Cape Cod and the Islands
Region

August 18, 2006

Buzzards Bay

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

Now, there is plenty of bait in the Buzzards Bay waters, couple that with later sunrises and earlier sunsets and the stage is being set for the late summer/early fall season. Stripers and bluefish are busting the bait all along the Cape Cod Canal from the Sandwich basin to the Elizabeth Islands. Huge schools of hungry predators are pushing the baitfish to the surface producing some fantastic top-water action for those anglers who are in right place at the right time. All of this extraordinary surface activity has given me a chance to introduce many "first-time fly fishing anglers" and especially freshwater fishermen to the excitement of what saltwater fly fishing is all about.

Freshwater fly fishing and light tackle fishermen and ladies are always amazed at seeing hundreds or thousands of breaking stripers and bluefish boiling the water and smashing bait in all directions. It's an awesome site to behold, compared to what they're used to, occasionally seeing a few trout or large mouthed bass rise to the surface. It is always interesting for me to see their reactions; the cold sweats, the loss of casting timing, tangled lines and frustratingly poor casts. Usually I have to have them calm down, take a deep breath, relax and just enjoy what you are seeing. Unfortunately, they have a hard time realizing that this is the way that it is at this time of year in saltwater. Once they get settled down, I can start teaching them "The Saltwater Drill"

There are some basic differences in techniques that you'll have to adapt in order to be successful at saltwater fly fishing. First, you have to understand that your equipment is slightly heavier than the freshwater gear that you are used to. Even the flies are heavier and will require you to slow down your cast.You also have to remember that these fish are always on the move. You have to plan your casts so that the presentation is well in front of the direction in which these fish are traveling. You don't want to have your fly swimming at the fish, as this is not normally what a baitfish would do.

You will also have to learn to be able to get your cast off with no more than three backcasts. This is usually very difficult for freshwater fly casters to do comfortably, as they are always trying to over-cast that last cast in order to get some extra distance. This almost always results in a blown cast where the line just dumps in a pile in front of you. That one extra backcast is a killer. Another suggestion is to use a stripping basket which will give you extra distance on your casts and also gives you line management, which is very important especially if you happen to hook into a really large fish. I can't tell you how many times that I've had a client hook into a truly large striper or bluefish and watch as a large tangled knot rips every guide off of their fly rod. Remember too, to wear the stripping very low on the body, about jock-strap high. This will allow you to make those long 18" to 24" strips.

You must also realize that there are hundreds of thousands of baitfish in these bait pods. In order for your fly to stand out amongst the crowd, you must make them move as if they are injured bait. Put your rod under your casting arm and use an aggressive two-handed strip. This is a rapid strip of 18" to 24" followed by a definite pause. This gives your fly an erratic and undulating action which appears to the fish as an injured, struggling baitfish. It looks a bit different than the rest of the crowd and gets noticed. Remember, the bigger fish are lazy, they let the schoolies chase the bait all over the place while they hang-out below and feed off of the injured stragglers that fall below.

Tight lines, but not too tight,
Good luck,
Capt. Bob

Joe LeClair of North Eastern Anglers reports:

With great weather and good fishing most people in this region have fallen in love with the month of August. We have been catching Bluefish, Bontio, Bluefish, Skipjack, Bluefish, Bluefin Tuna, Bluefish, Stripers, and of course Bluefish....

The big blow that came through at the end of the week seems to have blown all of the bait out and the tuna are now offshore (where they belong). The inshore fishing for Bluefish and Bonito during the daytime should continue to stay strong if you can find the bait. I have also found the fishing after dark is off the hook. There are little stripers all along the coast of Southeastern Mass. and the appropirately rigged 8.5' 5-weight with a floating line and a very small popper will catch all of them. This type of fishing at night is at the core of my fishing experiences growing up here on the south coast. I do not think there is anything better that wading into the water at night, during the month of August and casting to bass that are sipping small baits on the surface during an outgoing tide. With the smell of the rose hips and sea grass accompanied by the sights of the stars and moon reflecting on the water there is little else I need to do this summer, and no other place I would rather be ...

Joe LeClair

Falmouth & the Elizabeths

Terry Nugent of RipTide Charters reports:

Today started a several day charter with Alan from Scotland. I've had Alan out in the past and he is a VERY accomplished flyfisherman. Last year we got into some great football action on the fly and he ended the day with 14 tuna on the fly.

This year he was hoping for more ofthe same along with some variety. We left at 0700 and ran down to SE Mass to look for Bonito, Skippys and Bluefin. Alan was thrilledto be back on the water. The conditions were perfect when we headed out. We ran several miles and found dozens of flocks of birds. The first few flocks were over bluefish so we tookthe curse off with several 7-8# blues on fly poppers. After working out the fly line a bit we decided to move on in search of bigger and better things. We ran another few miles and found some birds picking quickly over the water. I slowed down and then right beside the boat and huge pod of skippies blew up and began feeding. Alan was calm cool and acurate with his cast and he layed it right into the melee. Two strips and he was on! The backing began to dissapear into the water at blazing speed. Alan was all smiles as he worked the little missle back to the boat. I got close to the leader and soon tailed Alan's first Skipjack tuna on the fly!

We worked the area some more and found plenty of surface feds to get casts into. Some casts fell short, some got snubbed but eventually Alan got bit again and this time after a short tussle he landed his first flyrod Bonito. As we hunted around for more Skipjack at Alan's request the day took a turn for the worse. My motor got caught on some submerged debris that twisted the engine and caused some unusual damage to the tilt and trim assembly. This put a sudden end to the fishing. So after assessing the damage to the T&T components we took a slow ride back to the ramp.

Final tally a few blues, a bonito and a skippy all on Alan's new 10wt. The fly of choice was a popper for the blues and Alan's hand tied Polarfiber flies for the tunoids. The water was 30-60' deep and the temps were in the high 60's.

Overall, Not the best ending to a day that started with a flyrod Slam! I dropped Alan off and ran over to my dealer. He is now hard at work rectifying the issues. Fortunatly today was a blowout anyway. We should be back in the mix tomorrow or thursday at the latest. Sometimes your the windshield, sometimes your the bug!

The South Side

Most of the rips in the Vineyard sound, like Hedge Fence, and Middle ground have reportedly been fishing well for a mixed bag, including bluefish and bonito on the troll typically.  Anglers in the know are anchoring at key spots in the rip then casting back.  It's a pretty good time to have thin tie-able wire in the boat, as there are toothy and non-toothy critters mixed in.

Martha's Vineyard

Steve Purcell from Larry's Tackle in Edgartown (508.627.5088) said tha the bonito are all literally over the Vineyard. Here's what that means. Steve said there are bones off of Tashmoo, bones at Hedge Fence, bones off of State Beach between the bridges (Steve said these fish were tight to the buoys inside of which people were swimming), and bones at Wasque. To topit all off, Steve said on Thursday he caught 20 bones at the Hooter!

I probably forgot half of the places that bones were reportedly feeding, but the point remains that now is the time to throw flies and release a bonito. One classic spot, Cape Pogue gut, is reportedly loaded with bait, and while the fish have not shown up yet, watch out. Oddly, Steve and others are reporting that while lots of these fish are four to five pounds, many are a pound-and-a-half and even less.

If you want to be a contrarian, and who doesn't, try fishing for bass, as the striper fishing has been much better than usual in August. Steve conjectured that the reason was that fishing was slow earlier in the Summer and maybe the party boats had not fished out the fish as efficiently as they usually do.

One of the best spots to catch bass on fly has been Wasque, where anglers typically anchor or drift through the series of rips east of Chappaquidick. Steve uses his "squid bomb" fly and others use Skok's white bait patterns. Other good places for bass this August include: the North shore, Gay Head, the Elizabeth's and other places too.

Jeff Sayre reports:

It's been a long time since I've updated my fishing report. August is the month when everyone wants to visit the Vineyard. Needless to say almost all my free time has been spent entertaining. I've been to more cookouts over the past two than I've been to over the past two years. Anyway, here is a little fishing report...

The topwater bass action is still continuing but it is not as good as it was a few weeks ago. I haven't found them on the baby squid anymore but they are still gorging on krill. Early moring and late afternoon seem to be the best time to find them feeding all along the shore. Any stretch in Gay Head or along the north shore has seen the fish feeding like this. They can be caught on white flies like bunnies and gurglers and they have been hitting sluggos and Jumping Minnows pretty good.

The hot weather we had awhile back seemed to kill the flats fishing I had going on. Maybe the cooler temps will bring that back. I checked it the other day and there is loads of bait there but not many bass and the ones we saw were small. We did see what looked to be a 5 foot Brown shark. It definitely was not a dogfish!

Nantucket

Lynne Heyer of Cross Rip Outfitters reports:

Good Morning and another gorgeous day. I should be out fishing, oh wait I will be soon. The fishing has been pretty good now that our mini heat wave is over. Stripers have been hitting a little better and I am getting sporadic reports from Miacomet and along Smith’s of a few nice size Stripers being caught. I know the flats are fishing better. The Bonito Bar has been fun also. I fished on the Bar Monday and I think we landed a dozen or so Bones all on blue lures, like Yozuri’s, X-raps etc. Had a couple on fly but got off by the boat. The flies they seem to like are also in the blue color or try something yellow. We are having great luck on the Mushmouth patterns. The bluefishing is crazy as always from boat or beach, you can’t beat the fun on light tackle. The small Bluefin bite is a little different though. There are a few being taken but nothing like last year yet. They are very sporadic and not that easy to target inshore. Capt. Shawn still keeps on finding a few in his secret haunts. Get out and enjoy.

Cross Rip Outfitters
http://www.crossrip.com

Chatham, Monomoy and the Outer Beaches

In Chatham, large schools of tiny peanut bunker are pouring out of the bays and into the inlet in front of the lighthouse, and they are being met by hungry schools of bluefish.  These fish are perfect for the fly rodder.

While the bass seem to be absent from the flats in Pleasant Bay, there are purportedly lots of bass five or six miles offshore.  But just beyond that at Crab Ledge, there are tons of tuna in the 25 to 50 pound range.  Most anglers are taking these fish on the troll, but you don't have too.

Reel-Timer Swirlnbump reported:

I've been fishing that area [Editor's note: off of Newport] off and on for the past two weeks and it was tremendous through last week. Many small-med skippies on the fly, and a few sbft in the upper twenties mixed in and breaking in smaller pods. With the boat pressure increasing, the clown factor was getting me down. I figured circus smirkus would be in full effect for Sat and Sun and decided to gas her up and head east. Did the big run off Chatam with the hopes of larger ones on the fly. Hardly dissapointed. They weren't showing on the surface but we hooked several 40#-60# on the blind. Seemed that they liked it 20' or so deep. We located the fish trolling swimming minnows deep and short behind the boat and then drifted back through our numbers slinging the depth charge and flashy mushies. It was completely worth the gas and the beating we took heading home against the wind. Seems like the water is almost too warm south of MV.

Besides the blues and tuna, there are undoubtedly bonito between Monomoy and Great Point, but few anglers are targetting them specifically.  Most fish are caught by anglers pulling lures and squid flies in the rips for bass, or by anglers catching bluefish in the rips near the point of Monomoy.

North Side

Capt. Mike Mathews of Offshore Angler Charters reports:

There really isn't a way to describe this morning's action.....I'm just not that smart We hit the water at 0430 got to our location a 0600. Whales & Tuna everywhere We had a 4 hour whitewater show. In 4 hours of fishing, we may have casted 30 times. We have some great shots from the action. The final tally was 8 Tuna all on the 4 Fly and 4 Spin. WHAT A DAY!!!! Enjoy the pics!

 

 

Reel-Time reader and moderator Bob Parsons reported:

Heard of some early morning action in Barnstable Harbor so launched before dawn in high hopes. Went around the harbor, nothing, conditions were very calm so tried a popper, Went outside the harbor, no visable action but had some interest in the popper, stripers and sm. bluefish. Got one small bluefish and one got my popper. Circled around the west flats and then the east flats, still not seeing anything. Went up into the marsh to see if anything happening there. Nope sun rose (very nice sunrise) and bugs drove me out. Tried around the islands for a few fish. Drifted along the high marsh banks and come across one small area where fish had bait trapped in a small cut creating a 3sq ft mini blitz. Two drifts and two fish and then they were gone. Largest fish of the morning just broke the 19" mark.