Cape Cod &
the Islands

Summer patterns begin to emerge

When it comes to superstitions, fishermen really take the cake. I was reminded recently of this when the subject of bananas on boats came up while I was fishing with a couple of different folks.

Several years back I made the "mistake" of bringing one of these forbidden fruits on board a my friend boat. As I prepared to peel back the first strip of skin, Gene grabbed my 'nana and fired it over board, admonishing that "never, ever bring a banana on a boat -- it's bad luck."

Not only was I shocked and dismayed at the loss of my snack, but I was left scratching my head about what harm a poor banana could bring to a boat or even one's fishing success.

During a trip along the Elizabeth Islands a couple of weeks back, Scott Simenas brought out a banana and I relayed my experience with Gene to him and he expressed concern, but I told him that I didn't hold much stock in such things and the "yellow curse" certainly didn't keep him from landing a nice 36 inch bass.

Most recently, Ken Sullins broke out a banana while we were in the midst of fantastic fishing around Barnstable Harbor and I again informed him of the whole banana affair. Let's just say that the Katie G. didn't sink and we caught more fish than you could shake a stick at.

Apparently, Ken brought a banana along when he fished the same stretch of Barnstable as well as flats around Brewster and caught fish, while this Tuesday we fished Monomoy with no yellow fruit and caught the skunk.

Later that evening, Ken sent me an questioning this whole banana thing and pointed out, quite clearly, that as the tropical fruit was eliminated from the equation, so were the fish. So I've pretty much decided that bananas and boats don't add up to any great disaster and my experience with Ken certainly shows that they might not have the impact on fishing success that others believe.

Of course, that doesn't mean I'm willing to give up my belief that catching a fish on your first cast is a surefire way to ruin the rest of the day's fishing.

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

Tight Lines!

Dave Peros

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Cape Cod & the Islands Regions

Buzzards Bay

Our newest sponsor, Captain Bob Paccia (508)-697-6253) of Shoreline Guide Service reports:

Fishing had slowed down a bit in Buzzards Bay. First light found plenty of birds working from the Mass Maritime to the Mashnee flats. Small sand eels were being pushed to the surface by both stripers and blues. Some of these early morning fish were a decent size for fly rodding (24"-30"). However, an hour or so after sunrise the action slowed down almost to a stand still. We had to put some extra miles on the boat to find the fish. We also had to fish deep with heavy sinking lines with short leaders.

After Sunday's storm, the remnants of tropical storm Allison, the striper fishing improved markedly. These fish must be fresh in from the open waters as they were covered with sea lice and very bright in color. They were fat, strong and very hungry. The other interesting thing about this group of fish, was that there were good numbers of both small and large fish. It was good to see some good quantity of fresh small and larger stripers moving into the area. Let' shope this is a trend.

We saw fewer bluefish after the storm, that may be due in part to the dirtier post storm water conditions.

Most of the harbors and rivers from Bourne to West Falmouth are holding smaller bass, but the marshes around Sippewisset and Wood Neck often hold some truly big bass around the time of the new moon, especially with outgoing water right now falling well after sunset.

Falmouth & the Elizabeths

The beaches in Falmouth have been quiet, with even Nobska showing little action, unless you work the flats and grass patches in this area. The southside ponds all have pre-schoolies, but as the water warms even more, that action will also quiet down a bit. Waquoit has been OK around the rip off the west jetty and around the channels that surround the inside flats, but nobody has been speaking about any worm hatches inside the bay - although they might just be keeping them quiet.

June is usually a pretty solid time for bass on top around the ledges and reefs in Woods Hole, but things have been surprisingly quiet; perhaps things will shape up late like they did last year in early August. Eels at night and early morning worked deep seem to be doing the trick.

Curt Jessup from The Sporting Life in Mashpee Commons reported that one of the guides from the shop, Capt. Bill Beardsley, found some bass in the 28 to 30 inch range slurping sand eels down along Naushon, but they were tough. It seems that in many places this season, there have been good numbers of small sand eels around and the bass are simply focused in on the real thing. The best suggestion I have gotten is from Capt. Tim Flaherty out on the Vineyard who says it's best to not even try to imitate the things; instead, he uses larger but still sparsely dressed chartreuse flies in hopes of bringing out a reaction.

The word is that Capt. John Christian is purchasing worms by the flat, which can only mean that the tube-and-worm is once again working as are jigs on wire, which means our only hope in places like Quick's and Robinson's where the fish are deep is to use an LC-13 head or at least a 650 grain fast sink line with larger flies to get the attention of the fish.

The Cape Cod Canal

Bruce Miller said the mackerel are still holding in good numbers around the east end of the Big Ditch and the bass are right there under them. What should be some good plugging tides haven't shaped up as of Thursday, but the rats will keep looking. What you do have is fish popping in good numbers before dawn as the current begins to slack west, but then the east shape up just hasn't occurred yet. The west end is pretty quiet, although as June slips into July it isn't uncommon to find schoolies up inside the mud flats munching on sand eels. If you are familiar with some of the mussel beds and points at the east end, this might be a good time to sling your favorite mackerel fly on a fast sink line as the west-running current begins to ebb in the early morning hours or at dusk.

The South Side

The interesting thing about the stretch from South Cape to Hyannis this time of year is that folks are pretty much resigned to schoolie fishing, but an early morning or evening foray around the flats off Popponesset, Dead Neck, and Dowses can produce a larger bass or two.

Smaller bluefish are still in and around the beaches from South Cape to Cotuit, but boaters will find more consistent action around Succonesset and Hedge Fence, with the latter holding larger fish.

The water from Yarmouth to Harwich is also starting to warm quickly, once again calling for dusk to dawn techniques and a willingness to use black Clousers or Deceivers; any time you come upon fishing sipping bait on the surface, turning to a floating Corsair fly or a snake fly can be worthwhile. Since eels at night are working, rabbit strip flies or your favorite Mr. Wiggly imitation might also yield dividends.

Martha's Vineyard

Even though many folks associate boat fishing at Wasque with wire line and jigs, astute skippers like Captain Leslie Smith know that this area provides great fly and light tackle action, as she reports this week:

I love it when a plan comes together. I'd been looking forward all last week, through the fog and dismal weather, to the prospect of an early incoming tide at Wasque this week, knowing that the rising tide tends to be much better than the falling. With two of my best clients, we headed out today (Wednesday) at daybreak, to be met with the sight of birds diving in all the rips - a very good sign. By the end of their four hours, the two anglers had released 43 stripers between them, most breaking the 28" limit by quite a bit. It has been truly stupendous the last few days, with clear sunny skies and hundreds, possibly thousands, of bass in the rips. Even at slack tide we were able to tempt bass out of the shallows around Porky's Island. Small blues are still abundant, with a mid morning blitz off Cape Poge everyday, and more moving around the shoals east of Chappy. For the bait dunkers, fluke are starting to be caught at Tom Shoal and word has it that Hedge Fence has been producing for the flatties. Until next week... "

Captain J.C. Burke told me that Middle Ground was alive with big bass feeding on squid late last week, but generally the action at MG has been hot-and-cold. Whereas the action on the fly was consistent for about six weeks last year, this season thing are more sporadic -- perhaps a function of fewersquid in the rips. The word from the wire line crew is the fish are in deeper water close to shore.

Nantucket

Bill Pew from Bill Fisher Tackle called the beach fishing surprisingly slow, with Great Point perhaps the only real solid bet with bass at night and blues in the rips. What Bill was all too willing to acknowledge was that the island has been best for boaters who can access the flats around Tuckernuck as well as Madaket Harbor and inside Nantucket Harbor as well. One area which is still producing bluefish and some bass for the shore crew is Maddequeshan Valley, which is just east of the airport.

Of course, Lynne Heyer and the rest of the crew at Cross Rip Outfitters will be only too happy to take you out in their "fleet" of charter boats. You can choose the Tuckernuck flats where bigger bass are taking Clousers just fine or even the water just north of the island where pencil poppers are scoring well. The hotspots inside Madaket Harbor are slowing, but Nantucket Harbor still has good numbers of fish and the waters around the Smith's Point opening are also productive. The rips around Sankaty are producing bass to the mid 30 pound class and Great Point definitely has the best shore action on plugs, both swimming and surface.

The Outer Beaches, Chatham & Monomoy

Paul Newmier said that while things are a bit slower from Nauset on up to Coast Guard Beach in Eastham, there was a decent push of bass in the 28 to 32 inch range off the bathing beach at Nauset; these fish were more than willing to take plugs, especially Mambo Minnows and Bombers

The flats west of Monomoy had been improving, but heavy winds on Tuesday and Wednesday made it difficult to see fish, although they were still around the grass flats off South Monomoy. Captain Kris Jop of Come Fly With Me Charters has moved his operation to these productive, intriguing waters and offered this report about last week's conditions:

Because of the fog and poor visibility, fishing on the flats around Monomoy was difficult during most part of past week. But fishing has been good throughout the week, particularly on the west side, where we enjoyed fantastic action when sight-fishing. Happily, the inside flats are slowly become more and more productive.

Moving up towards Provincetown, Emilio Rogel said the fishing remains good around Coast Guard Beach in Truro as well as Head of the Meadow; the hot lure is yellow swimming plugs, especially Bombers, which sounds like a situation for Bob Popovics' Siliclone PopLips; I've been tying these recently and have actually found them relatively simple once you get some practice. Of course, the best source for learning about his techniques is the new book, Pop Fleyes. Then again, yellow Deceivers or large snake flies might work as well. Bluefish continue to be few and far between, which has some folks surprised.

The North Side

Bruce Miller reported three fish between 33 and 40 pounds were taken on tubes off Sandy Neck on Tuesday and some truly large fish cruise the bars, flats, and sloughs at this time of year, making for good sight fishing and a reasonable chance at a true trophy bass.

Inside Barnstable Harbor has been spotty, with mostly smaller fish, but the flats to the east have been dynamite. Ken Sullins and I ran into what seemed like acres of breaking fish over the weekend and then as the tide began to rise we were surrounded by bass of all sizes as they paraded in towards the flats and creeks. We watched as shore flyrodders wading out from Chapin's Beach hooked up; when things went slow on Ken's Sluggos and Zoom Super Flukes, I just had to chuck out my favorite tan/white, and gold flash Clouser to see if I could coax one of the many cruising stripers to eat. Let's just say that two strips and I was fast to a fish. We saw some of the largest fish I have ever witnessed on the flats and the only bait we saw was very small sand eels.

The stretch from Sesuit to the Brewster Flats is also worth a sniff, again with small sand eels the main food source and bass of all sizes working the edges of the flats on the drop and moving over the sand itself on the rise.

Billingsgate is holding both bass and blues, but with June drawing to a close, more of them are in deeper water where jigs and the tube-and-worm are productive. Scorton is good on the dropping tide, while on the incoming both main creeks in Sandwich seem on the slow side according to reports from earlier this week.