Cape Cod &

the Islands

June 3rd, 2002

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Tight Lines!

Dave Churbuck

Buzzards Bay

Right now, when it comes to number and concentrations of bass and blues, it doesn't get any better than this. Worm hatches in West Falmouth on Tuesday and Wednesday; acres of birds, blues, and bass around the Mashnee Flats and inside Pocasset and Red Brook Harbor; bigger fish in the deep holes and even flats along Mashnee and Hog Islands; and up inside very river and harbor from Marion to Wareham to Quissett, we're talking about non-stop action. Old Silver Beach has provided some easy fishing and with a herring run right there, this spot has produced some nice sized bass in the past for anglers willing to fish at night. Many of the fish are on the small side and they seem to be gorging on small sand eels, but some of the larger fish are still on herring, as Captain Bob Paccia of Shoreline Guide Service reports this week:

Large stripers and bluefish continue to chase the schools of herring dropping back from the major herring runs. We are finding pods of post-spawning herring hugging the protective edges of the Cape Cod Canal as they start their return trip to the open ocean. Small pods of herring will in turn join other pods to form massive schools. Weak and injured stragglers that leave the protection of these schools will become easy prey for the predators that patrol close by.

As long as a sufficient number of herring remain in or waters, they will represent the number one food for the larger stripers and bluefish. Large herring and bunker flies cast to the edges of the herring schools will continue to be the most effective method of getting into some really large fish. Most of our keeper-to-trophy-sized fish this season have been taken in this manner. Large flies range from 8" to 15"; tied on heavy wide-gapped hooks in sizes 3/0 to 8/0 have been the ticket to success. We fish them on heavy sinking lines with short 4'-6' leaders. When tying really large flies it is important to avoid using much if any natural materials such as bucktail or hackles as they tend to get waterlogged and are difficult to cast. The new synthetic materials come in longer lengths and sheds water as you cast. Good casters, using properly matched equipment can cast these flies 50 to 80 feet.

As the herring leave our waters other baits such sand eels, silversides and squid will be the preferred "hatches" to imitate.

Our hearts go out to the families and friends of our brother fishermen who lost their lives this past week when their boat went down in Buzzards Bay.

Falmouth & the Elizabeths

Middle Ground, Middle Ground, Middle Ground! Everybody is in love with MG, with bass and blues pushing squid all over the place, although many anglers who have caught and cleaned bass are talking about guts filled with six-inch scup. Most of the bass are in the 30 to 36 inch class, but there are bigger ones hanging out around West Chop and down towards the brickyard. But be advised that you will have company.

Woods Hole continues to see fish on top and plenty of birds to mark them for you. I always find it interesting to watch anglers use intermediate lines in the heavy currents; this is definitely fast sink line territory, unless you want to work a popper and then you had better pick a spot where the current has slowed a bit. Figure out exactly which way the current is running and make sure you get your cast up against that direction and quickly get control since sometimes your fly will get whacked and you won't know it if you haven't picked up the slack quickly enough.

The beach fishing has slowed from Waquoit to Nobska, especially with the mouths of the herring runs having fewer and fewer fish. What you will find around spots like Fay Beach and other clear sand spots is bass looking for alternative food sources like sand eels, crabs, and silversides. Tossing a large popping bug into the rocks around Nobska can often produce some interesting results.

Bourne's Pond and Menauhant, and any of the southside ponds for that matter, are harboring mostly small fish with the occasional legal fish as well. I just sat in my truck the other day and marveled at all the activity in the pond as terns worked the bait that was being pushed to the surface at dusk by hungry bass, a scene that I'm sure was repeated in other spots to the east and west.

The heavy humid air and sunshine have surely produced worm hatches in many locations and I even heard from one captain who runs a 40 footer out of Falmouth Harbor that there were bass slurping up worms all around his boat recently.

If you want less company but plenty of fish, consider some of the rips and shoals before you get to MG since they are held some whopper blues and bass as well.

The Cape Cod Canal

My good friend Jim Lowe fished the mud flats on Tuesday in a rainstorm as yours truly proved to be a fair-weather fisherman and remained in bed. For his efforts, Jim was rewarded with a blitz of bass, although he did admit they were all on the small side.

There has also been a decent charge of fish in the 30 pound class from the herring run to the Bourne Bridge, although these have been most available to folks who still have herring available, whether fresh dead or alive.

Mackerel are also still following the end of the west current into the Big Ditch at the east end and then heading out when things turn east, often bringing in some big stripers around Pip's Rip and the mussel beds that can be waded around low water with decent room for a backcast.

The South Side

Middle Ground, Middle Ground, Middle Ground! Everybody is in love with MG, with bass and blues pushing squid all over the place, although many anglers who have caught and cleaned bass are talking about guts filled with six-inch scup. Most of the bass are in the 30 to 36 inch class, but there are bigger ones hanging out around West Chop and down towards the brickyard. But be advised that you will have company.

Woods Hole continues to see fish on top and plenty of birds to mark them for you. I always find it interesting to watch anglers use intermediate lines in the heavy currents; this is definitely fast sink line territory, unless you want to work a popper and then you had better pick a spot where the current has slowed a bit. Figure out exactly which way the current is running and make sure you get your cast up against that direction and quickly get control since sometimes your fly will get whacked and you won't know it if you haven't picked up the slack quickly enough.

The beach fishing has slowed from Waquoit to Nobska, especially with the mouths of the herring runs having fewer and fewer fish. What you will find around spots like Fay Beach and other clear sand spots is bass looking for alternative food sources like sand eels, crabs, and silversides. Tossing a large popping bug into the rocks around Nobska can often produce some interesting results.

Bourne's Pond and Menauhant, and any of the southside ponds for that matter, are harboring mostly small fish with the occasional legal fish as well. I just sat in my truck the other day and marveled at all the activity in the pond as terns worked the bait that was being pushed to the surface at dusk by hungry bass, a scene that I'm sure was repeated in other spots to the east and west.

The heavy humid air and sunshine have surely produced worm hatches in many locations and I even heard from one captain who runs a 40 footer out of Falmouth Harbor that there were bass slurping up worms all around his boat recently.

If you want less company but plenty of fish, consider some of the rips and shoals before you get to MG since they are held some whopper blues and bass as well.

Martha's Vineyard

Captain Leslie Smith of Backlash Charters is back on track and had some really good news about the explosion of fish around the island:

All it took was a few degrees of temperature change and light winds to break things wide open around the Vineyard this past week. Near as I can tell, there are bass and blues just about anywhere you'd like to fish, with some excellent surface action to please the flyrodders and light tackle enthusiasts. Middle Ground rip continues to be a hot spot for stripers, taking poppers cast along the edge of the white water. Word has it that there have been consistent large fish being taken around the brickyard on the North Shore of the island. I've been fishing off Tom Shoal and have been rewarded with acres of bass mixed with blues slurping juvenile sand eels on the surface. Finding them in the fog has been interesting, using the cries of birds as a direction finder. The rips around Wasque are still quiet but that should change any day now. Small blues are finally appearing around the Edgartown area, from the Eel Pond flats to the windmill on Chappy. Shore fishermen have been doing well, with bait chuckers getting fish along the south shore at dawn and dusk and at the bridges on State Beach.

Kenny Schwam said there are tons of bass around the island, with lots of small blues around South Beach, Oak Bluffs, Wasque, and Cape Poge. He reported that a local guide, whom Curt Jessup of The Sporting Life in Mashpee identified as Captain Jaime Boyle, put his client on a 40" bass on the long wand; no specific spot or pattern was given, but I suspect it was from the northside and Kenny suggested a squid pattern.

Lobsterville is just starting to hum, with bass everywhere along the beach. Kenny fished there the other night and pointed out that the stripers were in a foot of water and being very fussy about what they would eat. Two-inch sand eel patterns, like those tied by Bonito Eddie LePore and other island experts, have worked well and Kenny said whatever you use make sure it matches the bait in length and profile first before you worry about color. He added that don't wade into the water, but stay away from the shoreline when they're in so tight and go with long, fine leaders, as long as 10-12 feet tapering down to at most a 12 pound tippet. Kenny also added a story to illustrate how important length and profile can be; he was fishing Middle Ground with a friend and while his five inch squid imitation was being nosed at by fish, the three-and-a-half inch version that Kenny was using was taken with abandon. When his friend changed to the smaller size, he started to hook up.

Nantucket

The word from The Rock according to Bill Pew at Bill Fisher Tackle is that there are bass galore, with good numbers of decent sized ones to the mid-40 inch/35 pound range. Shore anglers are doing best around Madaket beach, the east shore up to Great Point, and down around the airport. The fishing is becoming more of a nocturnal fishery right now for bass, as Bill and a friend who ties Clousers found out last weekend. They managed a number of schoolies at Great Point, but his friend also caught and released a nice specimen that Bill estimated at 15-18 pounds. Of course, they were using Clousers, with yellow, red/white, and chartreuse all working well. There has also been a charge of big blues around, with 10 to 12 pounders all along the southside from the airport to the old Navy base from shore. By boat, the action has been steady from Miacomet to Tom Never's; in fact, Captain Tom Mleczko called to tell Bill that they were running into acres of blues just finning on the surface, similar to the way they do in the summer. For variety, Bill also caught a just under four pound pickerel in one of the local ponds while fishing in his float tube, with the fly of choice a red/yellow Seaducer.

Lynne Heyer at Cross Rip Outfitters was equally excited about the great fishing on the Grey Lady. Wednesday night, there were bluefish just finning the surface around Tom Never's and they have been very consistent along the entire south shore. The bass fishing has been very good in Madaket Harbor, with a 41 inch fish caught the other night while stripers were sipping green crabs on a very still night. Great Point has been up-and-down, although a guide from the shop who was fishing there managed 11 fish in 11 casts, so when it's on, it's on! Inside Smith's Point has been good, as has been the Bathtub and Eel Point. Flyrodders are using a lot of Clousers in the three to four inch range on fast sink lines to fish the deep holes in Madaket, and bigger streamers are producing as well. Nantucket Harbor also has plenty of bass and blues as well, with the choppers ranging from four pounders up to mean, honest-to-goodness 12 pounders.

The Outer Beaches, Chatham & Monomoy

Paul Newmier in Eastham acknowledged that the fishing on the outer beaches has slowed a bit, especially for larger bass. He really couldn't pinpoint any spot, but said folks are moving around to find fish. Pleasant Bay has a lot of smaller fish and the walk below the weather station in Chatham has also been worthwhile.

The Bathtub has some really large bluefish holding thereabouts said Jared at Fishing The Cape, while the flats around Monomoy haven't been great; you have to be persistent and put your time in. At this time of year, you have migratory schools of fish moving through to find a meal and then go on. Eventually, the resident fish will settle in and then things get really interesting.

Earl up in Provincetown said things up his way are definitely quieter as of midweek, with mostly schoolies around from the Race to Mission Bell where last week that stretch held some really big bass, another sign that we are still in the eat-and-move on stage. H erring Cove also has plenty of schoolies, but perhaps the most interesting catches recently were the nice codfish that were being caught from Herring Cove to Race Point by shore anglers. Wonder if they'd take a fly on a fast sink line?

The North Side

Paul Newmier said that Sunken Meadow produced a 34 pounder that he weighed in on Monday and bass and blues are taking plugs, but he also said there are still some herring around so you should think about patterns which imitate them.

Boat are doing better around Wellfleet to Truro, with bass just around 30 inches in good numbers from the number three to number five buoys inside Wellfleet Harbor, with some bluefish mixed in as well. Barnstable Harbor has mostly smaller fish inside, but the flats are also showing more activity around Dennis.

Boats are also finding good action from Sandwich back to the east end of the Canal, and the word is out that the Sandy Neck crowd is finding bass stacking up inside their favorite bars. This area is a great place to drift along and toss sand eel patterns, with sight fishing a definite possibility.