Cape Cod &

the Islands

October 31st, 2003

Down to the wire

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

Tight Lines!

Dave Churbuck

Buzzards Bay

Captain Joe LeClair and his wife caught the ultimate keeper on October 6:

"I am happy to say that after a week off the water I have found that all the fish are still here. My wife Sarah and I had a beautiful baby boy, Zachary Knowles LeClair on Oct. 6th so I have been out of it for a little while. I spent the day chasing Bluefin Tuna with the fly rod and light tackle spinning rods off of the Cape and came up with this beauty my first day back. There is also amazing Striped Bass fishing in the Elizabeth Islands and False Albacore fishing could be the best it has been in 10 years here in the Buzzards Bay area. If the weather holds the fishing should stay good for a few more weeks.

Falmouth & the Elizabeths

See Joe LeClair's Buzzards Bay report and Yozuri-Man's south side report for some hints of where the action is.

The Cape Cod Canal

BobG reported early in the week:

"Given the fact that there often isn't a speck of bait in the canal, the fishing remains pretty good.
Was on the canal at 3am, and into fish immedietly. Unlike previous nights, tonight you had to be spot specific. They didn't appear to be scattered throughout a entire area.
As has been the case all fall so far, the action dies right at dawn.
The fish were all small keepers, with a couple up to 33". Big plastic, heavy heads, deep 'n slow..."

bb1 weighed in:
"Half a dozen w/ a fat 39" on my 3rd cast the 9th.
1 small schoolie a night the 10, 11 + 12th....all in the same spot (I should have mooved around, but had someone w/ me).
All on big jig O's in the 'middle' of the west tide."

The South Side

Yozuri-Man is still working the south side:
"fish moving water at night from the ponds/bay outflows. Last week in 3 night trips I got over 50 bass, nothing huge but the majority were 23-26", handful of low 30", but all were very energetic. Don't fish Nobska, there are no fish amongst those boulders.[he said with a smiley face]"

Gerryg reports:

"Saturday was albie heaven around nobska and woods hole. they were everywhere.
Fished sunday from the jetties at waquoit to nobska light. Outside the entrance of childs river we were in 7 feet of water with busting stripers and blues for over an hour, just us the fish, and the rain off and on. continuous hook ups all on top water. about 2 hundred yards away there was pods of breaking albies that stayed up a lot longer than usual.
nobska and woods hole everyone was hooking up with albies.
monday was much drier but not as many stripers around, lots of big blues and again plenty of albies and only a handful of boats. but even with a handful of boats there were still some idiots out there. after all said and done it was a great weekend."

Martha's Vineyard

Nantucket

Captain Lynne Heyer at Cross Rip Outfitters reported on Columbus Day:

"The weather did not cooperate for me on Sunday. No fishing for me yesterday. I don't think I missed anything. I got an email from Brian Chadwick saying the Albies were still in the Harbor on Friday. He said there were plenty but they were very picky. I also heard the Albies were back at the Gauls on Friday. Jeff fished the west end of the island on Friday and landed some Blues and one Albie. The wind went East on Saturday and really slowed the fishing down. It's blowing North today, but supposed to turn East again, Yuck. If I hear any other news I will be sure to post more, but for now that's it."

The Outer Beaches, Chatham & Monomoy

David Mahassel emailed me:
"I was fishing for TUNA last Wed 10/8/2003.  I started at Crab Ledge and started towards the BC Buoy.  The water was extremely cold going down from 60 degrees at the tip of monomoy to 54 degrees at Crab Ledge.  I did not see any type of action at all, no whales, sharks and/or birds never mind TUNA.  I kept going EAST until the water temp was showing 60 degrees.  The Water did not hit 60 degrees until I could see the BC Buoy.  The water started getting rough so we trolled for about a half hour going east with the wind at our backs.  We could see nothing on the horizon or on the fish finder except a whole lot of bait.  When the water started getting really rough 6-8 footers we pulled up the lines and started heading back WEST.  We were about 4-5 miles east of the BC at he time we started heading WEST.  We were right at the BC Buoy when I saw some whale action.  I started heading towards the whales to ckeck it out when I saw something other than a whale jump out of the water.  It did not look like a shark so I put the 3 squid rigs back in the water and started trolling again.  I must have been 100 yds from the BC buoy so I just trolled in a large circle around the BC.  After about TEN minutes I FINALLY GOT TO SEE a TRUE TUNA SMASH.  IT was awesome.  I have caught TUNA before but never got to see the TUNA Smash behind the baits and then HIT it like nothing I have ever seen.  The TUNA SMASHED then hit the rig furthest in the back, the outrigger gave way and then the reel started SCREEMING.  It took 1/2 hour to get in the boat.  The TUNA was approx 50-52 inches and approx 130-140 lbs."

Wannabee's first report:

"Race Point was still very mungy on Tuesday. Water in surf was black with weed. Could have changed with Wednesday morning's storm and wind shift.

"Herring cove was relatively clean - birds just beyond casting range from beach. Only blitz to move closer to shore netted one guy a nice sized blue. Otherwise just frustrating for the rest of us."

Early in the week, the intrepid Bill Downing echoed the mung report:

"For the backside beaches I have one word for anyone trying the beach: MUNG. The easterlies have crudded up everything from H of M north to Race Point. Herring Cove was clean but I hit it on a bad tide (low incoming) and there weren't any fish around. Nauset appeared relatively clean but the surf was WAY up and hard to fish effectively. It will take a wind shift and a tide or so to move the weed out of the northern spots I think.

"Tried the Canal on the way home, west tide, and banged out plenty of schoolies, just nothing of any size, although saw other keepers caught here and there."

The North Side

Glassguy fished the Sandwich area early on Thursday morning, the report:

"Fished the harbor near the mouth from 3:30 AM to 5:00 using eels and plugs. Total of two dogfish.

"Left at five AM to try the creek. Saw two other guys fishing eels and one guy fly fishing. Stayed until 7:00AM. No strikes for anyone.

"I really thought it would be a great tide. Goes to show you."

Kenatthecape reported early in the week:

"Just got back from there this afternoon. Fish everywhere in that area. Fly fishermen at the mouth were all hooking up. The fiesh were also busting back in the pool inside but our boat was too big to move back there. The fish were pushing bait right up onto the beach. We caught most of ours just a few feet off the beach. The fly casters on the beach were having to move back to cast where the fish were."

New England Forum moderator Bob Parsons, the man with the golden retriever fish finder, has been keeping Barnstable Harbor honest this past week:

On the 11th he posted:
"Due to work obligations, I did not get on the water until 4:45pm. Thus my first priority was dealing with my lobster pots. (4 keepers we eat well this weekend). It was past sunset when I entered the harbor. Birds were working the shallow water draining off the east bar. Fish were in the shallows feeding on the bait being funneld between a couple sandbars. I had to wet wade to reach them so as not to be high and dry in the dark. (Ya know its getting a little on the chilly side for wet wading). Picked up close to a dozen fish up to 26" before I had to return to the boat and push it into deep water. Definititly have to see if there is a repeat at sunrise."

And on the 12th he reported:
"Hit Barnstable at a bit earlier tide level than last nite. Blizt was on and lasted a full hour. You could see the bait being pushed into the shallows for big time buffet dining. Several times I was in line with the bait drive and had stripers actually bump into me. Plenty of time to try different lures and flies. While all reasonable offers were eventually taken, a dayglow sluggo worked best.

"Once the tide turned action tapered off. The harbor remained quiet until the tide turned was again out going in the afternoon. Birds were active in 1/2 dozen areas with fish working underneath."

And on the 13th he said:

"This morning the fish were not in the shallows trapping bait. They, and hundreds of birds, where wall to wall from the west end of horseshoe shoal to beach point. Action continued until shortly after sunrise. After sunrise the surface activity died quickly but you could still catch a few fish lingering in the area for another 40 min."

John Major chimed in:

"My report is nowhere near as productive as Bob's! We fished BH on Friday from about 9:30 till 4:00 pm - managed one blue out front just blind casting (no signs of birds working - tons of white-winged scoters flying by though!). As we headed back in, encountered a bluefish blitz coming down the channel in front of the Blish Point launch (complete with gulls circling and hitting the water), managed a few hookups as they worked their way toward Beach Point. Also cost me a 555 fly line as I was careless and let it dangle behind the boat and get caught up in the propeller! Luckily, only damage was to the line and not the motor, so considered myself lucky."

Keep those reports coming,