Cape Cod &
the Islands

Keep A Weather Eye Out...

We weren't in too much of a hurry, but as my nephew Frankie and I made our way back to the ramp at Blish Point on Wednesday, we passed at least six other boats who were slowly making their way out for a day of fishing and fun on the water. Families with kids in life jackets and anglers with rods set up like antennas all had thoughts of the enjoyable hours ahead of them.

Clearly, they didn't know what was in store - and there certainly were signs for the reading.

That morning had been dead calm, with a heavy, humid feeling to it and all I could say to Frankie was, "This is perfect conditions for thunderstorms to form" and I kept an eye on the skies to the west/southwest.

Sure enough, I noticed heavy, darkening skies and ominous clouds and turned an ear to channel 16 on the radio, finally switching to the local NOAA channel which had the warning I anticipated: heavy thunderstorms moving through the area with heavy rain and strong winds in the next hour or so.

So that was why Frankie and I were heading in while so many other boaters were doing the exact opposite. Within five minutes of getting the boat onto the trailer and clearing her of all gear, the booms in the distance were upon us with lightning and torrential rains and I certainly was happy to be in the car. A friend of mine who was out on a charter along the Elizabeth Islands got caught in the heavy stuff and had to beach the boat along Naushon, where he witnessed a lightning strike on a sailboat mast. Jim Young said that while he and his wife were driving home across a bridge in Waquoit, an aluminum skiff was being picked up by the wind gusts and banged against the side of the structure, the only thing holding it back being the chain connecting it to its mooring.

At times, we all get caught by weather which just jumps out to bite us, but the one thing the cautious boater should do is watch for signs of weather change. Even if you don't know about cloud formations and what they mean, over the years I have learned that there are signs in the sky which set off warnings; if they give you pause or second thoughts, pay attention.

Finally, at all costs listen for and heed advisories given by the weather service. Sometimes they will broadcast warnings over channel 16, but if you miss an advisory, simply shift to the NOAA channel for more direct information.

Remember - in some cases they may only save you from a wet, lumpy ride home, but sometimes they may end up saving your life. Which is a very good reason to listen and look whenever you are on the water.

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

Tight Lines!

Dave Peros

Guidelines - Your chance to question the pros. Send your questions to brodgers@ddtcom.com.

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Cape Cod & the Islands Regions

Buzzards Bay

Captain Bob Paccia of Shoreline Guide Service offered some fishing news this week, but also some good tips on actual casting practices for anybody who intends to book a charter any day soon, so here goes:

A good mix of both small and large stripers continue to be available for dawn and dusk fishermen throughout Buzzards Bay. The Cape Cod Canal has yielded some good size keepers this week, many of which you won't hear about because the diehard regulars don't run to the bait shops to advertise their catches.

The good news is that these same fish are also passing through the entire "ditch" which includes a good deal of Buzzards Bay. However, the lack of baitfish keeps these fish moving quickly from one ambush place to another. This only allows for a few well placed casts before the school moves on. This makes it difficult for novice fly casters who need more backcasts to deliver their flies to the target. Even some "seasoned" fly casters have a tendency to add an extra backcast or two, trying to gain a few more yards. This is a mistake. You should practice to limit your backcast to a maximum of three. You'll get your line in the water quicker and increase your chances of a hookup. One of the major complaints that I hear from other guides is that their charters spend too much time backcasting and therefore miss some great opportunities.

The unusual tropical weather pattern that we have been experiencing during June and early July has warmed our waters above normal and has kept the barometer jumping all over the place. Add a moon tide to this mix and you have some pretty complicated fishing conditions, as each one of those factors have a direct influence on baitfish movement and striper's feeding habits. We have to alter our fishing tactics to cope with the present conditions. Fish earlier or later in the day, fish hard when the fish are feeding and go deeper when the early bite slows down. As predator fish change their eating habits due to the status and availability of baitfish, so should we be ready to alter our ways.

We are expecting more baitfish to move into our waters and our current baitfish (sand eels and silversides) to get larger and draw in more larger gamefish. Bonito have been reported off Martha's Vineyard and you know that they are on their way into Buzzards Bay soon.

You had better get busy practicing that cast!

Shore fishing the bay is pretty slow, with several folks I talked to commenting on the lack of bait in the area. Where there have been some fish is around the Maritime Academy along the edge of the flats and boat channel leading into Buttermilk Bay.

Farther down towards Quissett where the water is cooler and influenced more by currents moving through Woods Hole, there have also been the occasional mix of blues and bass, especially on incoming water.

As with several areas of the Cape, if you want a new and different challenge on the fly rod, you might want to try for some of the huge fluke in the area of the Mashnee Flats. These summer flounder are very aggressive and will taken Clousers, especially yellow, bounced along the bottom and then give you a handful getting them to the surface and then into the boat. And never try to lift a fluke out of the water, especially with a fly rod, unless you want your rod to have more pieces than normal.

This week, I headed out to the Dump twice seeking tuna. On Tuesday, we left very early in the morning. Actually, I think you can safely say the middle of the night. We took off from Marion on board a sleek-looking 33' Hunt, made in South Dartmouth. What a beautiful boat - it handles water very well and with a maximum speed of 30 knots, it gets you anywhere very fast. We spent 12 hours aboard in pretty messy seas, but also in comfort. Again, a great boat.

Since we started out at an ungodly hour, we reached South West Corner of the Dump at 5 am. After a quick look at the water, we knew fishing would be difficult at best. Green, cold water reached the Dump after two days of heavy wind. We were a bit surprised by this since most of the wind during the previous days had been blowing from the southwest which should bring more warm water closer to us. Regardless of what we thought we would find, what was there was cold and lifeless water. We could search for warmer and more accommodating places but we were focused on fishing these waters.

We started trolling, but after two hours and numerous bluefish we decided to stop. For some reason, my lures attracted these toothy creatures. All the bluefish that we caught were between 12 and 16 pounds. They were fun at the beginning but after landing four or five, they become a nuisance, since each hook up required cleaning all lines and taking all rigs in.

We decided to move to the Fingers and started chumming for sharks. We were expecting to catch blue sharks. Blue sharks are very distinctive, their body slender and beautifully colored. They are easily identified by their very long pectoral fins, bright cobalt coloration of the back, white belly, and the long snout. They are one of the most common sharks swimming in the oceans with broad range of temperature tolerance. After approximately one hour one of the rods got a hit, and a few seconds later, line from the second rod starts screaming, so for a while we had full hands. After two hours and four blue sharks, we headed home. No bluefin, but still a great day on the water.

I went offshore for the second time on Saturday, and the weather forecast was splendid, with winds below 10 mph through the day. We took off very early to find nasty conditions after we passed Quicks Hole and confused seas after we passed Noman's Island. We realized that we would not be able to reach the Shipping Lanes as we had planned. So we stopped at the Claw and worked that area for two, maybe three hours. The water temperature at the Claw was around 64 degrees. Around ten o'clock, the seas subsided so we proceeded south to find warmer water. We found relatively warm water (70 degrees) about 15 miles south from the southwest corner of the Dump. This location was full of life - we saw sea turtles at the surface, and tuna jumping so we started trolling. Our joy did not last too long as the wind picked up and we had to slowly make our way back.

Falmouth & the Elizabeths

Woods Hole has fish at night and in the morning for folks fishing eels and scup deep, but generally the fishing is a pick.

Shore fishing remains slow at best, with small fish in the southside ponds and schoolies along Washburn Island and in the Waquoit channel at first light and again at dusk.

Bluefish are also suprisingly tough to come by inshore, with most reports of blues south of the Vineyard.

Finally, the Elizabeths are a pick, with some smaller fish around the corners of Robinson's and Quick's, but even the jiggers and tube-and-wormers are complaining a bit about how slow things are. Apparently, a lack of bait is causing a slowdown in the action, although there are spurts of activity in the early hours when they coincide with incoming water.

Many anglers are keeping busy with fluke around Middle Ground and Nobska in the meantime.

The Cape Cod Canal

The plugging tides that carried through the weekend and into Monday saw several fish in the 30 pound class taken on plugs; the key was your offering had to have dark, vertical squiggles to imitate the mackerel that are the main food right now in the Big Ditch. Nelson Field said they weighed in a 37 and a 41 pounder taken on plugs and Bruce Miller had the word that the 30 pound fish he checked in came from the waters between the Cribbin' to the herring run and on down to the Sagamore Bridge. While the rats usually scope out the east turning tides at dawn for plugging action, much of the surface commotion occurred on the end of the west tide and the afternoon and evening tides were just as good. Mike Thomas noted that while the surface action has slowed as the week progressed, folks are still doing well on jigs and cut bait - specifically mackerel. There are still good numbers of 36 inch and larger fish, which makes the Canal a good spot to check out.

The South Side

Shore fishing is definitely slow, although Jeff Clabault did tell me that a boat angler reported good schools of bass in shallow water about 300 yards off Popponesset and Cotuit and there is certainly a good chance that those fish would come closer under the cover of darkness to feed on incoming water. Slow, deliberate retrieves with dark flies would certainly be a way to go.

Bluefish are surprisingly inconsistent, with Dave Meece noting that some anglers say they found them everywhere and others lamented the lack of action on choppers. Horseshoe Shoal has been as consistent as any place, while Wreck Shoal has been better on smaller blues than Succonesset Shoal.

Dave also mentioned that other than the one Spanish mackerel they checked in last week, there haven't been any exotics caught recently.

Not to sound like a broken record, but fluke fishing is saving the day for many anglers in the area, with fewer fish in general but much larger ones on average, like more than your share of five to six pounders and the occasional nine to ten pound flattie.

Martha's Vineyard

Captain Leslie Smith of Backlash Charters has been busy pursuing bass and blues around the Vineyard, but like everyone on the island she has her eye out for bonito and offered this report on the action in Martha's waters:

Sad to say, the top water fishing seems to have basically disappeared this week, with only a few fish taking poppers in the rips off Wasque. The charter fleet has been making its summer migration down to the Hooter, with some bass and lots of nice sized blues, and even a few bonito being taken. The shoals east of Chappy are loaded with sand eels now, and plenty of blues chowing down on them. Word has it that there's been some great surface bass fishing off the Head, when the tide is right and the sun not so bright.

Squibby has slowed, which isn't surprising considering the commercial pressure it was seeing last week. Dogfish Bar has kept the fluke fishermen happy, though with commercial season being open, don't expect it to last too long. Everyone is waiting for the bonito to really move in.

Nantucket

Bill Pew at Bill Fisher Tackle had the specifics on the first bonito of the season caught on Monday, July 9 in the early morning by Matt Dougherty who was fishing on his boat, "Don't Tell Mom" which was being captained by one of Captain Tom Mleczko's skippers, Bill Tolstadt. The fish was caught in the rips off Great Point on a yellow Gibbs' pencil popper, which Bill said used to be one of his favorite bonito offerings until it fell out of vogue. In addition, this first bone was caught almost two weeks earlier than last season or the traditional date of their arrival in Nantucket waters, which only goes along with this season's unusual fish arrival schedule. The beach fishing is just terrific at Great Point on both bass and blues, while the southside from Miacomet Pond to Surfside and on to Nobler and Maddequechan has been very good. They have also opened Smith's Point early, which has folks very happy. Flyrodders are getting plenty of shots on the flats as well as finding solid action along Coatue and the area inside the harbor known as The Creeks, which is east of the old Nantucket Shipyard. Bill also noted with plenty of small bait around, the spin crew is turning to small Deadly Dicks in an attempt to imitate what flyrodders can copy best.

Lynne Heyer at Cross Rip Outfitters said that while folks have seen a few bonito popping around the west side of the island at Smith's Point, but none have been caught yet - but that should change soon. The flats have been OK, with crab patterns, bonefish patterns, and Clousers working best. There are bluefish all along the south shore for both boat and shore anglers. Finally, if you want to try a different flyrodding experience, Captain Shawn Bristow took John Sescila out to fish for blue sharks and they did very well, taking eight in all on the long wand after they chummed them up. And Lynne added that there are also some yellowfin showing up in the bluewater to the south.

The Outer Beaches, Chatham & Monomoy

Thorne Sparkman forwarded an email to me from Rob Noonan about some fantastic fishing which is shaping up along the outside of Nauset Beach down to the tip of Monomoy, so let's allow Rob's words to do the talking:

This past Sunday I fished with a good friend and fishing partner Lee Higgins and Captain Bill Strakele in Cape Cod. We were with all the other boats off Monomoy Island and the fishing was ok. 3 or 4 bass but with so many boats around we felt like we were fishing in the middle of Rt. 6 on a Sunday afternoon. So Bill moved us moved to a new location to find fish and solitude. On our way back to the Chatham cut we found the dredge barge coming out of the channel and dumping its load. We decided to try our luck under the hundreds of birds diving in the discharge but no fish! So again we moved on. But less than half a mile away we saw only a few birds hovering over one spot. We decide to stop and try a few casts. One cast and one strip later we hook up with our first of about 15 doubles! Right after we hooked up a school of big stripers about 150 yards across turned the surface to foam! About 3 hours later we had to call it quits. We landed 40+ stripers more than half over 30 inches the biggest was 37 inches (Lee's fish) and about six 36 inchers. I don't know how many we lost but it was more than a few. We caught them deep and on poppers it was a blast!

It was a day to remember! We never saw another boat. We were all alone in a big school of big fish. Its amazing that one morning of catching can make up for weeks of wading and wind knots.

Apparently the action which lasted for 22 weeks along this stretch of the outer Cape last season is starting up again - or at least folks hope it lasts that long.

The North Side

The heavy rains on Tuesday turned the waters on the flats to the east of Barnstable coffee colored, but there were still some fish popping inside at first light and the occasional fish was fetched up on a chartreuse Clouser. Still, the concentrations of sand eels and fish certainly were scattered around midweek. If conditions return to where you have a mix of sight fishing, pulling up fish in the deeper channels around midtide, and surface feeding fish at the turn, then flyrodders should once again be very happy.

The Sandwich creeks and Sandy Neck have had the occasional fish at first light and dusk, but if you want anything consistent, you want incoming water or just at the turn in the darker hours.

No doubt the most consistent action has been in the triangle formed by Scorton Ledge, the Fingers, and the parking lot, but that is bunker spoon and tube-and-worm territory.

Billingsgate has a nice mix of bass and blues, although much of the action is deep on wire and jigs or umbrella rigs. Of course, folks in the know also fish the flats in the area and often find fish cruising in the shallows willing to take flies of various types, including poppers.