Cape Cod &

the Islands

August 30th, 2002

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Tight Lines!

Dave Churbuck

Buzzards Bay

I spoke with John Waring who had a good day last weekend in Monument Beach with two fish over 30 inches on the fly with the bass rising just like trout, with the bait silversides and peanut bunker, but the next two tides produced nothing.

There are schoolies around West Falmouth, North Falmouth, and Bourne, but again it can be blitz one day and nada the next.

The west entrance to the Canal has been solid by boat, with good bass fishing around the Maritime Academy and the flats thereabouts, as well as Widow's Cove, Hog Island, and inside Burgess Point. There is a mix of peanut bunker, juvenile herring, and sand eels, with some silversides mixed in for good measure.

The bay is where Captain Bob Paccia of Shoreline Guide Service finds some very productive fishing, and he offers this report for your perusal:

Large schools of juvenile herring along with smaller schools of baby bunker are now making their pre-migratory move out of all of the estuaries and into the Cape Cod Canal. The mouths of all of major nursery-grounds rivers and estuaries such as the Agawam, Wareham, Weweantic, Pocasset, and Taunton rivers as well as all of the river and estuary systems to the west and south along the Buzzards Bay shoreline are bulging with huge schools of baitfish. The moon-phase, tides, currents, weather, boating traffic and pressure from predator species influence the gradual westward movement of these migrating baitfish.
The introduction of all this bait moving through the Canal and into Buzzards Bay has certainly not gone unnoticed by seasoned anglers or their quarry. Stripers and bluefish of all sizes have moved in to start satisfying their pre-migration hunger pains. Yes, bonito too have joined in on this feeding bonanza.

We had breaking fish of all three species all around us. The huge bait ball that they were working was made up of thousands of what appeared to be 1 1/2" juvenile herring. Laughing and herring gulls screamed loudly just above the surface action as we tried frantically to get a hit. We started out using Clousers of different sizes and color combinations, but no success. We switched to bonito bunny patterns and had no takes until we trimmed them down to around 2" long. We started to catch stripers and had a few cut offs from blues.  It was amazing that with a feeding frenzy like this going on that these fish were still very selective and would not hit anything larger than 2" offerings. There are times that nothing but matching the hatch will work.

I remembered that I had tied up some very small baby bunker flies that were just about 1 1/2" long. They were made of all white marabou with peacock herls for a wing, large eyes and were tied on a size 2 hook. As soon as these flies hit the water, we had a hit on just about every cast. The action was non-stop. We caught stripers to 32" and bluefish to 8 lbs, but no bonito. The bonito that were smashing through the same bait ball as the stripers and blues would follow our flies, but at the last instant they would veer off. With all of this activity going on, was it possible that they were leader shy? We were using 12-pound test, 7 1/2' knotless tapered leaders. So I tied on a 2' section of 8-pound test fluorocarbon tippet material, using a blood knot. I attached a baby bunker fly on using a non-slip mono loop knot (my favorite knot for attaching flies). On our first cast we both hooked-up on the first bonito of the year. It's all about making adjustments. (Too bad the Red Sox couldn't  make a few).
Hopefully the bonito will hang around a bit longer than they did last year.
Call 508-697-6253 or E-mail CaptBobPaccia@attbi.com for information.

Falmouth & the Elizabeths

Lackey's Bay down to Robinson's was alive with bonito and albies right through the beginning of the week, with a 14 pound albie weighed in at Eastman's Sport & Tackle in Falmouth and reports of a dozen bonito landed in a single trip aren't just rumors. Of course, you will contend with plenty of boats and folks who still believe that run-and-gun is the only way to catch these fish.

Waquoit Bay also had some bones earlier this week and some folks are reporting that the small blues have moved out and been replaced by fish in the five to seven pound class. Other reliable sources have albies just ripping the water up, and right behind them are their cousins the bones picking up the scraps, similar to the way bluefish do the damage and bass take advantage to get an easy meal.

The islands still have some decent bass fishing and those nervous patches of water give away the location of the peanut bunker; be patient and the bass will show up, with some really nice fish mixed in.
Shore fishing in this stretch is slow, but that should change very quickly with more cool water on the way and the hint that there might be some serious bait balls this fall.

The Cape Cod Canal

The west end has untold numbers of fish in the 26 to 30 inch range just chowing on peanut bunker and juvy herring. From the railroad bridge back to the Maritime Academy, the action can be all day long, although first light and again at dusk has seen some incredible blitzes. There are also some small bluefish as well, but as of yet no albies or bonito have been moving in and out with the end of the east and turn to west currents.

At the east end, there are larger fish eating plugs and jigs, with white a good color according to Bruce Miller. Fly fishermen can do well at Pip's Rip and around the Sagamore Bridge, especially on the turn of the tide. Small pogy flies and white Deceivers have been working well.

The South Side

There certainly doesn't seem to be a lack of bait, but the funny fish haven't really showed up in any numbers from Succonesset to Hyannis. In fact, Karen Hill in Hyannis noted that other than a few Spanish mackerel, the action in this stretch has been slow.

You can still find bass up inside the bays and rivers, but they are schoolies and most folks have been far more focused on running west and will wait for later in the season to search for bass - big ones that is.
Snappers are in shorter supply than usual as well, the numbers of small, one to two pound bluefish has folks cursing as they lose more flies to them than they would like.

Martha's Vineyard

Albies have livened up the scene on the island, and Captain Leslie Smith of Backlash Charters is right on top of the action as she offers her weekly observations: Biggest news of the week has been the sudden influx of little tunny, seemingly all around the island.  Menemsha, Makonikey, Cape Poge and even inside Edgartown Harbor have seen schools erupting.  With the great variety of bait that's available, I can only imagine that the coming albie season should be terrific.  Bonito are still around, with excellent catches at the Hooter and around Skiffs (aka Porky's) Island, as well in the deep water outside of Eel Pond Flat, East Chop and Tashmoo.  Look for them to slowly disappear as the false albacore numbers increase.  Stripers are still coming from the Hooter as well as blues, and word has it that Noman's has had large blues being caught on wire.  Derby time is only a couple of weeks away and things look good for a great start to the annual tournament. 

Captain Steve Purcell called the albie fishing very good, but the fishing etiquette the worst he's ever seen. He spoke to one shorebound angler who was catching albies by casting amongst the boats that were right on top of him and couldn't get a cast off since the fish were bouncing right against their boats. There have been a lot of arguments reported, and the smart angler is passing by the fleets of run-and-gunners to find his or her own pod. Deadly Dicks (number one size) and Maria jigs have been working well, while sparsely tied flies with a little yellow in them are most productive with so many sand eels around. Along the southside, you can drift along and the sand eels dimpling in the water will make it sound like it's raining. The northside of the island has been best for albies, with Tashmoo and Makonikey good locations, while the heaviest concentration of boats has been from Oak Bluffs to State Beach. The small, one to three pound bluefish have been replaced by their bigger five to seven pound brethren, while bass fishing has been improving for folks using bait at State Beach and peanut bunker have the Vineyard boats heading to the Elizabeths if they need a bass to complete a slam.

Nantucket

As is always the case, Bill Pew at Bill Fisher Tackle refused to offer a chamber of commerce report, and instead said things are pretty slow around the Grey Lady. Other than the occasional Spanish mackerel (and if one is caught it usually is pretty good sized) and small bluefish at Great Point, shorebound anglers are going hungry. Captain Tom Mleczko found some big blues off the airport yesterday, but all of the east winds have things pretty quiet.

Lynne Heyer at Cross Rip Outfitters noted that turnabout is fair play, and since the Vineyard crew had invaded the Bonito Bar earlier this season when the bones were there, her husband Jeff headed west to fish for albies around Martha's waters this week. Three or four days ago when they had a brief spurt of southwest winds, Captain Hal Herrick managed six bonito at the Bonito Bar and Captain Shawn Bristow managed one yesterday, but the northeast blows that have dominated things this week has the action off Smith's Point pretty much at a crawl. When the sun is out, there are some nice bass to be had on the flats sight fishing, as evidenced by the 37 inch fish caught by a client fishing with Jeff this week on a Doyle's Dazzler, which is a Clouser, in this case olive, with plenty of gold flash. When the bonito have been around, small white Deceivers, white bunnies, and white squid flies have been best.

The Outer Beaches, Chatham & Monomoy

Mike McCaskill in Orleans said the water is cleaner around Nauset Beach and there have been bass to 40+ inches caught this week up around the Orleans side of Nauset Inlet; sand eel flies are doing the job. The other news has incredible blitzes of blues to 15 pounds from the beaches as well and you can catch as many as you want - if you can stay attached to them. There have been some small fish caught inside Chatham Inlet, but beach fishing from South Beach is slow; you still need a boat to make the half to three quarter mile run out east where there are bass and blues galore. The rips are a little quieter and the guys who run the ferry services to Monomoy say the flats have been dead.

Up in Eastham, Rob LaBranche noted that there is still quite a bit of week in his town as well as Wellfleet, but up around Truro they are catching some nice bass, like the 29 pounder they weighed in that fell for a live eel, while a lure brought in a 19 pound bass. Ballston and Head of the Meadow have been the most consistent, with the latter filled with blues and stripers to 36 inches a few days ago right in the middle of the afternoon, although it was an overcast day. Rob noted that first light has probably seen the most consistent activity, with stage of the tide less important.

Jack Hasher had three simple words when asked to describe the fishing in Provincetown: "Bluefish, bluefish, bluefish!" This morning everybody at Herring Cove was hooked up to blues up to 40 inches and weighing 15 to 17 pounds; the schools have been running up to the Race and then turning around and coming back, with more than one school around. The water around the Race was described as looking the prop wash from an outboard there were so many blues churning the water into froth the other day. The blues are feeding on peanut bunker and a lot of money has been dropped on leaders and plugs with the choppers in town. The bass fishing has been sporadic around Provincetown as Jack said they are not seeing the fish they were, but after a bluefish blitz ends, the patient angler can wait five to ten minutes and catch the stripers that come in to pick up the scraps. Of course, Jack said most folks just go flying off to follow the birds, bait, and blues. Ballston Beach has had the best bass fishing, with the occasional fish to 40 inches taken on live eels but it’s the regulars who put the time in that are catching.

The North Side

The boat action around Scorton Ledge has finally slowed and Billingsgate hasn't been great either, although there were six giant tuna landed last weekend off the Pamet, but I'm not sure what weight rod you'd have to use to catch one of those.

There are plenty of schoolies around the Brewster Flats, but Barnstable Harbor has been surprisingly quiet, with only some small bluefish around. I can't speak from personal experience since I really haven't fished B-harbor that much this year, but Karen Hill reported that flyrodders she has spoken to who have considered this area their go-to spot have been disappointed this season.
Jeff Howard of Sandwich told me that while there was bait galore over the weekend at Scorton Creek, there was just one single bass pushing the peanut bunker; hopefully, the north winds will kick things into gear this weekend from Sandy Neck back to Old Harbor.