Cape Cod and the Islands
Region

September 15, 2006

Buzzards Bay

We are now into fly fishing for Football Bluefin Tuna Season !!! I hope this keeps up for a while, I live for this shit !!! Casting 400-600 grain sinking tip fly lines with 14-15 weight rods this past week. It has once again been a good time to try on a "Pamet River Special", compliments of Rich Murphy.

And those anglers who can get an 80-90 foot cast off quickly and easily are able to close the deal. We have had shots at some real big critters and hopefuly someone will land one of these 50-60 inch monsters on the fly rod, but for now most of the fish we have landed are 40-45 inches.

Captain Joe LeClair
North Eastern Anglers

The Cape Cod Canal

If there was an icon for 2 thumbs down and a Bronx Cheer I would have used it. I didn't exactly put forth a Herculean effort last night, but it was just the "same 'ol-same'ol". Loads of bait, which loads of schoolies chasing it that wouldn't hit anything. Plus the usual dead sea conditions out deep with the heavy stuff. I'm glad I cornered the market on 3-5oz lead heads, and large plastics for the upcoming fall run.

Martha's Vineyard

Jeff Sayre of Fly Fishing the Vineyard reports:

September 9, 2006 Finally!! Finally....the albies arrived in some decent fishable numbers yesterday. At this time they are concentrated in a small area and the pressure on them is relentless. Thus they aren't that easy to catch. The Derby doesn't start until Sunday (the 10th) and there are 15 boats chasing them around on a friday. It's going to be crazy this weekend!! We need fish to fill in at other spots to spread out the fleet. Hopefully over the next few days they will do that. These fish are of good size too! The ones we actually caught were in the 10 to 12 lb range. The only fish I saw caught were on fly although I did hook one on a Deadly Dick but it spit the hook after a short battle. We are expecting some cool weather and wind early in the coming week and that could really turn on the alberts!

Now that the albies are in it's going to be even harder to catch a shore bonito. There wasn't many around to begin with but now it'll be the Holy Grail during the Derby. Menemsha, Poge and State Beach all continue to be dead as far as bonito are concerned but should fill with albies soon. We picked up somes bones at the Hooter over the past few days but there were far more bluefish out there unlike a few weeks ago. The bones out there a quite small still. The biggest bones we've taken are the ones we've got inshore.

Good luck to everyone one in the Derby. Let's hope for good weather and plenty of fish!

Jeff Sayre of Fly Fishing the Vineyard reports:

September 15, 2006

The wind kicked up hard out of the N and NNE to start the Derby. I was fishing with a few of my regulars, Jeff Coen and Chris Gill from PA. We were able to get out in the boat on the first day and found some good schools of alberts pounding bait on the north side but we were not alone. At one point there were 28 boats chasing them around. It was really too windy to target them with the fly rod so we were chucking lures at them. We had some good success but it was tough to get on the schools with so many other boats around. Chris ended up landing one that would go around 11 or 12 lbs so there were some nice fish out there. We stayed with them until the tide slacked and then they disappeared. The Coronas went down easy as we checked the forecast and it didn't look good for the boat. NNE wind at 20 to 30 mph would force us to fish the beach. I knew where we would go.... it was where everyone else was going.

With limited parking spots a very early departure from my house was in order. At 5 AM under the cover of darkenss we slid into one of the last remaining spots and started to gear up. Now it was a "hurry up and wait" situation until it was light enough to start fishing. The word was out that the Derby leading shore albie had come from this spot so as dawn came the place got very crowded. Anglers spread out and started firing Marias and Deady Dicks out into the waves an wind. This was all blind fishing since the albies never busted on bait or showed on the surface. They were there though and guys started picking them up slowly but surely. These fish were nice all coming in around 9 or 10 lbs and my man Jeff from PA landed a hog that would have challenged or beat the Derby leader which is 14lbs and change but he didn't join the Derby. I busted him a bit for it but he didn't really care. He just wanted to catch fish.

The forecast for the next day was for more of the same so we jumped in the truck with our coffee and headed out early again. By the time we arrived the lot was full already. Luckily I recognized the truck of someone I knew and parked behind him. This day looked to be a carbon copy of the day before but it would turn out to be much brighter and sunnier. This allowed us to watch for cruising albies in the wave crests as they shot by. Their green backs would light up in the sun and you could sight cast a lure in front of them and then they would smash. These fish were ravonous. Many of the takes were just 10 feet or so from the shoreline so everthing was in full view. The fish on this day were a bit smaller checking in around 8 lbs. Many of the other anglers left by 11:00 AM, during a lull, so we almost had the place ot ourselves. By noon the place lit up again and we had hook ups on a constant basis again. It was another good day on the beach with fish landed....fish lost ...and a few break-offs. Not a bad way to spend a day. The great thing about the Vineyard is if the weather foils your boat plans you can always catch albies from shore. There aren't too many places like that! By 2:30 PM our arms and backs were killing us from the 800 casts we had made so we headed out. The Heinekens and Coronas were calling us.

By yesterday the wind had laid down and so had the fishing. We went out in the boat and only saw a few albies pop. Everyone we met up with was complaining about the lack of fish. The shore spots were all dead too. Hopefully by this weekend thing will heat up again. We can't seem to get any one weather pattern. It blows from one direction then the next. They had been starting to show at all the well known spots including East Beach and the Gut so I'm looking for a the next few weeks to be good.

I posted a few shots from the fishing on the photos page.

-Jeff Sayre

Nantucket

Lynne was in no hurry to write the report this week because the fishing at the Grey Lady has been so horrendous. For their tournament on Monday and Tuesday, only a few bass and blues were caught. Capt. Jeff got a few hits yesterday, but had to work very hard. Lynne reported that the Old Man rips off of Nevers had produced a few fish, and that sporadic albies have been caught at Great Point, and there have been a few bass in the harbor, but that is the extent ofthe good news.

Capt. Shawn Bristow of Squaretail Outfitters reports:

Here is a fish we picked up on light tackle spin rod... Caught a bunch of fish like this out of schools on top chewing on sand eel's...

Chatham, Monomoy and the Outer Beaches

Mike Mathews of Offshore Angler Charters reports:

This is getting fun at the right time. Trolling is great but what beat's Tuna on LT & the Fly? Nothing! With the Half Beek invasion full on, we set out of Sesuit at 0600 (Little xtra sleep in for me this morning!) The top-water bite is still way offshore for us so about 0700 we were back into the fish from yesterday. I was surprised to see no other boats OTW where we got into em the prior day. Then I thought everyone waited for the big afternoon bite.

I had Dave & Jeff on board and after about 15 miuntes of the R&G, Dave blind casted into a vanished pod and yelled "I'm On, I'm On!!" Dave had a great fight with the fish all over the boat! We gaffed, swam, bled, snapped some shots and iced the fish. It was now time to get Jeff on one. By this time we got back on the hunt and the bait had scattered. There was plenty of pods smashing but they went down so fast with very few to no cast allowed . It was a truely awesome sight to see the HB's running from Tuna.

We never got to see the blitzing and agressive feeds that happened the day before and after 11am the ocean DIED. We called it quits around 2pm and left some friends OTW who may be into them right now?? One note is that the Water Temp was 4 degrees cooler 66yesterday and as low as 61 today. Even in the harbor ot was 62degress

I have 1st mate apreciation weekend (Kyle & Tim) OTW and I hope the NE winds stay lower than expected so I can get them on some great action!

I have attached the pics of some Half Beeks from our fish. They ranged from 5 inches to 10" Mixed with Sand eels & bay anchovies. Thanks!

The bonito have been around, but guys have been only getting them sporadically since the mid-August. The hard core tuna guys have been doing fine too.

North Side

Capt. Mike Mathews of Offshore Angler Charters reports:

Once again the NW Wind came thru on CCB & Beyond. I think I am up to 7 times out this year where I have noted that the first day of the NW wind and incoming tide lights up CCB & Beyond! Today was no exeption to the rule. The only issue was the incoming tide wasn't happening until Noon. Our action was going to start later in the morning but we tried the SW Corner for some trolling with no luck.

When we left the dock at 5am to a snotty stiff 15mph NW (Forecasted 5-10) The East swell was up and it was a tough ride. At Race Point we notived an odd scene....Long skinny baitfish running from something and showering the water. We stuck around but didn't see the predator??? l later found out they were "Half Beak's/ Northern Saury" expained my a buddy OTW and Jeff Smith later that night. Well the Bay was full of them and later in the day they set off MAYHEM Caught on video with my new digital camcorder that will take all night to figure out for posting but I'll get it done! New Tuna, More Tuna and the topwater bite #'s from last year! These fish were 20-40 lbs tops and were working a 4 mile by 6 mile area way offshore. The radio was screaming of buddy boats trying to get friends on the bite. As they made their way to the reported fish, everyone found their own Great to see this bite kcik off again....The variable is the bait source. I have zero experience with this bait and wil the Tuna stick around after they are gone???

For us, my sports had a flight to catch tonight We had great shots at fish 30ft from the boat but the bait was VERY Thick and hard to compete with. With more time we would have hoked up but we ended up leavign them on the surface for the long ride back to Sesuit

Sorry if this report jumped around a bit but I was OTW 12 hours with a 5 sport crew

I'll be out in the AM looking again for the same action.

Check back for the video link!

Thanks!
Capt. Mike Mathews

Jeff Smith of Finaddiction Charters reports:

It was a good day NOT to be a desk jockey....Newscaster Paul Day from Denver with his first flyrod bluefin..One of 3...I lost a corker on the heavy spinner when the hook pulled after 30 minutes..Another was lost to the anti reverse letting go on a Cabo 50 ....Halfbeaks were running for their lives litteraly! Saw Mike Matthews hooked up and stopped over to share reports...

Chris Korkorda wrote in about the inshore scene on the north side:

The bass action up in Cape Cod bay was awesome last week. Anglers were slamming bass left and right. Anglers fishing the Brewster flats on foot are just hammering the fish. The best way to fish those flats is to approach from one of the town landings, and either make the long walk out across the flats at low tide, or even better to tow a kayak behind you with an anchor so that you can stay later and paddle back.