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Cape Cod &the Islands
July 18th, 2003 |
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| FishWire Coordinator: | Dave Churbuck |
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Bang the doldrums
A friend of mine, Chris, has been angling to get into fly fishing for the past few years. A guys in our year-round social circle are hardcore fly fishermen, and whenever we find ourselves at some kid’s birthday party, the sidelines of a soccer game, or bored out of our skulls at some wifely perpetrated get-together, we idle away the time by talking about fishing. Chris stands to the side, absorbing everything, eager to become enough of a sharpie to contribute some blazing insight of his own. Chris, who is afflicted by one of the worst cases of sea-sickness I’ve ever seen, is also one of the gamest people I know, staying game while turning green and getting ready for the old liquid laugh. He’s determined to become a fisherman. Like me, he lacked a father-figure who was an angler. In his case his old man passed away at a tragically early age; in my case the old man ate so much bottled boiled bluefish during the lean years of the Depression that he forbid fish to be served in his house. So we compensate by trying to become self-taught masters of the way of the fish. I learned by reading and hanging around a few charitably agreeable salty-dogs; Chris learns by watching, listening, and taking detailed notes. Take him fluking and he writes down every detail. Show him a new spot, and he draws a map. Try to teach him how to fly cast and the next thing you know he’s watching Lefty Kreh videos and asking questions about the double-haul and steeple cast. Chris is obsessed. He dove into fly tying and is now turning out dozens of Deceivers, Clousers and Bunnies -- far more than he’ll ever use --and wants to know all there is to know about epoxy. He bought a boat, then he build a rowboat to get to it. The seasickness? He just invested in a wrist-watch kind of device that zaps him with an electric charge and apparently blocks whatever it is that makes seasick people seasick. So what’s the point? Getting him to use Reel-Time is the big challenge. He’s more than willing to read a book, harass a shop owner, or pick my brains, but I guess he’s bashful when it comes to logging in and asking a question. I’ll bet a huge portion of Reel-Time’s "lurking" population consists of beginners like Chris, who can’t muster up the courage to register, log-in, and post a basic question. Hey, I learned something here this week. John McMurray mentioned "rainbait" in last week’s New York/New Jersey Fishwire. I’d heard the term before but didn’t know what it meant. So I joined a thread on bait, asked, and got the answer. Sure, a basic question might get the response to go run a search through the archives, and indeed, many questions have been answered multiple times in the past and those answers are waiting for you in the archives. So don’t be shy, log-in, ask, and see what happens. Special Fly Line for School Bluefin Tuna (added by Mark Cahill - Editor) Just saw a very interesting post from Capt. Derek Spingler of First Light Anglers on the forum. He and Capt. Nat Moody are testing a new line and are looking to get enough interested parties to get the line made. Post in the forum if you are interested.
Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...
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Cape Cod Regions
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East was least this week, but it ended with bluebird skies and a gentle north breeze.Perfect conditions for sight-fishing the flats. Plovers have closed Nantucket's Great Point. Bonito? Did someone say "bonito?" Check out the ACK report. Oak Bluffs Shark Tourney is this weekend. Stay clear of chum slicks south of the islands or you'll be a very unpopular person. Tuna bite is starting to happen east of Chatham and football frenzy is building in Cape Cod Bay, but no certified reports of last summer's action repeating itself. Commercial season in full swing for stripers. |
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Captain Bob Paccia of Shoreline Guide Service emailed this exclusive report on Thursday: "With topwater temperatures in Buzzards Bay vacillating around the 70-degree mark, it’s important to remember your 3-Ds: deep, dark and drop-offs. "Deep, your best chances for getting a crack at some large stripers at this time of year will take place in deeper water. This is especially true this year because of the unusual abundance of bluefish. You need to get below the blues and schoolie bass to reach the larger stripers that tend to hang and feed below them. "Dark, which includes fishing at night, at dawn, at dusk and fishing during overcast or foggy periods. Even fishing in the shaded side or under structures such as rocks, docks, bridges and tree-lined shores can make a difference as large bass seek out the cooler temperatures and safety of the darkness. "Drop-offs, affords large stripers the opportunity to force bait against the edges where the currents are the strongest. The bait tends to get disoriented in the upwelling of currents and are an easy target for large stripers that have no trouble navigating in the strong currents. Feeding along the drop-off allows these stripers to chase the bait right into the shallows and then quickly return to the safety of the deeper water. "Remember, you won’t need those special 3-D glasses for this kind of fishing. Your Polaroid’s will do just fine. "With the warmer water temperatures in Buzzards Bay the striper fishing becomes a bit more difficult and hit or miss. Add to this equation the fierce competition for bait created by the massive numbers of bluefish in our waters right now and it all makes sense. We have to be smarter and work harder to be successful. "Mike Kendall, an excellent fly fisherman and fly tier from Acton, MA who has booked numerous charters with this skipper caught three keeper-sized stripers including one 39" that tipped the scales at nearly twenty pounds. He was fishing a drop-off using a full sinking line and one of his 6-8 inch eel patterns which is tied similar to a clouser so that the hook rides point up. This allowed him to bounce the fly along the bottom in an eel or sand eel action. These fish hit extra hard and at first Mike thought they were bluefish, as earlier he had lost a lot of flies to those toothy marauders, but the first run told him otherwise. Good job by a good person and great angler. |
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Slater, moderator of the video forum and the resident Cuttyhunk expert, reported from last weekend: "Fished Friday through Sunday night from shore. Good dusk high tides. Between the offshore swells and the full moon, there were some very big tides. Unfortunately, the tides and the rip currents churned up a lot of weed which limited my fishing range on the island. At times, it was one clean cast for every 5 weed hook-ups. The wind blew 10-20kts all weekend out of the southwest. "I did manage to find a nice tidal outflow after high tide on the north side under the full moon that was holding several fish. The weed count was low in this location. Aside from the wind, the conditions were ideal for the fly rod. Waded out into the rip and began with a white gurgler on an intermediate line. Also used a large white deceiver. Several hits and finally landed a modest 27" striper. Proceeded to break off three fish and miss several other pick-ups over the next two hours. What appeared to be the largest fish exploded on the surface and made a great run until the recoiling line in my stripping basket decided to wrap itself around the base of my chest pack...snap! I was left with a racing heart and once less fly... The white patterns under the light of the moon seemed to work best. All in all, a beautiful night. "Saturday night was a repeat. Landed three stripers to 26" with several bumps and false takes. There was a little less water than the night before and the size and number of fish seemed to be accordingly smaller. Didn't break any off this time. "On Sunday night, I opted for the spinning gear into the subsiding surf on the south side. Not much happening. WAY too much weed. Picked up one 26" striper on a popper at dusk at the southwest tip of the island. "There appears to be a lot of bait around based on the number of birds working in and around the harbor. Didn't have a boat so I couldn't investigate closely. No breaking fish under the birds but I suspect with all the weekend boat traffic the fish were driven down. "Sadly, I snapped my 8 year-old custom fly-rod on the return trip home when it got caught in some brush from the rod rack on my 4-wheeler. Anyone have a 9/10 wt. rod (no reel) they want to sell me cheap?" |
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Thunder Rod's been down with some health issues, but checked in with this daytime report from the ditch and the good admonition to bring a trash bag with you whenever you fish! "The Canal get's pretty iffy around this time each year, so about now I can usually only be found between 1-AM and 5-AM (if at all) on the shores of the ditch. But rather than lose some much needed health and rest time this week, I've been looking for alternative keys to success. There are more than just stripers in the canal of course. So today I took my son out to an undisclosed (popular) location during the height of the summer day to see what we could dredge up. FWIW, we did pretty good considering, and we were very happy with the results. Luckily I hooked up with some fresh sand eels at M&D's before we headed out. In a couple hours surrounding the east/west tide shift, we landed 3 blues and 3 keeper fluke in the bright light of the summer day. (and lost another monster fluke at the rocks when I stopped to wave at some boaters that were cheering me on). But more importantly, (at least for reporting purposes) everything we caught was just stuffed to the gills with sand eels. Kinda explains the summer doldrums in the canal I think. They would hit nothing but those fresh eels today. I even had live chubs with me that the fish wouldn't even bump...Once they turn on to those sand eels, well... "Can't add any bright, comical quips, etc. It's tough enough typing this much. It is what it is I guess...good Luck... "ps. The pile of trash that was piled up at this location today was depressing. So to make a long story short, I took out a trash bag from my tackle bag and had my son help me clean things up a bit. No blame here, no diatribes, etc, but hopefully he will take the lesson and pass it on to his own kids... (as well as anyone reading this)." |
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Tough going with little blues off the beaches, and some bass still chasing bait up in the bays along the grass beds at high tide. No reports of brown sharks. Best bet is the rips -- Succonnesset, L'Hommedieu, Horseshoe Shoal -- for bluefish and fluke. It's not too early to wish for bonito. Expect that first Fast-Trac Rebel trolled fished to come out of Hedge Fence any day now. |
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Captain Leslie Smith at Backlash Charters filed this report on Wednesday night: "With the coming of the mid-summer doldrums, many anglers are setting their sights to the offshore waters and wondering when the tuna bite will begin, and will it be anything like it was last year at this time for all the small bluefin tuna? Exactly a year ago, we were experiencing stupendous fishing at Gordon's Gulley, a mere twenty miles offshore of the Vineyard but reports are indicating that the water is still fairly cool and so far, no repeat of last year's action. We can only hope that they are just running late, as everything else has been so far, and that we'll get a chance to |
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Bill Pew at Fisher's Tackle says the island is pretty quiet: "One major resource has been closed -- Great Point -- due to the piping plover nests. You could walk, but its a heavy hike through the sand. You could also take a boat and anchor off the beach where's theres some quiet water. "Basically there are acres of small bluefish throughout the entire areas, with larger ones showing up off of the south shore -- eight to ten pounds -- around Sankaty. "Flats fishing before the full moon was quite good. One friend, who fishes there daily, had one of his best days ever in terms of stripers over 28:. He was getting them on merkins and clousers. "I talked to a guy the other day who said he was fishing Eel Point and he came across a dead weakfish floating in the water. We haven't seen squeteague for fifteen years." "One last interesting stat; one customer, a retired science teacher, goes down to the Brant Point coast guard dock every Sunday and drops a temperature probe down three or four feet. He says the current temps are second only to 1999, which was the warmest year he's seen. So the water has warmed up." Captain Lynne Heyer at Cross Rip Outfitters posted these reports: "
Shane rocked my world this morning with this post about my favorite fishie, BONITO!:
Uncle4 chimed in:
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MKDeceiver reports from an undisclosed Cape Cod Bay flat" "I shot down last night for incoming tide around 6pm. "As we walked out, tide started to roll in. Bait sand eel guys were taking fish right away. Uncle dropped fish on first cast then unfortunately didn't get hook up again...Luckily I found a little bar on outside bar that had fish tailing on it. First fish, Jumbo size, I drop after fish porpoised in 2 feet of water. Regrouped, throw again and take a spunky mid 20's fish. Next cast pickup another mid to high 20's fish that pulled more backing than any fish I've ever caught that was that size. "Picked up 1 more that was rat size and that was it....Not bad but nothing like my trips to SE FLATS last week. I was throwing gummy sand eel's which seemed to work. But I may have had more success if I threw a sparser epoxy sand eel type fly. Also, the location where we set up was a badly strategized move. By the time fish were in, tide was too high and we were at a disadvantage on the bars. Too much current, too much water.... Bill Downing offered this advice: "FWIW, the epoxy sand eel fly works better than anything else I've tried in July/Aug on the CC bay flats, even better than crabs. I've also noted that sometimes positioning is critical, especially later in the season. Guys will be hitting one after another on one side of a channel, while 30 feet away on the other side the fish are nowhere to be found." "only got out to the bay sunday the morning was calm but by the afternoon the southwest winds picked up to 20 knots we were at tthat 3mile area out of the canal and there were alot more boats that day maybe someones reading reel time plenty of bait and marking a lot of fish the about time said hes not moving but we headed for thiner water as we aproach the 75 ft area we went tight with a 39 incher but the rest of the the day went dead for us good old gerge waited it out in the deeper water and was rewarded with four good size fish by the way he also caught a 50 something inches a couple of days before he took it to red top to weigh it in as the day went on we headed more to the shore line to duck out of the heavy sw wind only to find that we had a long boat ride dont leave bait george stuck to his guns and hit pay dirt that area im talking about is called the dumping site on the chart for the fly guys we have seen finning bass when the water is flat and they are big dr nowd my fishing parther packs a fly rod and we high hopes for an over 40 inch fish a few of the sandwich fleet heaed for billingsgate and did very well im trying for friday if the weather decent and ill let you guys know im a believer that you can fish next to me but you still have to put the fish in the boat tight lines KTMmmm |