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Cape Cod &the Islands
June 4th, 2004 |
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| FishWire Coordinator: | Dave Churbuck |
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Casting Spastic
Once upon a time, when I was flush with cash from a Christmas bonus (remember them? Weren’t they great?) and hanging around a very expensive Florida resort at a business conference, I felt sorry for myself and bought an extremely expensive fly rod and reel to go bone fishing with. It was the kind of purchase that men have to hide from their wives. I’m still hiding it ten years later and hope she doesn’t read this. The resort had a nice verandah with big wicker chairs that overlooked an immaculate croquet court, a long rectangle with grass clipped tighter than a Persian rug. Every afternoon, during cocktails, a guy who looked like a ski-instructor, who wore shorts with lots of pockets and a khaki shirt with straps and emblems, would offer to teach old ladies how to fly cast. No one ever took him up on his offer. He made a game out of it by laying hula hoops on the croquet court and putting balloons in then the hoop as targets. He would demonstrate his skill by popping the balloons, one-by-one, with a barbless fly. People drunkenly clapped whenever he popped a balloon. He offered a challenge: anyone who could pop all the balloons, standing at different stations around the croquet court, would win a fly reel, a nice one too. I made the mistake of showing off my new purchase to a colleague at the conference, let’s call him Wayne from Receiving, and as we sat on the verandah, drinking our fourth round of gin and tonics, Wayne from Receiving suggested I go to my room, get my new rod and reel, and take the casting teacher downtown with a lesson of the way things are done up on Cape Cod. I demurred, ate another conch fritter, and wondered how I could duck the next day’s seminar on "Actualizing Your Inner Manager: A Workshop in Intrapersonal Conflict Resolution Techniques" and go fish Biscayne Bay for bonefish with Reel-Time sponsor, the now-late and dearly missed Frank Garisto. "C’mon. You can kick his butt. You chicken?" "Chicken" is one of those words that gets me between the ribs. Of course I got the rod from my room, brought it down to the verandah, and started assembling it. The old ladies sitting at the next table asked if I was going to accept the balloon challenge and that in their opinion, the ski instructor was "pretty good." "This guy’s the best fly fisherman on Cape Cod," said Wayne from Receiving. "He’s going to make this guy cry." The ski instructor finished showing a ten-year old kid how to wave a long piece of orange yarn over his head on a practice rod. He looked bored, but tolerated it at $20 an hour. He looked over the crowd for someone to play with. He zeroed in on me and my new rod and reel. "I see we have another student today. C’mon, sir, step right up. Let’s see what you can do." I felt like an utter idiot. The stooge who gets sawn in half by the magician, the nimrod who gets hypnotized and acts like a member of the opposite sex. Wayne from Receiving started hooting like a face-painted fan. I walked out of the shady anonymity of the verandah into the orange sunlight of the late afternoon. The instructor had very white teeth. I didn’t feel so sarcastic any more. I stripped off 40 feet of new bonefish line, straightened out the loops, buying some time. Time for some excuses: "I just bought this rod today and have been dying to try it all afternoon. It’s really nice of you to give me a chance to get in some practice." "That’s a sweet rod. First time fly casting? Want some pointers?" Wayne was whooping it up and laying down twenties on the old ladies table. They were digging in their pocket books. Now my boss was watching. Blowing off the Self-Actualization seminar was going to be tough. "Why don’t you tie on this fly here and try to get it to land in that hoop closest to us? Think you can do that?" The guy reminded me of Andy Mills, the ski racer that married Chris Evert, is too good looking, and wins all the fishing tournaments. I tied on the fly. It was a simple streamer with the bend of the hook snipped off. It was just fur and feather and a straight shank of metal, like a pin, for popping the balloons. "I will do this," I realized. "I will kill these balloons." There was no wind. I wasn’t wading up to my waist in surf at Chatham. It was sunny out, not dark. The line was new. The rod was new. There were no excuses. The Force was with me and I knew, just knew, that years of slugging it out with a fly rod while others around me defaulted to their spinning rods was going to pay off. Obi-Wan Lefty Kreh, who had taught me at a Reel-Time casting class in Hingham the summer before, suddenly spoke to me from the sky, and it was all going to come together. Elbow tight to my side. Casting hand not rising above my shoulder. Thumb on the grip, stance perfect. I was ready. I stripped more line off of the reel, and then some more, and a little more, dumping it all onto the grass, until I was looking at the lime-yellow backing. The instructor looked at the backing. He knew, like I knew, that something magic was about to happen. I was Babe Ruth pointing at the Bleachers. I was Bobby Orr against St. Louis. I was Larry Bird with one second to go, two points down, outside of the three-point line with Johnny Most going bananas in the background. "So, pop six balloons and I get a reel?" "Mister, that’s really for students." "Sure, no sweat. For the glory then?" There were six hoops. We stood in one corner of the croquet court. The wickets were gone. It was just green grass with pretty flowers around the perimeter. The furthest hoop was in the far corner, and it was going to be the killer. It was over 100 feet away and had yellow balloon in the middle of it. I said a prayer to St. Sedotti, nodded to the instructor to step out of the way, and started the first cast. Wayne from Receivables was quiet. The new Scientific Anglers bonefish taper was slick and started to lengthen through the guides with each false cast. With an easy 25-feet of line out of the tip I started double-hauling a little, feeding more line into the fore- and backcasts, watching the loop, making a little oval in the sky with the rod tip, lengthening, lengthening until the fly was over the first hoop. I decided not to shoot the line, but to pop the balloon on the forecast, I angled the cast down and took out the first balloon with a satisfying pop, and let another five feet flow out on the back cast. I was at forty-feet of line and the loops were holding up nicely. Second forecast and pop! another balloon down, I moved my left foot a little, adjusted my stance, watched the back cast gain another ten feet, and pop!, third balloon gone. I heard cheering. A couple more false casts at 60 feet. My double haul was working but I was in the territory where one bad double haul could cause me to lose the line and lose control. I dipped down the forecast and took out the fourth balloon. Two more to go. The next one was 75 feet out. I cast to it, missed, and heard the crowd say, "Awww." But I still had the line moving and nailed it on the second attempt. Last balloon remaining. I wanted to step towards it, but figured this was my one and only chance to actually cast the line, let fly and hope for the best. I snapped a quick look down at the line at my feet, shook it to make sure it wasn’t tangled, almost lost the line on the backcast and ... The drag went crazy, buzzing like an alarm clock. The fly had wrapped around the windshield stanchion of a passing golf cart on the service road behind the croquet court. I turned around, laughed, and let it run for a second, then palmed the reel, burned my hand, but popped the leader before $75 of fly line went off to the third hole. That’s it. The Swedish Bikini Team didn’t hoist me on their shoulders. President Bush the Elder didn’t invite me to go fishing with him. A movie wasn’t made about my life. Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...
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Cape Cod Regions
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Things are getting intense on the islands. The Catch & Release tournament is this weekend on the Vineyard, and we're hearing nothing but bright tales of feisty fish from both sandbars. Southside of the Cape is loaded with bass if you can get off of the beaches and away from the choppers. Fluke are even starting to happen too. Some epic days beginning to happen out Chatham way, as more anglers start doing their wading thing in the "place that shall not be named." |
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"Fishing for Striped Bass in New England is as good as it gets right now. I have been able to catch bass feeding on squid up to 30 lbs. in the last few days and it seems like more are coming in each day. This is a fly fishermans time to be out on the water. We have been throwing large squid flies and small herring patterns on the 10-11 weights with great success. I expect these fish to feed in shallow water and move deep as the water warms up in the next six weeks." |
Captain Joe LeClair of North Eastern Anglers writes this week:
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Captain Terry Nugent of Riptide Charters writes: "With the wind changing from day to day and the fish moving through without spending much time in any one area sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Last night I was lucky! I was lucky enough to have a great fisherman give me some SOLID information. I was scheduled to work all night, but when you get info like this you need to act and act quickly. At 0100 I call the desk Sgt. and told him I needed 2 hours personal time so I could get OTW by 0530. The Sgt. chuckled and granted the time off. |
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Hawkeye posted: "Fished the canal around the sagamore bridge area for a few hours this morning with only a few 26"ers to show for it. I saw a few crashes out in the middle and they looked like large fish. I saw one nice mid 30's fish being unloaded by a biker in the parking lot." |
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Tons of reports on the forums from Reel-Timers trying the beaches of Cotuit for blues. The dreary weather has been turning off the bluefish around Oregon, and some longtimers have opined this has been a bad spring at the beach. The squid seem to be the prevalent bait off the beaches in the deeper water. We're seeing the late spring transition from herring to squid, so start thinking white patterns this weekend. Good sized rumor fish coming from inside the bays, outside, if you can avoid the bluefish, there are lots of medium sized bass in the shallows and around the inlets. Good reports coming from the usual jetties such as Dowses, Wianno, Waquoit, but a lot of experts are still focusing inside at the chokepoints around the herring runs in Popponesset Bay, Cotuit, and Centerville. Bishop and Clerks seems to be loaded with fish, as are the rocks off of Point Gammon. Good place to ding a prop and longtime readers of this column know my opinion of wire line trolling, especially when the old parachute jig hangs up on a rocky bottom. Personally, I've been focusing on late afternoon beach fishing inside of Cotuit Bay, using my boat to get around from the maddening crowds (a big thumbs down to the chucklehead who thought it was a good idea to bring his rambunctious German Shepard fishing with him at Cross Street last Friday night. Especially good for neighbor relations when the dog ran around on the deck of a nearby house and then tried to chase every plug cast off of the sand. Guys, sure your dog loves you, but that doesn't mean other people love your dog. Leave Fido at home. Capemike88 is already into sharks: "Fished from 8-12pm every night of the long weekend, skunked one night, total from the other two were 3 brownies and 1 barely legal. The waters still so cold, so what am I doing catching brownies this early? We only caught 2 all of last spring when the water was warmer.. There goes my philosophy of the sharks comming closer in the summer/fall when the water gets warmer.. All the schoolies you could want fishing the estuaries and rivers, I scored the majority of mine on small while clousers, then switched to chartuse/white then the river was deeper/dirtier. Bit off by one blue off the beach. The big fish are still offshore I guess.. I saw many boats comming in from 3-4miles out with BIG fish, fish in the 30-40lb range. Got out about a mile and a half on my powerless Quick Silver and tried everything, one hit from a blue. Next weekend?" Yozuri-Man posts: "Fished the south side of the cape on the incoming last night. A good push of fresh liced up fish with a great deal of energy. Bass to 31" & several other legals as well, not to mention the dozen or so 24-26" fish. Some of the mid 20" fish fought so hard I would have sworn they were bigger. Bluefish as well, some 2-3 lbs & some 5-8 lbs. It was hard to go 2-3 casts without at least a bump. Lure of choice was a white bucktail & a white trailer. Best night of the year to this point. |
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Captain Leslie Smith at Backlash Charters writes: "This past week had a good push of fish come through the areas east of Chappaquiddick. Stripers of all sizes were being caught in every way imaginable... they were on top for the fly rodders and light tackle folks; they were deep for the wire liners, bait dunkers and jiggers. Bluefish were mixed in most of the spots and the bait was definitely squid. Though the top water action waned towards the end of the week, the deep fish were still coming in consistently. For the beach guys, the rocky North shore has still been producing plenty of large fish. A bit hit or miss on the South shore and Wasque, and the fish have yet to start their annual pilgrimage into the rips. Fish are still moving around and it would be nice if we could get into a more favorable weather pattern so that they settle down for a while. Saturday night is the annual M.V. Rod and Gun Club's Fly Catch and Release Bass Tournament. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for the 200 or so wavers of the long rod participating. The annual Pink Squid Yacht Club tournament is also on Saturday... a boat only tournament, with members of the Osterville and Nantucket Yacht Clubs vying to take the Pink Squid burgee away from the host club. Always a fun day on the water. I will try to have results of both tournaments for next week's Fishwire." Bill Holland from Chatham emailed to say he did very well last weekend out at Tom's Shoal. Uncle4 posted: "I fished the beaches Friday through Monday nights. With a HOWLING NW/NE wind, it was tough over most of the weekend. I took a couple of 20" fish and a couple of 3-5# bluefish from state beach. I fished a 4" clouser and stripped it pretty quick (seems the little bass like something to chase). I fished Wasque Sat. night and got a 4# bluefish. The gentleman next to me casting a popper (mebbe a needle-fish) beached (then released) a 33" striper. Monday on the boat found good action off Wasque with many bass (and many big ones), but throwing 1100 grain line gets tiring after a while. On the way home there were many, MANY pods of 2-4# bluefish between the gut and Edgartown light.. mostly rolling on the surface (couldn't tell what bait they were on). Sentience posted: The wind on Saturday and Sunday was frustrating. By Sunday afternoon it made things pretty much unfishable. Fortunately Monday was great even if the fish didn't really cooperate for the shore guys. On Saturday I caught lots of schoolies with a few keeper sized fish on the fly in Katama in the morning. I was using olive over gray clousers which always work well. I switched to a slightly bigger fly (a olive/white deceiver with a full shank epoxy/braid body) and caught a few bigger fish. Later that day I fished Wasque. Fly fishing wasn't really an option due to the wind and mung. A school of those 3 lb. blues was cruising around. It wasn't a huge school or anything but I landed a bunch of them. It was fun. A couple ended up broiled with mayo, onions, lemon and parmesian on them. The rest of the weekend was slow. Some more schoolies and rat blues but not the bigger dogs I was looking for. It was fun watching the squid chase my fly at the gut on Monday. There are plenty of large (12") squid around. The blues were puking them up." |
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Captain Lynne Heyer of Cross Rip Outfitters writes in her weekly email, "Fish! Fish! Fish! everywhere and me sitting here writing this report. Somebody’s got to do it. Capt. Shawn happened on a huge school of migrating fish on Monday. Caught a few too. Chris Brown was out with Capt. Shawn and caught a beauty approx., 23lbs.long and skinny. Capt. Jeff has also been a busy Captain. He has found fish all over the place. He has been fishing the Town Harbor and Polpis, along with Madaket Harbor and the outer Islands. Beach guide Burt has also been hitting the sand, he has been fishing the Harbor and Polpis and doing very well. I haven’t heard an updated South Shore report for a week but I am sure there are some big boys being taken on the south shore. I did hear the seals were pretty thick at Great Point this morning. The Bluefish have been here for about a week or so. They were hitting at Dionis over the weekend. I know some people don’t get excited about the Blues but you have to admit they fight really hard and are a lot of fun. I will try to update more frequently now but I have been a busy shop keeper trying to stock the shelves with new equipment and such." |
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RLD944 posts: "I was on the east side of Billingsgate and saw more bait in the water than I've ever seen. At first I thought it was bands of seaweed but it was bands and bands of bait. It even fooled the fishfinder into thinking it was bottom and the depth alarm kept going off. It looked like hordes of sand eels and I was tossing sluggos to match the hatch. There was so much bait it was tough to get the fish (mostly schoolies) to take the offering. There was too much bait to follow so I followed the birds to figure out where the fish were. What a great day! " Surfmaster posts from Sandwich: "Fished the incoming at sandwich beach last evening, ended up with 10 micros and 2 legals about 33", hooked in to a nicer fish had it on for about 2 minutes and it ended up spitting the hook," Keep those reports coming, |