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Cape Cod and the Islands
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I fished the Cape hard ten days ago, butthings sound like they are calming pretty steadily since then. Since then, the tournaments on Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard probably tell the story best. People are frustrated. A FEW albies have been caught on the North shore of the Vineyard, but things are not what they The bright spots appear to be Cape Cod Bay, where the bluefin tuna fishing continues to be strong when the wind lays down and the ballyhoo converge with the tune; and the Elizabeth Islands, where it is possible to catch a big migrating bass on a fly this month, as this angler did fishing with Joe LeClair. It's not time to despair, but it may be time to start thinking about late season bonito, and migrating bass. The albie run MAY be a bust for the year if current patterns hold. |
Through the beginning of last week, after the storm swell subsided, the fishing picked up well. Fishing out of Chatham at least, we had shots at bluefin on fly from two to 12 miles east (unsuccessful), and had wonderful flats fishing west of Monomoy. We found schools of medium to large bass milling around the troughs, and balling up peanut bunker (which I have rarely seen on the flats). What was missing from the action was our main target: bonito and albacore. I saw only one school surface briefly south of Stage Harbor.
should be. Fishing is even worse on the Cape Cod side of the sounds, where anglers and guides are lamenting the lack of bait which tends to hold speedsters and migrating bass at this time of the year.| NEWS |
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The "Derby" continues for about 2 more weeks on Martha's Vineyard. You can check results here. |
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Buzzards Bay
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Falmouth & the Elizabeths
Joe LeClair of North Eastern Anglers reports: Captain Joe LeClair |
Bass fishing has been great. When we are not tuna fishing we are chasing monster bass in the Islands. Almost every day has produce fish on the fly rod over 25 lbs. and a couple over 35 lbs. With the change in weather the fishing has slowed down today, hopefully it will pick back up again. Large white and large pink flies has been key to bring in the Basssss-a-moooo....
The Cape Cod Canal
Reel-Timer BIGT has hit good action sporadically in the canal recently: I have been fishing the canal all week at various time at night and early am and have been picking up a steady 10-20 fish each time with sizes ranging fro micro to 30+ pounds. Got into them last night last 2 hours of the east pretty good with six fish all about 40 inches.. Lost one at slack low Mon am that was 45-50lbs about 10 feet away. The canal giveth and the canal taketh away...GO GET EM!!! |
The South Side
Echoing the story on the Vineyard, my sources summed up the fishing around Falmouth succinctly: "Fishing sucks. " My sources at Eastman’s Tackle (508-548-6900) in Falmouth were helpful and honest: "For more than a month, fishing has been very slow. Last two weeks should have been the beginning of peak time. For funnyfish, never seen one on the Cape side – albacore and bonito are not coming across. " They attributed this slowdown to a remarkable lack of bait in Vineyard and Nantucket sound, as they reported motoring for miles without seeing any birds working. Their best tips were to try bass fishing at night, and you might find some fish that are probably migrating, especially along the Elizabeth’s. If you are content to catch schoolies on a fly rod, try Waquoit, or West Falmouth harbor. |
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Martha's Vineyard
My sources at Larry’s tackle on the Vineyard described the fishing as "slow." They added: "A few people are catching a few fish, but some people are getting skunked. The toughest fish to catch is a bonito. There are more albies than bonito, [in fact] I think there have been only 5 shore bonitos, and none by fly rod. " As for fly rodding for albies, stick to the north shore, from West Chop to Lobsterville, which is the area that has produced the Derby leaders thus far. Steve Purcell of Larry’s added regarding the albies: "There have been some in Edgartown harbor -- yesterday a bonito and albacore [were caught]. " Regarding other species on fly he added: "Bass fishing on fly rod and spinning has been good up island -- Squibby and Menemsha have been good. Lot of people catching schoolies but not the right size fish. " |
Nantucket
Lynne Heyer of Cross Rip Outfitters reports: As far as the fishing as of late, Great Point has been pretty sporadic in the fish department with a few Albies being landed and some Bonito as well. The West end of the Island has plenty of small Blues from Eel Point to Smith’s. Capt. Jeff with a few of his clients last week landed a few Big Albert’s well over 10#’s. I also got a report of Schoolies being caught yesterday along the shore of Dionis in the middle of the morning. A customer also came in yesterday and said there were False Albacore at the Jetties. I haven’t had anyone else confirm this but maybe we will see the start of a late Albie run. If you do find the Albies I guess they are of good size. Get out and Fish and give me a report. NANTUCKET INSHORE CLASSIC RESULTS AS OF: SEPT 23RD MIDNIGHT ADULT WEEKLY AWARDS (Heaviest Individual fish of each species per week) Week of Sept 16th to 23rd Striped Bass Bluefish Bonito False Albacore All Tackle Division Boat: Beach Fly Division Boat ADULT CATEGORY AWARDS (Heaviest Individual fish of each species) All Tackle Division Boat Beach Fly Division Boat |
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Chatham, Monomoy and the Outer Beaches
Tom George of Fish Pier Charters reports: The last good action he could remember on fly was for the bonito they were finding of late in the rips. No albies, but some bonito. He had been fishing the deep water side of the rips on the incoming tide at Bearse’s and Pollack rips with decent results on the speedsters. Said Joe: "there were just enough to target -- they would pop up for a minute [then sound] especially out near the 4 and 5 can." Joe laments the current lack of bait in the water and blames that for the poor fishing. He is pretty discouraged about the likelihood for more hardtails at this point, but expects the sporadic blitzing of bass and blues to start as the water cools in a few weeks. |
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North Side
Tom George of Fish Pier Charters reports: Capt. Mike Mathews of Offshore Angler Charters reports: |
CCB & the SW Corner are heated up with the Half Beak invasion. Tough to compete with such tasty bait but the action out there is awesome. If you're fast enough you can get them on light tackle using anything bright blue & silver. The fish range from 20lbs to 150lbs on top. Lots of great weather next week ought to keep water temps up and keep the fish on top!