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Cape Cod &the Islands
September 30th, 2004 |
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| FishWire Coordinator: | Dave Churbuck |
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Ask a stupid ...
Questions and Answers The mail bag is over flowing. So I thought I’d empty it into your laps this week. Q. My husband’s birthday is coming up. He’s always wanted to swim with dolphins so he can commune with their higher intelligence. I wonder if you could recommend some inexpensive vacations that offer swimming with ocean creatures? A. Since half of all marriages end in divorce, you may want to hedge your bets and take the guy to Hadley’s Harbor. There he can swim with a Great White Shark. I don’t know how intelligent sharks are, but the swim would be free, and I hear the scientists are worried that it hasn’t had a good meal for a while. Q. What’s your stance on the proposed Wind Farm? A. I don’t understand the need to grow more wind, there’s seems to be plenty of it to go around and I certainly wouldn’t be a buyer. Q. How do you suggest catching a stripper on A. A twenty-dollar bill at Zachary’s Pub in Mashpee ought to do the trick. Q. How do you make a stripping basket? A. I’ve never seen a stripper strip in a basket. Though I would pay a twenty-dollar bill to see one do it. Q. Why are fly rods so expensive? I thought graphite was the stuff they made pencils out of. A. Pencils are made out of lead. Fly rods are made out of Unobtanium. Q. Why is the “ A. Because the “North End” is where you go to get pizza. Q. I’m going to kill myself! What is the best line to use? Floating or sinking? A. I don’t know if either one will support your weight. Double it up first, then give it a try. Q. I’m thinking of becoming a fly fishing guide. Any suggestions? A. I hear the food stamp program is pretty versatile in the Q. What’s the deal with the drunken guys at the local beach who keep short fish, bring mean dogs with them, and leave trash all over the place? Is there anything I can do? A: Join them. That’s the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute’s PhD Ichthyology Doctorate Program having its monthly evening outing. Q. Why don’t your reports ever talk about how and where to catch fish? A. Sorry. In the water. With hooks. Unless you are really fast, then you can use your hands. Q. …seriously … A. Sorry. In the water. With hooks. While discussing Kant’s Categorical Imperative. Q. I dread the winter. What do you do to keep busy when you’re not fishing? A. I drink. Q. I’m thinking of getting into fly tying. What do I need to get started in such a fun hobby? A. First you must lack a life, allergies to animal skins and bird feathers, fat fingers, and any aversion to working with volatile solvents which make you act like a head injury survivor. Q. I’m thinking of getting into offshore, blue-water, big game sport fishing. What do I need to get started in such a fun hobby? A. Any pastime that requires a life raft, survival suits, and an Emergency Position Indicating Repeating Beacon deserves a second thought. Q. When does the fishing season end? A. If you have to ask, it already has. Well gang, last weekend was very nice. The middle was a blow out and the end – as I write this on Thursday afternoon, seems just ducky. Everyone is grousing about how terrible the fishing has been in the month of September, but as of Friday it is October, a coin-toss of a month than can swing between totally, really awesome and deader than red tide. This is the last month of reports from yours truly. Halloween is when we’ll be packing it in for the ninth season of the Cape Cod Fishwire. Boo….Hoo.. Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...
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Cape Cod Regions
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Well gang, last weekend was very nice. The middle was a blow out and the end – as I write this on Thursday afternoon, seems just ducky. Everyone is grousing about how terrible the fishing has been in the month of September, but as of Friday it is October, a coin-toss of a month than can swing between totally, really awesome and deader than red tide. This is the last month of reports from yours truly. Halloween is when we’ll be packing it in for the ninth season of the Cape Cod Fishwire. Boo….Hoo.. Sorry, but the Fish of the Week is not the lost shark of Naushon, but the baby bonito that was lost and then caught in |
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Captain Bob Paccia reports: Fishing continues to improve in our Buzzards Bay waters as the fall migration gets into full swing. Cooler air and water temperatures coupled with reduced hours of daylight have set the stage for stripers, bluefish, false albacore and bonito to start their move to distant waters. This means that school after school of these hard sought after predators will be passing through the Cape Cod Canal and into our waters. How long they stay in any one location before continuing on their journey will be decided by several factors. The most important reason that these gamefish will stay in one area as apposed to another is the availability of food. If the baitfish are there then the predators will hang around and fuel up for the long trip. The secret to good fishing success at this time in the season is to locate the bait, do that and you can be pretty sure that the predators won’t be far behind. The second most important factor in governing the speed and direction of the fall migration is the impact of severe weather. Hurricanes and tropical storms can have a major influence on these fishes movements as well as the migration routes that they will use. In some past years severe coastal storms have actually caused a large portion of our migrating stripers to use an offshore route instead of using the Cape Cod Canal as their normal shortcut to southern waters. Some big stripers have moved into the Bay. In several cases we have been pleasantly surprised when fishing for schoolies and all of a sudden hook into a good fish in the 30”–36” class. Again, even when fishing for these predominantly schoolie sized bass, we use full sinking lines which get us down well below the smaller fish that feed at the surface. The bigger stripers feed below the schoolies picking up the scraps as well as the cripples that sink to the bottom. The deeper you fish, the better your chances for hooking into a trophy bass. Big and small bluefish are everywhere. My topwater clients are having a ball casting poppers, sliders and gurglers at the feisty critters, which have responded with spectacular aerial displays. Don’t pass up on the opportunity to do battle with these “never-quit” fish. You’ll still be remembering their fight throughout the bitter winter months to follow. On one charter this week with Mychel Gordon, a seasonded westcoast angler from San Diago, CA, who was spending a long week on Mashnee Island, we had a terrific day with no wind, I mean, no wind from daybreak ‘till 1:00 pm. I was so impressed with the calmness of the day that I took a picture of the flag that flies on top of the Canal Railroad Bridge at 1:00 PM. It hung limp with absolutely no movement. The bay was like glass, the water was crystal clear and you could spot a fish breaking from a mile away. We caught numerous bass in the 24” to 30” range, we hatched false albacore pass under the boat chasing baby bunker and juvenile alewives. We saw these same albies follow and refuse our flies as if we were watching them on high definition digital TV. It was amazing and at the same time very frustrating. Later in the day we visited the shallow flats inside the smaller bays to find bluefish to ten pounds just busting the bait all over the bay. If you ever want to test the strength and voracity of these gamesters, just hook into a ten-pound bluefish in less than three feet of water and hold on. The only place for them to go is straight out at breakneck speed or up and out of the water as they try to shake out your fly’s hook. Remember too, we always go barbless, which means that you must have complete line control with no slack line as they change direction and come right at you at full speed. This is not a sport for the weak at heart. Mychel’s day was topped off with a 44” linesider tipping the scales at just over 35 pounds. Not a bad day even for an out-of-towner who pronounces all of his R’s. Congratulations to Mychel, who managed to get this fish of a lifetime and more importantly released it with a sense of great care and respect.. .Reel-Timer Tom Pear -- in response to my query about the last fatal shark attack in Massachusetts, writes: "My family has been vacationing at Peases Point(just south of Hollywood beach) since the 30's and we all knew of this attack and the story has been handed down over the years. It was thought that the shark followed the New Bedford fishing fleet in. It was also thought that the water was very warm that summer. |
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Shark has left the building.. I'm getting phone calls from fishing buddies on the west coast urging me to pull a Quint and go harpoon the Great White. They imagine, from the television news, that it's sitting in a kiddy pool just begging to be caught. http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dmf/marinefisheriesnotices/white_shark.htm is the address of the State's official shark page. Bottom line. Go away. Stay away. They won't let you pet whitey, and give up all hope of being the hero who casts a chicken at it. Captain Joe LeClair writes: "Fly fishing for what else ? BLUEFIN TUNA. I have been lucky enough to get anglers who are interested in chasing the tuna with the fly rod and have started to see some great action on the surface for the school bluefin. In just the past couple days I have started to see what I have been waiting (fall blitzing action). The tuna have been surfing and picking away at small baits for the last 6 weeks and they have been very hard to get up on and get hooked up with on the fly rod. These last couple days we have seen larger schools of tuna crashing baits and "feeding like wild dogs". This is the time of year I really like. Almost anyone who gets a fly to these fish gets a hookup. In addition the fish right now seem to be running 20-80 lbs. in the areas that I am fishing so they are the perfect size for the fly rods. We have seen some larger fish moving through and even some that are too big, maybe next week we will land ! some larger fish. |
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Touching Cloth reports: "Fished from 4 AM-8 AM at various east end sports this morning with moderate success on smallish bass. There was what looked/sounded like single-fish surface action from time to time, but I caught all of my bass down deep on teasers in front of 9" wildeye shad. Managed one blue near the power plant after day break, although there was considerable surface bluefish action out of my casting range, on the mainland side. noticed lots of bait off of Horizons, and even more on my breakfast Bell Rd Recon mission. Should break open, weather permitting. . a very foggy/surreal night to be out on a jetty." |
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I did not fish this week, but will try this weekend. Something has to salvage this season out on Nantucket Sound! BigT writes: "Skunk. That Is All I Got After 4 Hours This Am, Didn't Even See A Break, Very Slow And Nobody Got Anything That I Could See. Craigville To Horseshoe, Pommpy, A Big Zero. Did Much Better Last Night With 3 Keepers From 7-9pm From The Beach. 1 Good Day, One Bad. Tommorrow Its The Bay With The Wind Shifting Sw.anybody Else Have Better Luck?" BobP replied, " |
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Captain Leslie Smith reports from the Derby: "Albie fishing continues to be spectacular. The big winds from Jeanne didn't seem to bother them at all. There have been tons of six to eight pounders, with just a few approaching the ten pound range. Bonito are scarce, blues are mostly on the small size, but bass fishing is improving with quite a few forty pounders coming into the Derby weigh station. There's still plenty of room for bigger fish in all categories of the tournament. Antboy writes: "The fishing from the hard side of the gut on Chappaquiddick was pretty consistent all week last week, and with a lot of luck I even managed to land 10 albies by early afternoon one day. On the previous day, from first light to the change of the tide, the action had slowed, so everyone cleard out except me, on shore with my fly rod, and two guys in a Whaler achored up about 40 feet off of the lone dock on the pond side of the stair case. |
I'm sure I'll be bumped soon but that's okay. The karma worked.
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Captain Lynne Heyer at Crossrip Outfitters is back and points out the obvious -- false albacore are not good eating: "Albie fever has taken hold of my soul. I have to apologize for my lack of reporting. See I actually have been out fishing quite a bit. Imagine that. Yup, things have quieted down a little and I have employees to help out so I have gotten out on the water. The Albie fishing has been awesome this Fall. They are spread from Madaket to Great Point and everyone has been having a great time catching them. Unfortunately, though some folks seem to think they are good to eat. Please pass the word to your fellow fisherman that they are a lot of fun to catch but the Albie is NOT fun to eat. I know that most of my fisher friends probably know this but I also know that educating the folks who may be beginners or don’t know will help our Albie fishery stay what it is today. |
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. I have seen FA's up that far, it is rare and does not last long, they usually stay down at the point. Have not been down to the end of Monomoy all year. No need to go plenty of fish outside the break, and trying to save gas money for the Tuna trips 
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BigT posted, capitalizing the first letter of every word in his report, "Very Quiet Again In The Haba, Sandy Neck And Chapin Also Slow. There Are More Fish Inside The Haba Now And Lots Of Action With Schoolies. Yes There Are Some Bigger Fish Here But You Will Have To Hunt For Them As They Are Very Spooky And Picky For This Time Of Year. Got 15 On The Rod, 1nice Keeper 32" That Gave Me A Great Fighton The T&t 10wt. Got It On The Now Famous Rattle Fly. Very Slow Strip To Get That Fish As I Saw Her And Cast 4 Times Before Hooking Up.the Rest Were Mostly Scoohlies And 1 About Legal Size. Left Around 12noon As The Fog Got Peasoupish On Me.not A Bad Day But Certainly Slow For Big Fish." |