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Cape Cod &the Islands
July 23rd, 2004 |
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| FishWire Coordinator: | Dave Churbuck |
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Lance Armstrong - Apex Predator
Is there more to life than fishing? Call me a heretic and burn me at the stake, but I’ve had better things to do lately than go fishing. Sure, one, two trips per week, a bluefish here and there, a couple fluke for the table, but I’m not exactly wetting the bed looking for bonito or Spanish mackerel yet. Summer doldrums. House guests. Who knows. Sunday I go offshore for tuna (without a fly rod), so wish me luck.
The guy is a true hero, a machine. Anyone who watched him pedal up the Alpe de Huez yesterday, through a spitting phalanx of not-so-friendly "fans", can’t help but realize they were seeing something very rare and special going on, a demonstration of sheer will I’d put on a shelf with history’s great heroes. If watching this guy grind down the competition isn’t enough to inspire you to kick the ciggies and climb aboard the old Schwinn for a few laps around the neighborhood, then do him and the world a favor and spend a few bucks for a yellow Lance Armstrong Foundation Live Strong wristband to help defeat cancer and donate some cash to a PanMass bike challenge rider like Reel-Time’s IronMike.
"But honey, I won it on Ebay," has to be the lamest excuse of the spendthrift husband of our day and age. Okay, back onto the topic at hand. That would be Fishing. What’s with the current shark obsession going on in the forums? As someone pointed out, it must be Shark Week on the Discovery Channel. Some poor farmer sees a basking shark fin slicing through the chop off the northside’s beaches and it’s time to call in Steven Spielberg. I admit I’m a sicko and have done Google searches on "shark attack photos" (also airplane crashes). There’s something horribly irresistible about a shark attack. It’s got to be the same section of the brain that gawks at car accidents on the Southeast Expressway. Whatever the disgusting impulse, there’s a major portion of the demographic that just craves a good shark story. Take a ten-year old sharking at the Star for blue sharks and you’ll furnish him with enough fodder for playground tales of glory to last him through high school.
To which the smartaleck would say: sure, and it’s easier to get to Provincetown in a F-150 than on a crotch-tenderizing ten-speed, but what does that have to do with fishing? So, have a great weekend, may your life take you far, far away from Boston for the next week (wish me luck, I’m bound for Cambridge and Back Bay this morning). Till then, tight lines and go Lance! Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...
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My present obsession is the Tour de France. The combination of Outdoor Life Network’s coverage of the race and Tivo -- God’s gift to ad zapping -- has me glued to the television every evening for three solid hours of skinny guys named Georg, Ivan, Lance, and Jan whizzing through some of the prettiest countryside in the world. I’ve never been an organized sports fan. Patriots, Celtics, Red Sox, Bruins ... they get my attention, but I’ve never been a face-painter. I don’t watch sports on television, but this past month has been an utter obsession with Lance Armstrong’s quest to be the first man to win six Tours.
I used to ride a lot after college, tortured myself on a couple races around Eastern Massachusetts, and have recently been restoring an Ebay-won Italian racing bike to crank around the Cape on. If you think we poor fly fishermen are condemned to a life of penury due to $500 rods and $500 reels, try bicycling. At least I can hide a fly reel from the wife. A 64 cm Colnago Master Olympic Art Decor makes quite the impression when the post man drops it off. 
To further keep this rambling string of sentences on topic and bring it all into the focus of saltwater fly fishing (didn’t you like how I tied bicycles into fly fishing?): you gotta wonder about those purists who claim that a shark on the fly is good sport. Guys. Get a grip. There’s a time for the scalpel and there’s a time for the chainsaw. Yeah, I’ve thrown a fly or two at some nosey lemon shark on the flats in the Keys and the Bahamas, but give me a chum slick and a Penn 9000 the size of a golden keg of beer any day.Cape Cod Regions
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Captain Joe LeClair filed early this week, as he writes: "Long days and short nights make Joey a tired boy ... |
"A great week of fishing here around the NEW MOON. With the big tides and low water we managed to target some really great Striped Bass on the fly rod dispite the fact that the water is warming and the fish are moving deep. With days where there was overcast skies and wind it was not a problem, but on days when the sun was shining down on us we were forced to look for Bluefin offshore. This does not seem like a big problem to have but the last storm system moved though with a ton of animosity and turned the waters 3-4 degrees colder offshore. This was not good in the short term for the Bluefin fishing, especially when were are trying to catch fish with fly and light tackle that are feeding on top. Alas the weather changed (again) and water temps. shot back up. We were able to find 70-71 degree surface temps all over the place in the last couple days and the tuna are back in the saddle again. Most of the fish are between 20-80 lbs. Atlantic Soree' are being! balled up on the surface and spraying out of the way as the Tuna move in to feed. It is a really great thing because they are 6-8 inches in length and the Bluefin are not too fusy when they are eating bait that large. It has been a great thing to find our way out to open water in the World Cat 33' on days when most boats can not venture offshore. I have found that when there is bad weather offshore and fewer boats the Tuna fishing is much like all other fishing... "Great !"
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No reports yet for the region. I'll post them as soon as they come in. |
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TonyO reports: "Anglin4bass and I fished early am for 7-8 fish to high teens. Lost a good one on a shelf. Heard some large bait around slack" BB1 replied: "I was there last fri...got a nice fat 'hump back' 34"er w/ a real small head filled w/ lobster + crabs on big rubba'. Then lost 2 fish that hit hard, I set the hook, they started to take drag (I set my drags heavy) + then they were gone...and that never happens to me. BobG writes: "I arrived to find things pretty much like the past couple of mornings. D-e-a-d. |
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Smaller, tailor bluefish are beginning to return to selected spots along the southside of the Cape. Some surface action occurring wherever bait masses together, and the rips are the most dependable action in the region, with Succonnesset, Horseshoe, L'Hommedieu and Hedge Fence being the standbys. Start looking for bonito and spanish macks to show themselves soon. This spell of warm, southwest weather should start pushing things along nicely. Fluke are delivering a nice season for the bottom fishers and hitting the occasional Clouser fished deeped over the humps and in the holes. |
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Captain Leslie Smith reports: " |
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Captain Lynne Heyer at Crossrip Outfitters reports: "Great Point is now open to vehicles. Some small blues at the point yesterday and bigger ones along the Gauls. Coatue still has a bit closed by the Gauls but the point itself is open." jpkil318 reports: "Great Point Rip is loaded with Blues and some Bass underneath them. Sinking lines may help you out there. The only problem is that the Blues are so aggressive that you may not get through them to the Bass. The etiquette for up ther is a little messed up the safest way to fish that end of the Island is to drift across the rip. The trolloing guys can give you a hard time if you anchor. The Bonito Bar is on the west end and anchoring is the best method. You want to fish the bar on the incoming tide just outside the bar and cast back onto the bar. The Bones have been scarce since last weeks weather dropped the water temp 4 degrees. It should pick hgback up as soon as we get some better weather." twick reports from a kayak: "I fished Saturday at Eel Point with my kayak. I anchored up on the flat off of the point and saw some nice bass but the wind and waves made it hard to see the fish until they were almost too close. I picked up a schoolie on a crab fly but that was it. I went back Sunday and due to lack of sun, the conditions were tougher. I will be fishing with Capt. Shawn of Crossrip next Saturday, so I am praying that the water warms up and my casts are accurate so we can have sushi!" |
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The Outer Beaches, Chatham & Monomoy
Randy Jones reports:
As the tides increase in speed, so shall the fishing for most, but not all. Tides getting better and better. Things are looking good for a late June and early August. Maybe time to call in sick to work or take a few vacation days. Thanks for stopping in, Randy (For additional information, articles, pictures and almost daily fishing reports for the S.E. Cape Cod area please visit Randy's web site at http://www.yankeeangler.com ) |
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Surfmaster reports: "Was at the ramp at 3 am tuesday, at my first spot by 4am lines in by 4:10 trolled around for a little while picked up a couple of blues and a small bass we were the only boat out there until 5;00 am and then out of nowhere about 20 boats showed up, time to move. headed to my next spot that i thought would be holding a good amount of bait,got there and i was right. There were millions of sand eels swimming around and if you stood on the bow with the polorized glasses on you could see the hundreds of bass underneath them. First fish 25 pounds and this went on for about 3 hours until slack then the bite died, we moved out to a little deeper water during slack and started picking up bluefish after bluefish on light tackle just something to do to pass some time. As soon as i could see the water starting to move again we went back in to the area and this is when action happened, tons of bait and tons of fish, the next 4 hours was nonstop action bass after bass after bass, could not get the lines in fast enough we were doubled and tripled up for hours with quality fish. Bass ranged from 12# to the biggest being 44 pounds, many bass being well over 30 pounds needless to say the best day otw so far this year." |