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Cape Cod and the Islands
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Well I asked in last week's report for pictures and stories of bonito, and I got'em. Thanks to Captain Bill I had such great striper fishing in the rips near Monomoy, that I was CERTAIN I would make the home page with my own pictures, but I'm afraid it was not to be. That's too bad, since the fish were big and fat, and great sport on the fly. On the Vineyard, the bones are thickening but are not at their peak yet. Meanwhile the bass are picky, due to the krill around the island, but they are also numerous. Finally, there are still catchable blue fin tuna near Provincetown, but only Jeff Smith seems to be catching them in my reporting network. Any other fly caught tuna out there? Let me know, Thorne Spakman, Publisher P.S. I HAVE to show you one of the bass my brother caught on a huge bunker pattern in the rips!
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Toelstedt! The fish have appeared in targetable numbers at both ends of the Island, and anglers are catching 3, 4, 5 , and even more bones per day. 
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Buzzards Bay
Bret Bokelkamp writes: Sorry, haven't been out much to contribute this season. |
Falmouth & the Elizabeths
Joe LeClair reports: No Bonito for me this week... I have however caught loads of Stripers and Blues. I had several anglers tell me that they would not object to targetting large bluefish and we slayed them up to 15 lbs. on the fly rod. We also got into some great action with large bass (and many more small bass). Whenever the sun is getting low to the horizon the sky starts to make all those beautiful colors again (must be an August thing), and the big Stripers will take a fly.... Middle of the day is difficult at best. |
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Martha's Vineyard
I talked with Jeff at Larry's tackle, who, though not a fly fisherman himself, said that anglers have been catching some bonito from boats, especially around Hedge Fence. He said he thought it would be at least two weeks though, before beach guy like him could get into the action. Other than that, he said simply: Dog Days! Jaime Boyle of Fishing the Vineyard reports: 8.9.07: For the green-minded folks, bonito fishing continues to improve by the day. We’ve had nice schools of fish ripping it up inshore for the past couple of days, and catch rates have been pretty good. Offshore, it’s plenty of bones on a short ride and not much else. We’re still waiting on the next push of tuna as well as the next slug of nice weather. That’s all for now. Good luck. –www.fishingthevineyard.com Brice Contessa of Fishing the Vineyard reports: Fishing on the Vineyard has been great during the past week. The numbers of bluefish and krilling bass in local waters at this point is truly amazing. Captain Phil Cronin of Capawock Charters of Martha's Vineyard reports: Martha’s Vineyard Fishing Report August 1 through August 7, 2007 Fishing remains fairly slow around the Vineyard as we wait for the arrival of thrashing bonitos. As is customary around this time of year, the first reports of bonito landings are the result of trolling around the numerous rips and shoals that grace the inshore island waters. In time, those early arrival bones are joined by larger schools and the surface feeding starts in earnest. On a recent trip out to Hedge Fence a fishing buddy reported that he caught numerous small (3lb) bluefish casting on the rip line and one bonito. They were throwing a deadly dick. To me that’s good news because it means that the bones are becoming a little bit friendlier to lures and flies. Soon now, that surface action we have all been waiting for will commence. The mid-summer doldrums or in-between time as it is sometimes referred to will soon give way to the bonito and little tunny season. It is an exciting time when we target the inshore On a side note - Each year around these doldrums I take some time to travel out to the western part of Massachusetts to do some fly rod carp fishing. Jay, my son, and I just returned from one such trip and had some very fine fishing. Most avid anglers would rather avoid carp but to me they are the bonefish of fresh water. Throwing a berry fly to a feeding carp in clear river riffles is a wonderful experience. It takes patience, perseverance, and practice but once the necessary skills are acquired, catching them is likely and the fight they give in ankle deep water is invigorating. I’ll be posting some video of the trip soon and I’m sure you’ll appreciate it. My fishing meter for the last week: Boat Fishing: remains FAIR with numerous small bluefish available in the rips and shoals. Bass are still stuck on krill, in fact, the krill now extends all the way from East Chop around Gay Head and down beyond Lucy Vincent beach. We will all be glad when the linesiders finally sober up and kick the krill habit. Bonito are starting to be caught by casting and fly rodding but the steady action hasn’t happened yet. Beach Fishing: SLOW right now. I haven’t heard a lot of good reports from anyone and I haven’t spent anytime in the last week shore fishing. |
Overall, it’s been a pretty good week of fishing here on the rock. Bass in mind-blowing numbers have invaded to the West. Some days it appears that you could literally walk on them as thousands (and thousands!) slurp down krill. The hot fly changes daily. One day it’s a 2-inch gurgler; the next it’s an 8-inch deceiver—or anything in between. We just keep dumping flies on their heads until one decides to snap it up. 
Fishing The Vineyard Report 08/09/07
speedsters with fly rod. Last year’s bonito and albie season was so-so. This year’s is anyone’s guess but given the amount of bait (sandeels, silversides, and peanut bunker) I believe it will be a good one.
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Nantucket
Capt. Bill Toelstedt of Nantucket Outfitters reports: Lynne Heyer of Cross Rip Outfitters reports: Bones, Bones and more Bones. If you are in the right place and at the right time you to can catch some Bonito. Capt. Shawn yesterday caught at least 7. We landed 4 and Jeff landed one. Jared Tausig and friend landed two on fly too. The Bonito are there and I still wouldn't say it's off the charts but it definitely is picking up. I have had several trips now where we have caught Bones and it has been great. The Striper fishing has been a different story. They ha! ve been a tougher fish to catch. If you put in your time though you might get into some. The South Shore from the beach has produced Stripers early in the morning and later in the evening. Great Point is producing Blues and some Stripers but its hit and miss. Bluefish are all over the Island and pound for pound give a great fight Cross Rip Outfitters Too fly posted this report online: Cannonball and I fished last Friday with Steve aboard the infamous "Slamdance." We were a little anxious about how the day would turn out as the conditions during the ferry ride over were pretty rough. Luckily it laid down a bit and Steve put us in a good location to gain a little cover from the wind. WE met Steve at the Hy Line ferry pick-up at 7:30 a.m. It wasn't tough finding him as he was sporting the lucky orange plaid shirt he said he'd wear. So right off the bat, we knew it was going to be a great day. I gotta also say, Steve is totally laid back and he doesn't give off that sense of urgency that many guides do. No pressure fishing... We motored up to the "spot," where we'd spend the rest of the day, and CB (Blackjack) with his first bonito: |
Bonito! After several weeks of scattered sightings and reports... the bones have finally arrived on Nantucket in full force!! Larger numbers of fish have been caught on daily basis as well as fish pushing the 10 lb mark. The typical spots off the West End have been producing good results as well as a few less popular spots off to the East. For those of you that have not been out to the "bar"... the bonito are gorging themselves on huge clouds of 2-3" sandeels... To the East they are on a mix of these same sized sandeels as well as micro-sized squid less tha 1" long. Spin rodders are catching the largest volume of fish on swimmers... with the fly guys having to work a bit harder to connect. One nice thing about catching these "fast fish" on a flyrod, though...besides the fact that it is more challenging... it allows the fish to run more freely(on a "single hook") and results in more of those typical bonito "screaming drag" runs. Many times with the spin rod the second treble hook can get fouled on the side of the bone's face cutting down on its leverage. Either way, these are fast fish ...so make sure your mono is fresh, your drags are in good repair... and hold on! 
immediately we were into fish. "Cuz you never leave fish to find fish." A couple blues and before we knew it, we landed our first bonito of the trip. We were all having such a great time that we asked Steve to fish too. He graciously declined, but we egged him into whipping a rod around a bit and "boom!" he lands a 30 lb. bass. By the end of the day, we tallied a bunch of blues, four bonito for CB (his first ever), six bones for me and one 30 lb. bass for Steve. How appropriate to get a Nantucket Slam aboard the Slamdance! We had an awesome time and very much look forward to booking Steve again.
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Chatham, Monomoy and the Outer Beaches
Around Chatham, the waters on the ocean-side outside the lighthouse are filled with clouds To the west of Monomoy, there was far more action. From the flats south almost to the Hankerchief rips, there were literally dozens of schools of bluefish schools cruising in six to ten feet of water. They were chasing everything thrown in hungry packs. There were schools with two pounders, and some six to eight pounders mixed in. My brother and I fished these schools for an hour or so for the shear excitement We only visited the farthest north flats, but there were a few fish cruising the outside gullies mostly in pairs. We did not stay long there either, and the blues were even venturing up an over the edges of some of the deeper flats. In Bearse's rip was where we found the best action. Even in the bright sunlight at 11 AM We started with small squid patterns, but soon switched to a flat wing sand eel and started catching fat bass that were between 36 inches and 40 inches. The key was getting the fly as deep as possible, and letting it swing through clean Using this technique we quickly boated two fat bass, then switched to a huge bunker pattern to try to catch a bigger fish. The large fly worked as well, so the fish were clearly not that picky. I think the presentation was the most important, and if we had had more time, I think we could have caught plenty more fish. Randy Jones - http://www.yankeeangler.com - Fishing Reports of Yankee Angler reports: |
of krill. We explored out to crab ledge and found basically the same thing everywhere, lots of krill with no bass sipping, and a complete absence of birds and tuna.
of the attacks. I have to assume there are bonito mixed in, but there were so many bluefish and they were so aggressive, I'm not sure how an fly fisherman might target bones.
on Sunday, there were many many bass feeding in the rips formed by the falling tide. There were also lots of boats, but this was one of those days when the flies far outfished everyone else. It was easy to see the bass, as they were visible cruising the drop off, under the first wave of the rip in the shallowest, most roiled areas.
water not roiled by the propeller. We had the best luck holding the boat above the rip line, and then casting to clean water, while drifting back with dead drift line control.
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North Side
I've divided my time between Barnstable Harbor on the north, and Waquoit on the south. Jeff Smith of Finaddiction Charters reports: |
No Bonito here but we are still having some great action on bluefin tuna on light tackle. Fish are not in their normal mode what we have become accustomed to but with a trained eye and patience you will still find good numbers of them on any given day.