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Cape Cod &the Islands
July 11th, 2003 |
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| FishWire Coordinator: | Dave Churbuck |
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Excuse me, your fly is down
The purity of any pursuit is a measure of the fanaticism of those who engage in it. Believing in the proposition that it is a good thing in life to be white hot about a few things and to do them very well rather than dabble in a lot of things, doing them all adequately; I understand what drives people who like to build wooden boats in an age of carbon fiber, who climb cliffs without pitons, who prefer a stick over an automatic, and I understand why they scoff at people who take the easier path. Personal example: luggage with wheels. Can't stand the concept. You know the idiot who stops right in the jetway after disembarking a plane and pulls out the retractable handle? The same jerk who thinks a coach seat is a Barcalounger and immediately leans back into your cramped knees as soon as the plane takes off? Real men carry their own bags and sit upright. Which leads us to last week's imbroglio here at Reel-Time about whether this place should be renamed the Internet Journal of Saltwater Fishing. The debate wasn't about the relative merits or purity of say, bait fishing over dry flies, but whether this site truly focused enough on fly fishing and hadn't turned into a free-for-all where any kind of method was open for discussion, and that if it had, why not just call it a general fishing site and drop the facade of being a site for fly fishers.
These FishWires try to focus on what is happening locally for fly fishing, but their intent is report on the location and trends of the fish, not the fishermen. If a guide or an ordinary Reel-Timer has a report of actual fish, then I feel it is fair game for inclusion in this report. If there is a big wave of 40" bass working Nauset Beach on the outgoing tide, I want to know about it, even it they were discovered by someone livelining kittens. I may not rush out to the animal shelter and load up on a bucket full of kittens, but I would keep it in mind when tying on a fly to fish in the Gorilla Hole. The forums, well the forums are open. We've made it clear that Reel-Time welcomes all kinds, and that includes the most ardent conservationists to the most experienced commercials. The forums are the backbone of Reel-Time and in them, anything goes, as long as it is respectful, tolerant of other points of view, and related to fishing. Last week's debate centered on guides who post pictures of clients holding whopper stripers that were caught on -- to borrow Bill Pew at Fisher's Tackle's term -- garden hackle, in other words: bait such as eels. I think some other guides, who only guide fly fishers, would like to see a "truth in advertising" rule enforced that divulged whenever bait-caught fish are posted or featured. Me, I'd rather see more pictures of women in bikinis holding fish, but that's a personal preference. Then the debate sort of degenerated into the old "effete flyfishing purist" mudslinging that veterans of online fishing have seen for years. Class warfare in fishing is nothing new. Any good anthology of fishing stories will feature at least one or two humorous essays about fly fishermen with their noses in the air while some hard working blue collar guy outfishes and outfoxes them with worms. The movie that is blamed for driving a lot of newcomers into flyfishing -- A River Runs Through It -- has a character who, to the horror and amusement of the fly fishermen, fishes with a coffee can full of worms. He gets his comeuppance when his hangover causes him to pass out in the sun, cooking him lobster red with a sunburn. As Mark Sedotti posted, this is the golden age of saltwater flyfishing. Think about it. Over the last twenty years fishermen banded together to achieve the recovery of the striped bass fishery. Techniques, patterns, and tackle have made huge advancements since the first pioneers braved ridicule and ignorance to catch the first saltwater fish on flies. Saltwater fly fishing is no longer an eccentric way to catch fish, but a fully accepted one, with challenges that no dry fly purist could ever imagine. Give me a rod rack with my choice of weapon and I'll reach for the fly rod first. Not because it makes me look smarter, better looking, or more cultured than the guy with the baitcaster, but because it demands more of me as a fisherman. It may not catch as many fish, but I don't fish to keep score. It comes down to, for me at least, casting. That's what has me hooked, so to speak, and that's what continues to make fly fishing a delight. I'm a long, long way away from the perfect cast, but every time I go out I try to improve it a little more. That's where the fanaticism in fly fishing comes in, where I try to be as best as I can. Others may focus on the perfect fly, my fingers are too big and fumbling. Others may craft perfect rods, I like lifetime manufacturer warranties. And most of us do it to have fun, to get away from the noise, to bond with children and buddies, and to get outside in the "big room with the bright light" and wait, with the optimistic hope that only a fisherman knows, for that first tug and that massive moment when a fish is on. Reel-Time news: Mark Cahill has designed a new special edition Reel-Time T-shirt just in time for the bonito season. Check it out. After Labor Day it goes away! Enough of that. Let's get to the fish. Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...
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Reel-Time's "tagline": the Internet Journal of Saltwater Flyfishing was with the site from the very beginning. The reason we picked fly fishing and not fishing in general was the belief that the web was a medium for niches, not mass media, and that the more focused the topic, the more relevant the site would be for its users. We like to think we were right. Those niches could also extend to the different geographical regions we serve. In that regard, we more accurately could rename the tagline to read: The Internet Journal of New England Saltwater Fly Fishing" The reason we stick with the original tagline goes beyond nostalgia for our early days: we continue to only publish features about fly fishing, fly patterns, and other content about fly fishing. Cape Cod Regions
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There's a lot of boat traffic pressuring the usual inshore haunts now, but night fishing can still deliver, with bass and blues still working the shoreline to the delight of the shore casters. The Canal blows hot and cold. Nantucket is surrounded by fish, not unusual for an island. First bonito was caught a couple weeks ago on the Island. It must have been lost or a real brave scout. |
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Captain Joe LeClair of North Easter Anglers ( www.flyfishsalt.com) emailed in this report: [pls. note that our vessel carries a special license that allows us to fish for highly migratory species. In addition it is not safe to travel offshore in a small vessel that is not equiped with the proper safety equipment.] Captain Bob Paccia of Shoreline Guide service emailed this report on Friday morning: "Well, `That’s it,' `The stripers are gone', `Stripers season’s over', `They’ve all moved on to the colder waters of Cape Cod Bay, Boston and points north', and finally, `You might as well trade in your nine weight fly rod for a sand wedge as the heat and damn bluefish have driven all the bass out of our Buzzards Bay waters'. I’m hearing these comments now and I say `bull ----'!! Which of course stands for bull bass. It is true that things have slowed down a bit as it always does when the waters heat up at this time of year. Also we’ve just completed the busiest water traffic week of our year, which naturally puts the fish down. And sure, the arrival of large numbers of bluefish puts additional pressure on the stripers, but please, it’s not time to put the boat up and start searching for that little white ball in the ruff. "It’s important to stay positive and stop listening to all of the negative comments coming from people who are not having any success. Remember too, that some of the better fishermen who are having great success aren’t always willing to broadcast their results and in many cases go out of their way to give negative reports. "I learned this many years ago when I commercial fished the P-town beaches of Race Point and High Head. An old timer, who we all called Old Striper Joe, was always the first one on the beach and the last one to leave. He always fished all alone, never talked much to anyone and when he did, it was always a dooms-day tail of how the “Fishing has declined” and “It’s not worth coming down here anymore”, “And I only do it because I have nothing else to do at my age”, etc., etc. "Well, I always remember the one morning when I met him as he was leaving the beach early. I asked him “How’d you do Joe”? His abrupt response was “Lousy, just lousy!” “It’s not even worth wasting your time out there”. I drove along the beach a way, thinking about what he had said and decided that he was probably right. So I turned around and headed off the beach only to find Joe frantically trying to dig his Jeep out of the soft sand as the incoming tide lapped at the side of his tires. Without asking I started attaching my tow cable to his front axle as he aired down the pressure in each tire. Try as we may we couldn’t get the Jeep to budge. I suggested that we should try to lighten his load by removing anything heavy from his Jeep. Old Joe, knowing that I was right, just gave me a look that could kill, but sheepishly opened the Jeeps tailgate door. He pulled back the canvas tarp and there, stacked like cordwood, were 8 stripers all in the 30 to 40 pound range. I just stared at them and then at him. Without a word we removed his catch and gave it another try. This time his vehicle popped out of the sand and away from the encroaching waves. "After I promised not to reveal his secret he offered to take me to breakfast and more importantly, he took me under his wing and we became great friends. I learned a lot. I especially learned to be a bit more skeptical when listening to what people tell you about the fishing. "We are still catching a lot of good-sized stripers in Buzzards Bay, but we are traveling more and working harder to find them. Again, early mornings and dusk into the night are giving us the best results. Finding cooler waters in the drop-offs during the day has also paid off well. Sinking lines have allowed us to quickly get down where the fish are. " CHCannon posted one of the few reports from the Bay for last weekend's action: "Headed out from Red Brook harbor and fished in and around Wings Neck and Scraggy neck both days. Got out early on Saturday to fish the last couple hours before the low, and hit a couple small bluefish on sand eel imitations. "Slow on Sunday, but the heat and sun probably contributed more than anything." |
"I love the fourth of July. I have been looking forward to it for over six months. It is this time of year that we always catch our largest Striped Bass on the fly rod and light tackle each year. This past week was also the start of my offshore fishing for sharks and tuna. This has to be the greatest challenge for fly and light tackle fisherman that our New England waters provide. We managed to land our first Bluefin Tuna on light tackle over the holiday weekend. Sometimes things just come together, wind, tide, bait, clouds, water temps, and being in the right place at the right time with a great angler made it all possible for Alan Steinert to land this incredible fish. This year we will be fishing offshore with light weight spinning rods, two 14 Weight and new Scott Fly Rod 15 Weight outfits. With a little more good fortune and some competent anglers we hope to work the large offshore fish into the boat. The fishing for Striped bass and bluefish continues to be strong with warmer water temps look for these fish to move and change their feeding patterns.
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No reports coming out of the region this week. Email me something and I'll post it right away! |
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The Canal Gods (Bill Downing and BobG) have been having a ... schizophrenic week in the Ditch. Then Touching Cloth reported being spooled by something BIG. Bill reports: "Started out as what I thought was going to be another one of "those nights" but the bass started hitting pretty well on the last of the west. 5 legals to 36 inches and a few schoolies, all on jigs/rubber and all hugging the bottom. At low slack things died, but then a strange thing happened: I actually saw some bait move in and lots of it. Couldn't make out what it was though." Chucknduck reports: TonyO, a new user, posted:
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Your dutiful correspondent hasn't been fishing enough of late, but has kept his eyes and ears open around his home waters of Cotuit and Osterville. There are lots of fish inside the bays, splashing on the surface early in the morning and early in the evening before and after the evil boat traffic puts them down. The local word is that the summer bite is on, which means lots of three pound bluefish, stripers if you know where to look, and fluke. I sharked on Tuesday night with bait but didn't see a thing. Flycasting while anchored in the channel resulted in a couple decent bass. Another week or so and the sharks should begin to fill in. Personally, I'm not going to get bonito fever for at least another two weeks. Jim Lukas (thanks for the stuffed quahogs and venison!) reports:
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"well the week started with a nice tip from Ty Anderson while I was fueling up at the Sunoco at 6:15 Sat am...we abandoned plans to hit Quicks and found all the bass we wanted over towards Wasque, a coupla 30 fish days......as we got into the week our herring hotel started to empty, but we found that sparsely tied sandeel patterns with olive over tan over white did the trick over any other bait (except the live herring we started with)...they outfished live eels, dead herring, sluggos, you name it...by Thursday the kids where begging for fluke and the wakeboard..."
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Captain Leslie Smith of Backlash Charters on the Vineyard, emailed this report: "We all seemed to have survived the big holiday weekend, some better than others. I, unfortunately, had motor problems erupt right before the 4th and had to cancel all my trips for the weekend and have just now gotten the parts needed and gotten the boat running again. Commercial bass season has started and there are an incredible amount of boats fishing south of Wasque, most of them not even from the Island. The Falmouth boats are spending the night on the commercial dock in town, saving running time to the fishing grounds and selling to local dealers. With a forty fish limit and more than seventy boats fishing a given area... well, we can all do the math and it doesn't bode well for our closest fishery. I'm sure there are still fish to be had in the rips for the top water folks. For the shore bound, word has it that Lobsterville is pretty hot at night. " |
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Bill Pew at Fisher's Tackler reports: "We're seeing lots of small bluefish, just about everywhere. They're in the harbor, along the northshore, at Great Point, and some larger ones -- eight to ten pounds -- off of the Southshore. At the same time there are significant quantities of stripers on the Points. Coatue at the second point is the best for flyrodders who are laso taking plenty of small bluefish using streamers from both boat and beach. We've had some decent striper fishing in the Great Point Rip at night from the beach. I spoke to a guy who has been fishing around Quidnet and he's been getting a fair number of sizable bass out there. "A bonito was caught here two weeks ago. A solitary bonito, one of the charter boats out of the west end caught it. Two or three other captains verified it." "The season is still way behind schedule as the water temperature is five to seven degrees lower than last summer. I'm interested in seeing what happens with the bonito and false albacore. Now everyone takes them for granted but I've been fishing here for 27 years and the first 15 we never caught albacore. We did have weakfish then. "Chartreuse and flash clousers are the stanbys on the island this time of year. Yellow and white and red and white are doing well too., I'm selling some crab patterns, a diving crab, but they're used in sight fishing on the flats."
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Coffee Chris has been fishing up near Wellfleet and Billingsgate. He emailed this report with a good tip for beach fishermen -- carrying a GPS to return at night to good spots scouted at daylight: "The Wellfleet/ Billingsgate area is still loaded with Bass of all sizes and lots of snapper blues. I've been fishing this area for years and have never seen the Bass so picky. Bass from schoolie size up to 30# class fish can be seen slowly finning in pursuit of 2 to 3 inch sandeels. Sparsley tied olive clousers or deceivers are what they want on light floro. Too bad I only had a few with me and the snarbor blues took them away. I had larger "My other Kayak fishing bretheren have been whacking some of these fish with light spin tackle chucking 3 inch sluggos (yes the ubiquitous sluggo again) in rootbeer or pink. Backside beaches are giving up nice fish to sharpies slinging eels and using their GPS's to go back the spots that show good potential by daylight. Hmm, think I need to start carrying a GPS with me on the beach during the |