Cape Cod &

the Islands

August 1st, 2003

Cowabunga, it's August!

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

Tight Lines!

Dave Churbuck

Buzzards Bay

Capt. Bob Paccia reports:

"Now that the “Summer Doldrums” are in full swing, we must once again adapt our fishing techniques to match the seasonal weather and water conditions. Water temperatures throughout Buzzards Bay are well into the seventies and continue to rise as tropical weather patterns travel up the east coast and through our area.

 "On the fishing front things have slowed down a bit in Buzzards Bay with the warmer temperatures. Although we’ve have had to work a little harder to find the bait and fish, we have managed to catch a good number of stripers in the 18”-25” size. We are also catching larger fish up to 41” when we are specifically targeting larger fish. I usually can offer clients the choice of catching many stripers or going for several large fish. The bluefish bite, also continues strong with some really good blues providing some great top-water action.

 "All eyes continue to scan the western horizon in hopes of seeing the funny fish (bonito) smashing the surface in Buzzards Bay. So far there have been no credible sightings. We will keep you informed of their progress into our waters.

"Excellent fishermen and good friends, Brian Porter and Bill Alarie who book a number of trips each year with this skipper, had great success this week taking a high number of stripers in the 18”-26” range fishing the deep drop-offs on the edge of the Cape Cod Canal. As Brian and Bill were enjoying catching these mid-size schoolies, Bill let his heavy sinking line go a bit deeper than normal.  Suddenly, his line went taught and his rod doubled over. He was hooked solidly into something big near the bottom of the drop-off. Brian, who enjoys nothing better than to give Bill a hard time, was quick to point out that it must be another lobster pot, as Bill has a reputation for getting hung-up on obstacles on the bottom. Suddenly, the obstacle started to move off steadily stripping line off Bill’s reel. This, was a good fish that refused to give any line back. As Bill set the hook again in preparation for a long fight with this trophy linesider, the line suddenly went limp. The fight was over. The fish had broken off.  As Bill slowly retrieved his backing and flyline, he saw a sickening sight. The leader, the braided loop and shrink tubing that attached his leader to his fly line were all gone. They merely slipped off of the flyline. Unfortunately, Bill had to learn a lesson the hard way.

"This is a common problem when using braided loop connectors. Don’t get me wrong, braided loops themselves are wonderful pieces of equipment and we use them all the time with great success. The problem lies with using the heated shrink tubing to hold the braided loop to the fly line. We have seen many good fish lost when the shrink tube connection fails. The proper way to attach a braided loop to a fly line is to use two nail knots spaced ¼” apart at the base of the braided loop instead of the heated shrink tubing that is supplied by the manufacturer of the braided loop. It is also recommended that you coat the nail knots with either Dave’s Flexement or Pliobond. Do not coat knots with any of the Superglues or Zap-Gaps as they are too brittle and will cause the braid to fray."

Falmouth & the Elizabeths

Captain Joe LeClair reports:

"While fishing offshore this past week we have had the opportunity to see some spectacular things. This year there is an amazing amount of Humpback Whales gathered together off of the Cape. When the fishing for Bluefin Tuna with the fly rod and light tackle has been slow we have had fun with large bluefish on the fly. In addition to the hundreds of Humpback Whales that we have seen feeding offshore on small sand eels, we have seen Ocean Sunfish, White Sided Dolphin, Sea Turtles, and Pilot Whales. Most of the Bluefin that we have found have been over 200 lbs. and difficult to catch. The shark fishing should be excellent in the next couple weeks as the water temps have shot up in some places. In addition there are some really large Stripers that are coming through the Elizabeth Islands right now. They are deep and hard to catch, but the experienced fly fisherman will not give up if he or she knows there is a chance that they could catch a fish of this size on the fly rod. Look for them to feed up in the rocks around high tide, and early in the morning does not hurt either."

The Cape Cod Canal

Some big fish taken here this past week.Chucknduck asked:

"that canal water is still COLD. I'm surprised that it shut down so much this week considering. I think we are still seeing late June temps through much of the coast...Maybe we will avoid the Aug. doldrums now that July is by the books???"

The South Side

There are lots of tailor blues inside the harbors of Cotuit and Osterville in the early morning. Right on the surface. Sneak up and toss a fly into them and you'll be on in no time.

Bigger bluefish out in the rips. I fished Succonnesset, L'Hommedieu, and Wreck yesterday and the terns were going nutty over the blues. Since they barfed up three inch sand eels, I will report that they are eating three inch sand eels!

Fluke are fun on 300 grain sinking lines and Surf Candies.
 

Martha's Vineyard

Captain Leslie Smith will be fishing in the West for two weeks -- chasing dinky little trout things, but filed this report before she departed:

"Last week's heavy winds kept me virtually on the dock every day but Saturday, on which I was able to get down to the Hooter.  We had some nice bass and far too many small blues from the area, which has been getting hit pretty hard by the commercial boys that were big enough to brave the big swells.  It's all a bait thing, with scup the bait of choice, as they are a bit more resilient to the bluefish attacks than eels.  Word has it that the bite has been on at Squibby, with many of the commercial boats getting their forty fish limit in just a couple of hours, with quite a few forty pounders in the mix.  Here it's an anchor up and chunk routine.  I fished Hawes Shoal with some youngsters recently, and if you don't care about quality, prefering lots of feisty quantity, head east of Chappy for some fun top water activity.  For the shore bound, Lobsterville Beach has been good during the evening hours.  Rumor has it that a bonito was caught this week from Hedge Fence, but I've yet to have that substantiated.  The Fence is one of the areas that frequently gives up the first bone of the season, so I am hopeful that it is true and that we will start seeing them coming in from the Hooter."

Mike Drew called the first bonito caught on Martha's Vineyard for Monday and apparently he was right:
"Jack Kimberly of the MVSA caught the first Monday July 28th."

Nantucket

Great Point has been reopened. The plovers have ploved.

Captain Lynne Heyer at Cross Rip Outfitters reports:

"Mark your calendar Bones have been caught.The Bonito bar is producing fish, FINALLY. With cool water temps it's taken a little longer for them to show.James Kilmartin and Andrew Mayer were out early this morning and caught two. James caught both.His first on fly. The second one was on a pearl bomber. Capt. Jeff also had a couple on but none to the boat.Capt. Shawn also caught 3 or 4. Flies that worked today were small epoxy patterns, squid patterns and white polar fibre minnows. For spinning tackle pearl Bombers, silver and green Yozuri's and blue and silver Yozuri's. All of the above have proven successful. All available at you know where.

"The flats are still producing, but cloudy days have made seeing difficult.

"Capt. Shawn has still been catching fish down deep on his secret weapons. He has heard the east end of the island is producing some big fish.

"The beach report is still a mess of Blues on the South Shore and good numbers out on the Gauls. Get out and wet a line there are fish waiting to give you a fight. "

Bill Pew at Fisher's took a break from lunch to report:

"Great Point has opened and there are ample numbers of bluefish everywhere up there for the intrepid angler. Hopes of bonito runs strong in the hearts of most anglers, but few are getting caught.  Bonito Bar is the place, but there aren't lots of them, some, but not enough to cause madness in men.

"One of the Island's basket makers, Michael Kane, broke the state record by 20 pounds with a mahi mahi caught in the Canyons. 

"With the east wind yesterday there were  bluefish from Wauwinet to Great Point." 

The Outer Beaches, Chatham & Monomoy

Zimmjas has been busy around Monomoy:

" I only fished a few hours at the beginning of the outgoing. I saw a decent school moving through a depression/channel and had a take, but my trout fishing habits are still not broken and I ended up striking with the rod tip

It was tough spotting fish because the of the wind chop and it was cloudy up until mid-afternoon. I know they're there. Saw two different flats skiffs hook up (they were on the flat - not out too far) and one guy fishing about 100 yards from me, while wading, had a fish. I'll be out there Saturday for sure. I don't know what Sunday is supposed to be like so that's still up in the air. By the way, my two hits came on a #1 jiggy (pale blue/green over white). It's a big fly, and normally I don't fish it on the flats, but I was doing some blind casting and I've had luck in the past with that fly in such conditions. Last weekend, it was small bonefish type clousers (dark olive over white with bead chain eyes). I had some nice takes on it."

The North Side

KTMmmm reports:

"dr nowd and i finally had to fly the skunk flag fished our deep water  spot with no luck then worked our way near billingsgate  got windy  and called it a day from what ive been hearing on the  radio the bait and fish seem to be headed  towards billingsgate mon july 28 heavy sw wind the nite before so i was worried about  how the  seas were going to be it turned nw in the morning and it was suppose to be 10 -15  well it ended up dead  flat calm we again headed for our spot  if you have a captain  seagull chart i think they call it whitemans  getting skunked before  we decided we will give it an hour  then head  for  billingsgate  well it was a great  call the  bait and  a few million  boat s were there  we   decided not  to get in the middle  on the fleet and  trolled out side  bait bait and  more bait   i told the doc we are not leaving   he had a ball  working that  fly rod till his  arm fell off  so we went  back trolling  tube and  worm  right  near the the 1  bell there are some pots and as we worked the bait  we noticed a  drop off   we kept at it for what seemed like for ever finally as we pulled away from the  bait and  moving towards deeper water  the reel sent a  sweet  messsage to us we 're on and boy were we  on   a 49 incher  just ounces short of 40  pounds    well i tell  the dr was dancing a jig as i pulled this monster over the  gunale      as i keep saying  stay with the bait and i seemed to be the   biggest offender  patience pays              

            tight lines      KTMmmm "
 
Keep those reports coming,