Cape Cod &
the Islands

As glamorous as it might seem to sight fish for striped bass from a flats boat or other skiff as they ghost over the flats, the reality is that sometimes the angler on foot is in much better shape in terms of catching, if not necessarily just seeing.

That was brought home to me during a recent trip to the flats off Barnstable as I fished with Eve and David Johnson. Early in the morning, we found fish popping up inside around Horseshoe Bar and the fishing was relatively easy. Deliver a Clouser, count a bit, and then strip; that's all it generally took to hook up. Sometimes the temptation when the fish are apparently feeding on top is to start stripping right away, but a look into the water showed that most of the fish were down low, milling around among the immense schools of sand eels.

Peter Dubaun from Idaho caught this on an eleven weight with a floating line and a popper. while fishing last week with Capt. Joe LeClair of North Eastern Anglers

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

Captain Bob Paccia (508)-697-6253) of Shoreline Guide Service reports:

checked in with a report of good early morning activity in the upper bay which should have anglers setting their alarm clocks extra early:

Fish are busting under working birds all over Buzzards Bay from false dawn (30 - 45 minutes before sunrise) to an hour or two after sun-up. Then, everything goes quiet, as if someone pulled the plug. It's the same story whether you're fishing off Westport or at the railroad bridge at the Cape Cod Canal.

Although it's early the water temperatures are ranging from 70 to 78 degrees in some areas. This means, like it or not, we are in a mid-summer fishing pattern. Shorebound anglers will have to move more often to find the bait and fish. We boaters will be spending a lot more money at the pump in an effort to do the same.

Keep one thing in mind; the fish don't just disappear. They have either moved into deeper water to find relief from the warm waters or they are chasing the bait. As soon as the early morning activity slows down we switch to heavy sinking lines and short leaders and go deep. We look for good drop-offs where bait coming off the shallows are easy targets for hungry stripers and bluefish. The action isn't as fast paced as the early morning activity, but you do have the opportunity to hit some really big fish.

The bread and butter fly patterns have been Clousers tied in sand eel colors: tan or olive with gold flash.

Bonito should be here early this year so check your backing and book your trips early.

Falmouth & the Elizabeths

When it comes to the shore action along the southside beaches and ponds, things are very slow, whether it is for schoolies never mind anything approaching legal size. Water temperatures are soaring during the daytime, so dusk to dawn is the only realistic time you have to catch fish.

The entrance to Waquoit Bay has had good action on outgoing water, but the number of boats at times has caused the harbor patrol to move everybody out of the channel. If things look quiet, a drift along the west jetty tossing a popper in tight to the rocks can also produce a response - but be aware that once the sun is up, the traffic coming in and out can get too intense for safe angling.

Woods Hole has had some good fish (30+ inches) around Middle Ledge which were willing to take poppers as the current began to slack west; this is a good situation in the Hole as it draws fish on top. Pine Island and Red Ledge are other good spots to try, but again remember than once the sun is up, the boat traffic picks up exponentially and things can get downright hairy at times.

Along the Elizabeths, fish are taking poppers and gurglers with good results, as well as sand eel patterns and white Deceiver fished in close. Some anglers also choose to use heavy sinking heads like LC13 to dredge deep where the chunk baiters go, but that isn't really necessary with sight fishing definitely a possibility over the grass-and-sand patches.

The Cape Cod Canal

Late last week, the mud flats were just alive on the tail end of the west and beginning of the east current, with some truly big fish eating white or mackerel pattern Deceivers fished on fast sink lines. The mackerel are still around and at times the fish have been blowing up from the herring run to the Cribbin', according to Mike Thomas. Some of the best action has been on the mainland side and there are some spots where you can fly fish off the rockpiles; Mike added that at times you might be frustrated by the sight of fish in the middle of the Big Ditch, out of casting range, but they have also been cruising only 50 feet from shore, especially as the water is going east. Folks are also poking around Pip's Rip with some success.

The South Side

Shore fishing definitely has slowed, although reports of schoolie activity and some small bluefish from South Cape Beach to Hyannis still filter down, but honestly the most consistent action is by boat. Jeff Clabault told me that there were clouds of what looked like herring at the Poppy opening and the bass were popping them good; the odds are these aren't river herring since there aren't that many dropbacks and they were too big for fry. My experience is they are sea herring, similar to the bait that was cruising along the outer Cape beaches a couple of weeks back. Dave Meece added that folks fishing the Poppy cut have been doing well from the Cotuit side and there are fish on top around the Wianno jetties.

Succonesset Shoal is mainly producing bluefish, but there are some bass as well, which is the same story with Horseshoe Shoal. It's a good bet that with talk of bonito around, some folks will be trolling Hedge Fence and L'Hommedieu in hopes of catching an early fast fish arrival.

What does seem to be working for larger fish are eels and bait at night; larger black patterns like rabbit strip flies, sliders, and Tabory's snake flies would be good bets if you're flyrodding.

Martha's Vineyard

With the word out of a bonito or two from around island waters, one can be assured that Captain Leslie Smith is checking out her favorite early season funny fish locales, but she also took the time out to offer this week's news:

Water temperatures rose sharply this week around the island, so I guess the first landings of bonito should come as no surprise, though I don't recall any ever taken this early in the season. Hopefully this portends good things to come! Top water action at Wasque has dropped dramatically with the warm up but there are still some nice bass to be taken with poppers and flies. I took a busman's holiday on Monday and spent the morning with my four-month-old Labrador, "Tuckernuck", fluke fishing at Tom Shoal. For once, there was very little weed and the fluke were all over the 16 1/2 " limit. Bluefish seem to be rather scarce of late, though there have been small ones frequenting the Gut and East Beach.

Some folks aren't aware that fluke make good fly rod targets; they're aggressive and in shallower water you can take them with fast sink lines and a variety of Clousers, with yellow a good color choice.

Nantucket

The word from Bill Pew at Bill Fisher Tackle is there is a good mix of stripers and fluke from the beach at Great Point, specifically the west for the summer flatties. One angler making the run up from Wauwinet to the point ran into a flurry of bass - and there were fluke mixed in as well, once again attesting to their qualities as a sport fish. At the west end, the fly fishermen are doing well on the flats, using Merkens and chartreuse/gold Clousers. Bill did say that there is a paucity of bluefish from the shore, but boat anglers are finding them in good numbers in the rips and off of the south shore. In fact, Eddie Chase, Bill's favorite shore angler, has been wearing a long face due to the lack of choppers. There are a fair number of bass inside the harbor, specifically inside of Coatue and by the drain to Coskata Pond, while the snake charmers are finding stripers around the jetties.

Lynne Heyer from Cross Rip Outfitters was happy to report that the fishing on the flats around Tuckernuck is in full swing; her charter on Wednesday found fish in the 25 to 28 inch range while husband Jeff and party managed at least one fish over 30 inches - and there are certainly larger ones - it's just a matter of getting them to eat. Olive Clousers are working well, as are other sand eel patterns. There are good numbers of fish inside Madaket Harbor, and Chico Fernandez fished with one of the captains out of the shop during his recent visit and they found quite a few fish inside Coatue. Much of the best fishing at Great Point has been at night while Eel Point has been up and down. The fish inside the harbor have been very selective; what has been working are shrimp patterns fished along the creek outlets.

The Outer Beaches, Chatham & Monomoy

Once again, Captain Kris Jop is firmly entrenched in his summer mode of visiting the flats around Chatham and offered his experience so far this year:

This is my second week totally devoted to fishing the flats around Monomoy Islands. Fishing on the flats in June has always been special. It is the first month when sight fishing is typically consistent during both the incoming and outgoing tides. Most of the time, due to their long migration, fish have been aggressive which has helped these who have problems making long casts. In looking back over past years, I realized I have taken for granted what seemed to be a natural (and annual) sequence of events in Chatham -- larger numbers of small stripers entering Stage and Outermost Harbors in the second part of May followed by the migration of larger fish at the end of the month. Fishing in both harbors during incoming tide and on the flats on the back side of Chatham beach during the outgoing tide was always very productive.

This year has been slightly different. Stage Harbor did not have as many small fish in May (most of the fish we were caching were over 26"), and this was a nice change to the previous routine. However, the big cows inside Outermost Harbor were not as prevalent as in previous years. Most of the action has been concentrated on the grassy patches on the west side of the South Monomoy.

So, my predictions for next week? Who knows - I think it's going to be a totally different sort - albeit good - of fishing season this summer.

Reel-Time publisher Thorne Sparkman send in this report:

I fished the flats yesterday (Thursday) with fellow Reel-Times Kim Mayer when the bluebird skies this week became too much to bear. We could see into the water by about 8:45 AM, but the wind was honking from the west, which pelted the sound-side creeks with large, rolling white water. Aside from a micro-schoolie, caught almost by accident near Stage Harbor, fishing was a little tough, even with the sky. Then the wind lay down, the tide nearly bottomed out, and the parade began. Fish from 26 to 40+ inches roamed the troughs in singles and doubles (for the bigger fish) to schools of four dozen or more fish.

Combined, we two anglers successfully fed eleven of these shallow water fish, and released five (if you count one of my long-line releases!). We only fed one fish in the forty-inch range, which streaked off 100 yards then spit. Kim and I were fishing all crabs: Chernobyl crabs, Merkins, and deer-hair crabs. It's nearly impossible to move these crabs too LITTLE. It defies every instinct. Just put them in front of the lead fish, let'em sink, do ONE twitch, and watch for a gill flare or some other signal.

The North Side

Billingsgate continues to fish well and there are good numbers of bluefish around Sunken Meadow and Lieutenant's Island.

The beaches in Sandwich, specifically the creek outlets, have been fishing well with mostly sand eels as forage, but the Sandy Neck area is probably your best bet for larger fish, day or night. The area in front of the parking lot has been good, but a walk to the east in search of bars and sloughs is definitely recommended.

The flats from Barnstable to Brewster have been red hot - at least in terms of fish seen. One of the greatest challenges is getting them to eat. Tan Clousers with gold flash seem to work at times, while at others white or olive have been best. Long leaders and a minimum of false casts are in order since these fish are spooky when the water is only a foot deep and they are scooting here and there. It's really neat to watch them roll on their sides as they feed, giving away their presence by a telltale flash.