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Cape Cod &the Islands
May 21st, 2004 |
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| FishWire Coordinator: | Dave Churbuck |
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A Doo-Doo-Doo, A Dah-Dah-Dah
Ian Frazier, a very funny writer for the New Yorker, wrote an essay about the evil phenomenon of having a bad song stuck in his head every time he goes fishing. I also suffer from this malady, and currently I can’t get a particularly bad song out of my head, Eddie Murphy (the comedian, not the singer) and Rick James’: "My Girl Wants to Party All the Time" which was inserted there by my ten-year old son who was originally infected while watching a television song on the worst 50 Songs of All Time. It is so bad that I can’t fish for the time being. Other songs which have slowly but surely driven me insane while fishing include the Police’s "A Doo-Doo-Doo, A Da-Da-Da" (which may not be the title, but which is what the irritating refrain has engraved upon my hypothalamus) and the classic chantey: "What Do We Do With the Drunken Sailor?" which originally infected me while I was a deckhand on the Nantucket Ferry 25-years ago and still comes back whenever it feels like it. Fly fishing can be very monotonous and conducive to bad thought patterns. Even if you fish with a friend, it isn’t as if you’re standing next to each other discussing foreign policy. The prospect of hooking each other and fishing the same arc of water makes it important that you spread out just far enough that conversation is impossible. Infecting your friend with a bad song before setting out is very important, and is best done by playing a tape of CD of bad songs on the way to the beach. My buddy Bob still curses me for giving him a bad case of Springsteen ("Got a wife and kid in Baltimore, Jack..."), but the only way to remove a bad song from skipping perpetually in your head is to give it to someone else. I think the metronomic casting patterns of fly fishing opens one’s brain channels to the possibility of infection. Stripping the line back in is also a repetitive act which softens up the grey matter for any mindless pattern. It’s only a matter of time before you start pulling some real musical dogs out of nowhere and playing them for yourself. My other bad habit is chewing discarded pieces of tippet. I never have a clipper or nipper to trim the tag ends of my lines, so I use nature’s tool box -- my incisors -- and bite them off. The little piece that’s left stays in my mouth for the rest of the expedition, sticking out of my lips like a piece of hay out of the mouth of a farmer. I think I can understand why so many fishermen smoke, drink, and otherwise fall prey to all sorts of addictive behaviors. I need something in my mouth at all times, so better a piece of fluorocarbon than a Marlboro. The sport can be horribly boring. Go on, admit it. I can. Fly fishing is an expensive, self-inflicted form of brainwashing. You stare at the Big Blank of the Ocean for a few hours, you are trying to trick something hidden under the surface into biting a fly that is also hidden under the surface. One piece of water pretty much looks like any other. One walks on beaches that stretch uninterrupted for miles in every direction, with no girls in thongs to take your mind off of the sand, sand, and more sand. Sure, you can try to liven things up by learning the names of the constellations (Look Ed, it’s The Arc of Trombone and if you follow it to the left you can see the Planets Xerox and Oleomargarine) but everyone agrees that people who show off by naming stars are either full of it or themselves. The only relief is actually catching a fish. Someone described the sport as hours of monotony relieved by seconds of terror. Then there’s the days when you catch 100 bluefish and that, in itself, can also be like being forced to listen to a skipping record. So, until next week, here's some reports from Cape Cod's finest. More guides and shops will be coming on line in the weeks to come. Right now, it's the people who are working the water the hardest, digging in before that old summer song starts driving them insane. Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...
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Cape Cod Regions
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It’s safe to say there’s fish everywhere from Wareham to Provincetown, so many fish that the challenge is picking a spot and sticking with it. The bite is fluky and highly dependent on what the weather is doing. One second you can be sweating under a sunny sky and summer conditions, the next you’re shivering in a sweater under grey easterlies. It’s big bait time -- herring and squid dominate the menus -- so think big, think white, think slow. Bluefish are around. Sometimes by the bazillions, sometimes up one top, but they aren’t in summer manic mode and are best tricked under the surface rather than with poppers. Some monster bass are around. Best bet for them is either to think like a commando and work up high in the estuaries near herring run entrances or go off to the rips and drift squid flies through. Get em while the getting is good. Memorial Day cometh and with it a whole herd of Grady-Whites determined to fish your spots. |
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Capt. Bob Paccia had a morning charter, but will be filing a report on it later today. Welcome back Bob! He has been fishing and wrote: "The fishing has been real good for the past several days. we've done very well using large herring patterns fishing to the sides and below the herring pods that we've drifted with. Some good fish to 37." |
Capt. Joe LeClair is back for another year of Reel-Time reports. He's psyched and capable of fishing the REALLY BIG STUFF in his new 33' World Cat. Capt. LeClair is truly offshore capable and poised to take advantage of the big developments in offshore tuna flyrodding that has gripped the region the past few years. "I can run up to 100 miles offshore ... The boat runs 44 MPH and cruises at around 35 MPH. I will have the range to target Bluefin/Yellowfin/Longfin Albacore/ and Durado for the months of Aug/Sept/Oct/Nov."
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Capt. Terry Nugent at Riptide Charters has been running out of superlatives in his emails describing EPIC DAYS! hitting the spring run. Look for birds -- he's looking for them on the radar the flocks are so big. Underneath -- striper fests. Curt Jessup at the Sporting Life in Mashpee Common reports: "Had a client out yesterday--(Thurs) and we fished Quick's Hole and Robinson's Hole in the Islands. Picked up 6 stripers and two bue fish. Most fish were taken on incoming tide. Lot's of birds and some bait although I could not get a good look at it. Got two nice fish on the flat and marsh in Lackey's Bay. My favorite spot along the islands. Fished in clear 3 foot water and missed a 40 plus incher but were able to sight cast and pick up two others. Great day even though wind was out of the east. Not a huge number of fish along Islands. Water temp in Sound 56.9 and 60 up in bays. Tarpulin Cove held some nice fish as well.." |
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When the true canal sharpies of Bill Downing and BobG begin signing the fat lady's song for her, you know something ain't right in the Big Ditch this spring. What's the problem? Well, it's been a schizophrenic May for starters. Kind of cold one day, blazing hot the next. Typical Cape Cod spring. But something isn't right. A few of us have been singing the song that the herring runs on Cape Cod have been taking a beating the last few years, and anecdotally, yep, there aren't a ton of herring skipping up the sluiceways this season, the result of offshore fishing pressure, lots of hungry bass, and some bad drought conditions in the recent past. Result? Not a lot of herring. What gets me hot and bothered is that people slam this crucial bait on their way into the ponds when they are filled with eggs. It's like eating your seed corn people! Something's got to be done. Sure, an old timer with a big live well in the back of his truck who has been livelining herring since Eisenhower was a general is not going to be easily persuaded to leave the herring alone, but do we need the annual Bournedale circus? Fish big rubber people. Buy some whopper rubber patterns and let the herring be for a few years. Otherwise, adios and goodbye. Bill Downing observed: "The usual bait supply just isn't there, so the bass will mostly go elsewhere where there is a combination of reasonable temps and good bait supply. I think things will slowly right themselves as the season progresses and the small baits move in to the replace the herring vacuum, but I think this will be a May to forget at the Ditch." |
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Yee-haw. House a-fire. Talk about nutty. One day there's fish out the wazoo, next day they're as tight-lipped as an angry quahog. Here's the deal. Schoolies abound -- they like sunny days with a moving tide and a southwest wind -- some days are better than others. Clousers -- olive and white and chartreuse and white are the happening patterns, but big herring patterns are doing the trick too. Bluefish -- the big angry adolescents, the 12-pounders that drag race up the coast to sun themselves on the southside's flats -- are in residence. They're not doing the mindless popper attacks. But schooling around on the sunny spots, eating silvery white stuff fished a couple feet under the surface. I'm using an Orvis re-bendable wire tippet now. It may scare off a schoolie or two, but this time of year off of Cotuit you have no idea what's going to whack the feathers. Some biigggg bass inside in secret spots. This is where the big herring patterns do their stuff. This is night work. Sneaky stuff. Jetties and inlets are working well, but the Meter Maids Who Eat Their Young are writing tickets. That's right, Barnstable is enforcing beach stickers 12 months a year now. Surfmaster fished South Cape Beach in Mashpee and the report is typical of the on-now/off-later conditions of the last two weeks: "Fished south cape beach wed morning at low tide ended up with 3 shorties and 6 blues, this all took place in about an hour, the blue fish ranged from 8 to 12 pounds, i was the only one on the beach catching fish went back there later that afternoon with 50 other guys, i didn't even bother to fish i think i saw 3 small small bass caught in about 3 hours." |
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Captain Leslie Smith of Backlash Charters isn't on the water yet -- we bugged her on Satan's Instrument (the cell phone) -- as she was returning to the island. She's hearing all about fish though. It's one of those things. Wet a line, catch a fish. Speaking of the Vineyard, Bob Post's epic Reading the Water is back in print. Best Martha's Vineyard fishing report ever written. Captain Smith reports: "Quick report.... 42 lb bass came off the beach near Wasque this week, as well as a mind boggling 16 lb bluefish. The W.Tisbury pond opening is still trickling out and attracting stripers like candy. I'm on the water tomorrow for the first fishing expedition of the year. Yippee!" |
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Bill Pew at Fisher's Tackle is doing well, albeit a bit cold still from this schizophrenic May: "Lots of schoolies and an occasional larger fish. There are fish on the east side by Sesachacha Pond. Along the southshore from Madaket all the way ovcer to Sconset, We're catching them here and there and everywhere. Also a lot of fish in the harbor up into Polpis Harbor and the opening has been quite good. Largest fish are on the order of 31 to 32 inches. More typically 16 to 22 inches. These are robust fish, true fish of yore that are sort of fat and look well fed. "The buggy whippers are scoring with olive and white clousers, small ones, which work well in the harbor, and the traditional chartreuse and gold ones. Clousers for the most part are doing the job." "Spin rod fishermen do best with very small poppers, poppers with positive buoyancy." There are no bluefish on Nantucket yet, according to Bill. |
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The Outer Beaches, Chatham & Monomoy
Jeff Blankenship reports: A few people are working the Bathtub most diligently now, especially when the sun and the temps get to the point where things are interesting. No reports from the surf yet -- why mess around with the crumbly stuff when you can fly fish in placid backwaters where the big fish are. Randy Jones, the guide who put new meaning into the term, "stairway to heaven" with his tactic of spotting fish on the Monomoy flats from a step ladder, posted a good treatise on Monomoy safety and etiquette in the forums. Check it out. He reports: "Waded and played today in a lil Saltwater tidal pond at 2 hours before the high. Water temperature was a perfect 60 degrees. Not as many fish around as had hoped for or what had been present previously. Either they were there and had lock jaw or some had moved out. Still was able to get some to crash my squid on the surface while other's would only eat when presented to sub-surface. All fresh and covered in lice. Then it was of to nantucket sound to try our hand at some larger fish. 10 cast's and 7 fish hammered the squid on the surface. Then it was one here and one there until it shut down completely. Tried fishing for Blues for awhile as they will show themselves shortly in the S.E. part of the Cape in mass any day now. Good time to remember your wire if fishing anytime soon. I like to pre-tie my wire to my flies, lures ahead of time to be able to get on'm faster. I carry a number of different colors, profiles, bait imitations to be fished surface and sub using flies. I like being prepared for any and all variables. With a S.W. wind we found some mung (monkey fur) and chop-waves that kept us closer to shore than we would have liked. Overall another great day to be out on the water. Don't get much but'a! Can't wait for tomorrow to arrive to see what it has in store for me. I'll do some more playing around in some different locations I have not fished yet this year. 6 am can't come soon enough. Hope you all have a safe and enjoyable weekend. Randy" |
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Scorton Creek is happening, but not a lot of noise out of Barnstable Harbor yet. There are fish on the Cape Cod Bay side of the region, but give it a week or so before the guides fire up their trailers and start launching at Millway to catch the annual blast off of the bar Old Sandwich Harbor is starting to develop some sizable fish. Brewster and Wellfleet are getting fishy too. JeffsOD reported catching the fish that does not exist -- a sea-run trout -- "I caught the last of the outgoing myself tonight on the bayside and got 5 schoolies and a Sea Run Trout on a chartruese clouser. Boy was I surprized to see that trout on the end of my line. That was a first for me! " Keep those reports coming, |