is young.

5 minutes later I see her back breach the surface...heart's really racing now. Grip and rip it past her nose w/ staggered, crippled little strips...BANG!!!!! I quickly got it on the reel, tighten the drag a bit and she immediately way into the backing...out of control, I was completely blown away by the power of this fish. I finally get the fish to turn my way and I start closing the deal..."probably a blue" I'm thinking. The back comes up and she shows the stripes...a nice bass, what a feeling!! Measured just over 28", but I've never been big on keepin'...took one good look, reminded myself to take it in and remember the first one...watched her swim off!

Stayed until about 9:30 and saw like 3 more fish, but no takers. I'm on cloud 9 today.

Thanks for all the help Reel Timers! I'll be there tonight if anyone wants to join in.

Johnny

South Shore

The action has picked up again at Powder Point. Fish are showing in the Rivers, such as the Jones. Lots of birds working in Plymouth, Duxbury Harbors, but the big action is outside. Expect to see lots of fish anywhere from Saquish, accross Browns Bank and down to Mary Ann's Rocks. The fish will build up here and feed like crazy until it's time to scoot, when they're going to make one of two choices: canal or outer beaches. Blues are still around, so we can expect a couple more weeks of stripers.

Big news is the school bluefin are being taken out in Cape Cod Bay.  They're moving like crazy so be prepared to burn a lot of gas to find them

North Shore

Bswind had this from Salem:

The Merrimack River

Capt. Charlie Crue from Channel Edge Charters reports: