June 2, 2006

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June 02, 2006

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Herring and stripers

For the year that I lived on the Cape, I became a student of the herring. It seemed such a noble endeavor for such a small fish to penetrate the urban landscape in the tiny creeks and runs, that I began to study maps and, when I visited the locations, I rejoiced in the discovery of current and old runs. Roads and lakes with fishy names, interconnected ponds all became clues. Of course the rest of the readers have probably known these haunts for decades, but to me they were new.

So it's been with dismay that I've watched the population of the herring crash of late, and I was actually very pleased when the moratorium on taking herring was enacted in several states.

Well as you will read below, it seems the bass still crave herring too. Bob Paccia still catches his biggest fish using herring flies. Guides in Nantucket still are witnessing herring flopping about on the surface. Openings of the ponds on the Vineyard still produce fabulous fishing.

Here's to hoping we have intervened soon enough for a noble little critter!

NEWS

In response to recent drastic declines of many river herring spawning runs, the harvest , possession or sale of river herring in the Commonwealth or in waters under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth by any person is prohibited through 2008. See some details here.

Buzzards Bay

Capt. Bob Paccia of Shore-line Guide Service reports:

The alewives and blueback herring migration to and from their freshwater spawning grounds will soon be drawing to an end. So will one of a saltwater fly fishermen's best opportunities to catch (and release, we hope) some really braggin' sized stripers. So, if you're interested, and up to the challenge of handling some big fish on the long wand, now's the time to get moving. Soon, the combination of the lack of large inshore baitfish and warming water temperatures will force most of the larger stripers to move off into deeper waters. Schoolie action will continue to be good, both day and night, as there will be plenty of small baitfish available. However, the big fish action will switch over to a primarily late day, after dark and early morning venue.

Although we've been having some great fly fishing throughout Buzzard's Bay this past week, the chatter at the ramps would lead you to believe that there is not much doing out there for fly rodders other than the schoolie action. When we told them how we did, they just look at us in disbelief. They asked if we were using Clousers or deceivers, then one of them saw the fly on my rod and said, "(expletive deleted), you cast that thing? It looks like a bantam rooster!" When I started to go through my "Big Fly, Big Fish Routine", they all started to walk away. When they saw some of my client's the pictures, they all came back and started asking questions which included a big fly casting and stripping demonstration.

A few things to keep in mind if you're buying or tying your own big flies:

Big flies in the 6 1/2" to 13" must be made of primarily synthetic materials that will shed water quickly. If a lot of natural materials were used the fly would become waterlogged and nearly impossible to cast.
The hooks that are used are very important. They need to be very stout like a bait fishing hook. The weight of the stout hook acts as a keel and helps the fly ride in an upright position. A light wired hook will allow the fly to lay on it's side or worse, spin during the retrieve.
The hooks used should have a wide gap. Hooks need to be razor sharp (at all times), but they don't need those barbs (pinch 'em down).
The fish above was caught on a big fly.

If you have any questions you can call or e-mail me.
Tight lines, but not too tight,
Good luck,
Capt. Bob
508-697-6253
www.Shore-line.com
CaptBob@Shore-line.com

The South Side

Curt Jessup of Capt. Curt Jessup reports:

For the fly rodders out there, action this past week has been fast and furious. Sand eels packed Cape Cod Bay and squid are jumping out of the rips on the south side. Patient long wanders can score big if they play the right tides and find the right spots. Pack big flies in your quiver and don't leave home without Skok's olive and white mushmouth and big squid flies . Popovic's Hollow Fly also works great in the rips. Use light flouro for the flats and heavy mono or flouro for the rips. Be sure to check knots and all connections. The "rip" fish pick up substantial weight when hooked due to the fast moving tide. The guy next to us broke off three fish in a row using light leader material so pack some heavy stuff. Get out and have some fun. Now is the best time to catch big bass surface feeding.

My Best,

Capt. Curt Jessup
www.capecodoutfitters.com
508-400-5627

Martha's Vineyard

Jeff Sayre of Fly Fishing the Vineyard reports:

The weather really warmed up here over the past week and water temps are rising steadily. It was actually nice enough to see some bikinis at some of the spots we were fishing. There has been quite a bit of fog early in the day which is the norm here in the spring. The bass fishing in the rips is usually quite good on foggy mornings but this past weekend there were so many boats out that we didn't see many bass on top chasing squid. I imagine the coming week will see many more bass on top looking to hammer a big squid fly or a popper.

The bluefish have been all over Chappy. Some are nicely sized up to 10 lbs and give an awesome fight in shallow water. Yesterday it was glass calm and blues could be seen finning in every direction. When it's like that they can be difficult to catch but once a little chop appears on the water they really turn on.

The beaches have been fishing well with some big fishing coming on bait as well as plugs and lures. The Great Pond Opening has been good and has given up some good sized fish. Up-Island has been good for fly fishing but most of the bass are still on the small side. People are looking for bigger fish to move in at Lobsterville soon. We've had a lot of SW wind so the conditions have been ideal up there.

Some cinder worms are starting to do their thing and guys have been picking up bass fishing that. Mostly small fish but Jay Cronin got one in there close to 36 inches.

Nantucket

Lynne Heyer of Cross Rip Outfitters reports:

The Blues have arrived and it seems they are invading our waters all around the Island. I am receiving reports of Blues along the east side of Great Point, along Coatue and the South Shore. I got a phone call yesterday afternoon from David Policansky confirming Blues and Bass at Great Point. I have also received reports of Bass pretty much all over. Jeff Stetina came in yesterday with a photo of a nice keeper that he caught in the Harbor, somewhere. Another customer came by to report Bass at Brant Point. I also got a report from Mark Madoff over the weekend that he was having pretty good luck on Stripers at Miacomet and the Hummock area. With the nice weather we are having the fishing sure has picked up. Get out and wet a line!!!!

The flats fishing should also start soon in Nantucket, but there is already sight fishing to be done, especially along the shore, and in both harbors there are some big fish too, which you might run into fishing along eel grass beds. You'll have to look a little harder, but there are plenty of ways to sight fish without being over a bright shallow bottom.

If you do try to find some early season sight fishing, think about which flats might warm up and/or attract fish a little faster: those in the harbors for instance, or those with dark bottoms, or more food. And speaking of food, the darker inside flats, or shallow eel grass that attract early season bass will likely not have the typical mix of sand eels and crabs that you would find on the broad sandy outside flats around Nantucket. Inside, you would be more likely to find grass shrimp, or even herring – incidentally herring were reportedly splashing around in Polpis Harbor shallows this week.

But grass shrimp imitations may not be what the angler should use. The Cross Rip Outfitters' guides have been having good results with patterns including: a blind crab, various mushies – both Dave Skok patterns – or Clousers.

As far as where to launch these patterns, Lynne at Cross Rip suggested Eel point, Madaket harbor, and inside of Smith Point (near Mr. Rogers' House, yes that Mr. Rogers).

Chatham, Monomoy and the Outer Beaches

BobG posted this report to the bbs late this week:

I thought I'd ignore the sporadic, but sometimes very productive mid canal plug action, and take out the 12wt for another outing. Hit my lonely west end location, on a beautiful outgoing tide with large herring patterns and mega mushies. The 15-18" schoolies were still hitting these huge flies just like they were a couple weeks ago. Some of those mega mushies were 12" long, and that still didn't keep these tiny fish from hitting them. But, I finally hook up on a real nice fish. Took me into the reel, sounded, and we slugged it out for the next 10 minutes. Finally landed a beautiful keeper, lip hooked and covered with lice. I released her, and she swam off with an indignant splash. Not the hog I was looking for on a fly, but it's a start.

Randy Jones - http://www.yankeeangler.com - Fishing Reports of Yankee Angler reports:

My guest learned how to cast a fly today after years of wanting to try it. After a couple of hours getting to the basic foundational point of proficiency. (Being able to throw it 50-60 feet) We tied a fly on and began to catch some fish. Plenty of fish around in good numbers. Blues are only a couple of miles away in numbers and closing fast! Lots of Squid around chasing our flies.

Matt at Chatham Bait & Tackle (508) 945-9779, who has been helping me personally with really useful fishing information now for several years, described some great fishing in the ponds and rivers around Chatham last week. He mentioned specifically the ponds accessible from the Nantucket Sound side of Chatham, namely Mill Pond, and the Oyster River as being most productive. He said there was quite a mixture of fish including stripers, shad, and even weakfish coming out of the warmer ponds.

The flats off of Monomoy and west of Stage harbor are holding fish now, but moreon the edges and in the channels than up on the crest of the flats, (although that was actually dry for most of the time I was there of late). The fish I saw were schooled up in packs of ten to twenty fish, and were moving in circles around medium depth flats near deeper channels. The past Winter has significantly changed some of the structure at the cut through of Monomoy, so be sure to leave some time for exploration if you are making your first trip.

On my excursion, we managed to release only one bass that ate a tan Clouser with abandon, but we had a good half dozen other chances where we should have converted, and I observed shore bound anglers banging schoolies with regularity as they dredged the deeper channels that cut through the flats adjacent to the area known as the "bath tub" off of Outermost Harbor.

Outside in the Atlantic ocean, I saw nothing in the way of migrating schools of stripers, but was not there long. Some terns were working broad areas, but the water was an unattractive brown color, and I'm wondering if that has any relationship to the dredging going on in the harbor.

North Side

Capt. Mike Mathews of Offshore Angler Charters reports:

We launched out of Sesuit Harbor in Dennis this morning at 0430 on a locating trip for the schools of different size fish that have been roaming the CCB over the past few weeks. We headed West to find acres of birds crashing on Bass 18-25" with a few larger ones fighting beneath taking up the scraps of the feed. We watched sand eels get through and rushed by fish of all sizes. We were on a mission to find larger fish this morning and had to be off the water by 12Noon. After deciding there were either no larger fish in this area or they were just too slow to react compared to the smaller ones, we decided to move east across the Bay. As we approached are target area, the NavNet Radar picked up birds smashing from 2 miles away.

These fish were a much better class in size & strength. Our first fish was about 29" and then we got into a few larger ones on swimming shad up to 35." The winds were suprisingly light until about 9am. The tide had gone slack and we cruised the flats looking for activity. We ran into some heavy schoolie action off Brewster and called it a day around 11am.

Lots of bait and birds in the Bay and many different schools of fish to hunt. We never found the huge guys out there today but had a blast on the fish we caught.

Jeff Smith of Finaddiction Charters reports:

Fished with Josh today. One word.....WOW!...We crushed them on topwater poppers and plastics. Easily 30 legal fish in the boat today and we were off the water by 11am...Lots of bait around. Hopefully this slug of fish will stick around awhile before the next wave comes through.

Cape Cod and the IslandsRegion