Cape Cod and the Islands
Region

August 18, 2007

Buzzards Bay

The South Side

Bob Parsons reports:

I have been working the southside for most of this week traveling from Waquoit to Robinson's hole. Tons of bluefish scatterer along the south shore with the greatest concentration changing a bit with each day. Nobska was great on day, off waquoit anouther. Bass blitzing on peanut bunker in and around the waquoit jetties. Washburn jettie was especially active on the earlly incoming tide. Woods hole around the some ledges was active on both tides and the Buzzard bay side had a mix of bluefish and bass working on the tide running into buzzard bay. NO sign of bonito. Although some think they have seen them I have no confirmed reports on the south side.

Martha's Vineyard

Jeff Sayre of reports:

We all know the Vineyard is not what it used to be. Things are a lot different now than they were 20 years ago and that goes for the shore fishing in August as well. I remember when you could go to Menemsha on any given day during August and have multiple shots at crashing bonito all day. Other spots like Tashmoo, Big Bridge, and Edgartown Light always had fish and lots of them. We used to go down to Eastville jetty and catch one or two before 8 AM. Well, now things are much different. It seems you have a better shot of hitting Megabucks that hooking a bonito from shore or even getting a shot at one. I mention this because I've had a lot of questions about the shore fishing here now and all I can say is it's slow! But...if you get in a boat....well, that's a differnt story.

I have not been out much this month but everytime I have we have found and caught bonito. The goal is to always find breaking fish to throw into which is much more exciting than trolling and we found some the other day. Not big schools by any means but enough to keep you very interested. I had Craig Armstrong on board who has fished with me for years. He is a bonito magnet. It seems they go out of the way to hit his lure. On this day he made the best of it and landed two bones throwing Deadly Dicks. After playing with the bonito for awhile we crossed the Sound and found huge schools of blues blitzing away. You could have caught them all day. At this point, every shoal around the Island is holding loads of blues as well.
Hooked up in blue blitz.

In another few weeks we should start to see some false albacore move into our waters. Hopefully it'll be better than last year when it was a bad year for them. The start of the MV Derby is coming up soon so it's time to put in some quality time with the family so you can fish your brains out from Sept 9 to Oct 13! Buttons should be in the shops by Labor Day.

Capt. Tom Rapone of Fishing the Vineyard reports:

8.16.07: If the bait situation on the Vineyard is any indication right now, we’re in for a heck of a fall. The summer staples—baby squid, sandeels, and silversides—are here in force. In addition, there’s been a peanut bunker explosion in the last week—an event that was sorely missed last year in our waters and a sure sign that fall is on the way.

We’ve had a whole bunch of slams in the boat in the last few days. Bass and bluefish are gorging on the peanuts and baby squid, and bones have been lurking wherever sandeels or silversides are present. Overall, it’s been a pretty good week of fishing on the Rock.

–www.fishingthevineyard.com

Capt. Phil Cronin of Capawock Charters of Martha's Vineyard reports:

Martha’s Vineyard Fishing Report August 8 thru August 14, 2007: The doldrums are over and the Vineyard Boneyard is alive and well. Its bonito time on Martha’s Vineyard and from all the reports I have been filtering through, the start of the fall fishing season has gotten off to a very good start. Schools of bones have been found from Lucas Shoal to Edgartown and out back to the Hooter. Most of the thrashing schools are small but scoring on them has been fairly regular with both fly and lure. Bait is plentiful all around the island and the bones are not the only ones thrashing on it. Peanut bunker is thick from Woods Hole to Waquoit and bluefish are feasting on them so if bones are not your thing, bluefish are waiting a short distance away.

Bass are another matter. Linesiders are available but not as plentiful as blues and often times it’s hard to get down to them with fly and light tackle without first filtering through all the bluefish. For me, it’s time to get serious and concentrate on the bones. I have been busy tying my favorite bonito fly which we call the “Scotty” which was developed by my good friend and fishing buddy Scott Patterson. This epoxied silverside imitation has been a killer for both Atlantic Bonito and Little Tunny’s in fact it won the boat fly rod division in the MV Derby in 2005 for Bonito and False Albacore and in 2006 for Bonito. Although I don’t have a photo of it for this report, I’ll try to include one next week. There has been no confirmed catches of albies yet but a few anglers have reported seeing what they believe are them in certain locations. I don’t expect any albie action for several weeks but who knows?

After having taken some time during the doldrums to fish other locations and have some work done on my boat I am back and in full swing. Early morning launching during the bonito season is key so if you are going to chase these speedsters I suggest you get out on the water just before sunrise. The other point I would like to make now is that bonito fishing can be exciting and frustrating. It can also lead to some boat rage if you get impatient or overly aggressive. It’s always best to give other boats plenty of leeway and if they are setting up for a shot at some thrashing bones, be professional and polite. We can all catch fish.

My fishing meter for the last week –

Boat Fishing: Good I’ve been told. My attention has been away from the Vineyard but will now be back in the heat of things.

Shore Fishing: Not so good. Krill is still killing chances of latching on to a bass and the bones have not been close enough yet.

The lull is over and the bones are in so get out on the water and get serious. The start of our world class fall fishing season is getting under way.

Nantucket

Capt. Lynne Heyer of Cross Rip Outfitters reports:

Good afternoon folks and I am sorry I have been tardy in reporting. Must be all that catching I have been doing. Well, maybe not so much catching today, as far as the Bonito go. The Bonito Bar has been pretty good with up and downs in the catching department. Today was a down. Yesterday was an up. Fred Slater, new to flyfishing, landed two out of three Bones yesterday and a few days ago I had out Todd and Jacob Buck and I think we landed 20 Bones. Very cool. The Blues down on the South Shore were very obliging today though with Joe Santucci landing an 11#er on his fly rod today. Captain Shawn with crew James Kilmartin and Andrew Mayer crushed the Bluefins today. I think the catch was like 10 to the boat. Pretty awesome day of fishing. The beach report at Great Point is good as well, plenty of Blues with some Bonito mixed in. I don’t know what tomorrow will bring but lets hope the Bar will be ON tomorrow.

Capt. Bill Toelstadt from Nantucket Outfitters reports:

Bonita fishing remains steady here on the island... although this morning seemed to be the first day anyone seemed to have trouble on the "bar". This past week we had a mix of weather with winds from all directions...but it did not seem to matter as most folks scored on both north and south winds. We had a heavy blow out of the southwest yesterday afternoon which seems to have stirred things up a bit and resulted in scatterd bait and fish this morning.

Bluefishing seems to be the next best thing right now... although they are not quite everywhere as they have been the last several weeks. Blues to 15+ lbs are common and plentiful if you can find the schools.

For those of you fishing the south side of the island there has been a large number of leatherback turtles around ...a great site to see...but be wary as they do not seem to get out of the way very fast.

Capt. Bill Toelstedt
Nantucket Outfitters, LLC
www.ackoutfitters.com
(917) 584-5270

Chatham, Monomoy and the Outer Beaches

The best fishing for bass this weeks appears to be on the morning tide at Bearse's rip. Monday, I fished the whole AM tideout there, and the bass were very willing eating flies and surface poppers for hours. All of the fish were 35 to 40 inches, and willing to brawl.

West of Monomoy, there are just tons of bluefish. There are some "greasers" in the rip at the southwest corner of Monomoy Island, but from there north to Stage Harbor, there are literally dozens of schools of bluefish nearthe surface -- all with birds on top.

Today (Friday), there were also some bruisers INSIDE Stage Harbor shadowing the schools of adult bunker -- I saw one large blue come cartwheeling vertically out of the bay. There was one boat doing some snagging, and we caught a really large bluefish on a big castmaster (sorry about the non-fly-fishing admission, I had 4 small kids on the boat).

What many would want to know is "where are the bones?" Well, they are certainly there. There is a ton of baby bunker JUST coming out of the ponds and a HUGE bonito was caught out by the rips this week. If you haven't seen it, check the pictures on the bbs.

Randy Jones of Yankee Angler reports:

Wade Fly/Spin fishing has been reeeeeeeelly good lately. Still gives me a major adrenaline rush up the ol spine when I see those darn 20lb. Bass in 12 inch's of freak'n water. More fish induced fever with Bass and Blues Blitzing in inch's of water with bait spraying in all directions ! Amazing! Last trip we had fish blitzing on Peanut Bunker almost all day, all around us, within easy fly/spin casting range. My client asked me where he should cast and my simple reply was "Anywhere! It didn't matter as they had surrounded us! In another location one day recently we were catching fish on almost EVERY cast with the fly rod ALL day! WOW! Another spot we had schoolie and 10-15-20lb. Bass all lined up for over 100 feet - 20 feet wide flashing away feeding like their was no tomorrow in the current and NOT moving as long as the tidal current was either coming in or out. They have been doing this ALL summer in this prime location. You could see them plain as day and an easy fly cast away 60-70 feet. Another day, another flat we had such good visibility, the sand was almost white, crystal clear water and the fish were so big (20lb's for shallow water flats is a good sized fish) we could see the fish from over 150 feet away. I could keep going. :)

All of this and much much more will continue on for the rest of the season for the knowledgeable - seasoned angler in several spots Ive been pounding around the Cape. Did someone say these were the dog days of summer? Hmmm, if these are the dog days then I'd like to know what the Spring salad days are like. :)

This will be my last fishing report for the season. I'd like to thank Reel-Time for giving me this opportunity to share with all of you this incredible, entertaining, world class fishery! I'd also like to thank all of you for your time and support over these past many many years!
Shortly I will be off to the Salmon River in Pulaski, NY for tackle busting King - Coho Salmon. Then Browns and Steelhead for the rest of the Fall, ALL Winter into May. Fishing off the heated drift boat is a reeeel treat for 8 to 12 pound Winter Steelhead! I'll see you all again next Spring. :)
Best Fish's,
Randy Jones

North Side

Bob Parson reported:

Hit Barnstable this thursday. Sorry this is the only look I've taken, I have been chasing base and blues, looking for bonito on the southside for most of the week. Take this report for as a short peek on a big window of ever changing events. Fished the incoming tide. Found water temps to range from 65.8 to 67 or so. Saw no surface action in the areas that I fished. Did see some birds working along, moving quickly over what I suspect was bluefish. I did dredge up a couple of bluefish.

After checking lobster pots off Sandy Neck, I trolled all the way back to BH with nary a hit. At least I did get the main ingrediant for a lobster dinner.