Cape Cod and the Islands
Region

June 26, 2008

Buzzards Bay

Kernel Reports from Marion...

Fished with my father-in-law this past Saturday. We launched at the Wewiantic boat ramp around 6:30am and went straight for Bird Island off of Marion. We trolled a bit with an orange tube/squid and an imitation eel. The tube managed 2 blue fish about 5 pounds each.

Nothing on the eel. Probably because the tube was on lead line which brought it down some. Although we were only in about 25 feet of water.

We anchored for a little while and tried for fluke. We managed one short at 15 inches, a couple black seabass and SCUPZILLA  .

No dogfish. Just great to be out on a perfect, calm , mild day.

Falmouth & the Elizabeths

Didn't get any reports in, but let's just say this: if they're catching bass and blues all around the Vineyard, you can bet the fish are also to be had at Lackey's, Cuttyhunk, Quicks, and Falmouth.  Figure on seeing sandeels, silversides and alewives for forage species, along with some squid.

The Cape Cod Canal

Bill Downing reported this morning:

Tried the early east tide again last night. Many hits but only managed a few schoolies. I think a lot of the missed hits were very small bass or blues.

The South Side

No real reports, but the word I have is the rips are producing.  More than that would be a guess on my part.

Martha's Vineyard

Fishing the Vineyard reports:

This season has been marked by open water bass blitzes on a variety of local forage, including sandeels and squid. Hot flies during this type of feeding activity have been wig hair Clousers and Jiggys, Silhouette Sandeels, sparse Flat-wings and of course the trusty Red Can Squid and Humboldt Squid. Open water blitzes of this nature are most often marked by birds, especially gulls and shearwaters, and fishing guides. Fish size in these open water scenarios has ranged widely; the majority of the fish seem to be between the 24 and 36 inch range, but there are many larger specimens present with quite a few over the 30 pound mark and a couple over 40 pounds being landed on the fly by the Fishing the Vineyard team this spring.

(check out the rest of the report)

Larry's Tackle is reporting that the back trail to Wasque has reopened. They're seeing more bass than blues, with the linesiders going to 20lb. They're expecting things to heat up shortly. Sandeels, Silversides and Alewives are the predominent baits.

Nantucket

CrossRip Outfitters reports:

For the last week or so the flats have picked up greatly. Jeff and his customers have been landing big fish and good numbers of fish. I have been doing okay but can’t seem to get the fish to bite the fly. I have done okay but should be doing better. I think I have got some bad MOJO at the moment. Hopefully that will change. I did have a descent trip on Saturday with Mike Galvin we landed 2 Stripers on the flats. His brother Chris had two good days also, with Capt Pete Sheppard. Chris landed 6 on Friday and 3 on Saturday. Jeff’s customer Rich Furman landed too many for me to brag about  the two days he fished with Jeff. Congrats to Rich and Jeff. Capt. Shawn is also chasing Stripers in the Rips and is also finding the fishing improving. The beach report is also a good one. Even though Great Point is closed the fishing along the eastern shore is very good. Big Bass have been taken at night along Quidnet and Sankaty. Dave Stetson also said the South Shore behind the airport is still holding Stripers and Blues. Polpis Harbor and the shoreline of the upper harbor have also been producing Stripers. They are finally here, get out and enjoy!!!

Capt. Shawn Bristow posts on his site:

Finally the fishing here on Nantucket is getting better. We started to season off very slow, with water temps 5-7 degrees below average. This past weekend the bluefish mabe there arrival with fish being caught all around the island. The blues were averaging 4 pounds with the odd 10#’er thrown in. The striped bass fishing has gotten much better. Most of our fishing for them has been in close to the island where the water is the warmest. A mix of slugos and swimmers has seem’s to do the trick for spin anlgers, the usual clousers and decievers seem to be the tikets for the flyrod folks. The rips offshore are starting to heat up. A good mix of blues and bassin the early morning. The tuna bite is as getting better. Thats right, tuna. We have managed to hook and fight a couple on spin rods this week, getting spooled once and a 3hr battle the next day…

Chatham, Monomoy and the Outer Beaches

GSeries69 reported from the outer beaches:

I fished the Race and around to Herring Cove last weekend and it was dead. Tons of sand eels. Newcomb was fishing well earlier but the weeds moved in and made it unfishable. Hit South Beach the weekend prior and nothing all day until around 4 when the fish started to show up but nothing of any size. Hundreds of seals. Bay side has been fishing well.

North Side

kcpedaley reports from the Bay:

Fished saturday from new grounds to the south edge bouncing jigs and trolling tube and worm. Had to work for them with lots of shorts mixed in with the keepers, fish 24" to 33". Later saw some birds up on the shoal working an area. Went over to check it out and for the next few hours had one on almost every cast before we left. When we got there the stripers where gorging themselves on silversides on the surface to a couple ft down. Was throwing a pearl/spot 4" split tail minnow sightcasting to them. Lots of the fish had sea lice on them, the school of fish had to be in the thousands.

Uncle Matt reports:

I jigged Billingsgate last Friday in 25-39 feet of water and it was a tough sell. There were fish but you had to work for them and the fish were mostly shorts. It was very slow for Billingsgate and not many boats working the area. I guess I should of worked the short water and kept searching around.

In the Water had this post from last weekend...

Went down to my father n laws place for the weekend down the Cape and got out early Saturday and Sunday for a few hours of fishing. Saturday got up around 4:30 and took a ride down to the creek and it was just about dead low and the water just began to fill back in. I wasn’t their long before I started see fish and bait. They were on sand eels and they were thick. Unfortunately I was in a rush to leave on Friday and didn’t take the fly rod with me, just a 3 piece light tackle spin rod. I was throwing everything I had from top water to small rubber and the pickings were slow to come by. I finally hooked into a couple of schoolies but I was working hard to get them.

Still low light I noticed some schools of fish fining in the shallows (so cool).  I threw a few plugs at them and I all I would do is scare them and they would scatter. Then I noticed a few bigger fish also in the same shallow spots…..finally after several attempts I landed a cast on right in the mix of some large fish feeding and got an instant hook up on a swimming Yo Zuri plug. She was a nice 35 incher.

Now with the sun up I was still seeing tons of bass only 10 feet from me but this time I could also see the thousands of sand eels both alive and dead on the bottom with crabs having a field day. They would not bite anything I threw as they were gorging themselves on sand eels. Also very cool I could see some brown trout coming right out of the water feeding. They were also visible right form shore with my polarized glasses. (not sure if any of them were shad? )

Sunday I slept in a little later and waited for the rain to pass as well. With the tide working against me I took a ride down the canal and went to a nearby beach and noticed tons and tons of sand eels washed up on shore. I decided to pick up a few and toss them in a bag, and then went back to the creek. Sunday was much slower and not nearly as many fish as the day before but still small schools of breaking fish and trout jumping. I put on a couple large sand ells I picked up at the other beach and tried to drift a few in the current. After a couple of hours I only managed one schoolie. Overall I couldn’t believe the amount of bait that was present but still very happy for a nice meal Saturday night. It made for a nice appetizer with the lobsters we got that evening!

Bob Parsons reports from Barnstable:

Before sunrise the Blish point parking lot was almost half full. Tide had a couple hours to go before slack. First spot I checked had a few birds and a few breaking fish. By the time I found something they would eat, the action there died. Went to work areas of the channels where there was not other boats. Morning was slow with only about 1/2 fish up to 24" Did not get anytihing the first hour of the incoming.