Cape Cod and the Islands
Region

October 06, 2006

Buzzards Bay

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

Ahoy Thorne, October 12th, 2006 Shoreline Guide Service Report:

It may be fall, but things are surely heating up in Buzzards Bay...
Schools of larger bass are moving through the canal and feeding heavily throughout Buzzards Bay. Although the schoolies continue to smash the bait on the surface, they now have a lot more competition to deal with as schools of much bigger stripers and bluefish have joined in the action. During this past week many of my clients have been pleasantly surprised while they were casting to schoolies, as bass ranging between 30 and 40 inches interrupted their game with the schoolies. A good number of these bigger fish were taken in the shallows and taken on poppers. Don't get me wrong, it's a lot of fun catching schoolies when fly fishing with a popper or gurgler, but when a bass over 36 inches engulfs your popper in waters less than three feet deep, all hell breaks loose.

It's a wild scene, watching a novice fly angler try to deal with these larger fish. One of them who couldn't clear his line fast enough from his stripping basket watched in disbelief as a large knot tangle proceeded to remove the top three guides from his new fly rod. Oh yes, he did land the striper and retrieved his guides as well. I'm always preaching the importance of "line-management" to anyone who'll listen to me. Whether you're using a stripping basket, a casting deck or loose line in the water, you must be careful of the stripped line, especially when big fish are around.

We had another situation this week and this was with a very "seasoned" freshwater fly fisherman who ran into trouble when one of the "schoolies" that he was casting to, ended up being a 12 pound bluefish that immediately took him well into his backing. He panicked and tried to trap the backing line against the cork handle of his fly rod and received a nasty cut across all four of his fingers on his casting hand. The fingers will heal, but the full length cut down the cork handle will be a constant reminder to be careful. I told him that he was lucky because he was using "Dacron" backing. If it had been "Gel Spun" backing or worst yet, one of the "Firewire"-type materials that many fly fishermen now use to get more backing on their reels, it would have been a much more serious situation.

The fly of choice this past week has been what I call a "Deep Bellied Clouser". Basically it's a more heavily dressed clouser where I add an extra bunch of bucktail to the belly of the fly. I also use heavy 1/4" brass eyes to get it quickly down deep and a bit more flash than normal. Notice too, that I use a blend of silver, red and blue "Flash-A-Bou". This blend of flash that you make up yourself gives this fly that same pink/purplish flash that you see on baby bunker and alewives. This fly has been a killer during the past three weeks. We've taken some big fish on this relatively small fly. I try to "match-the-hatch" sizewise to counterfeit the prevailing baitfish.

Speaking of flies, I will once again be giving both basic and advanced saltwater fly tying lessons starting later this month and throughout the winter at "The Bear's Den Fly Fishing Co." in Taunton, MA. These are fun classes where I tell all of my fly tying and fishing secrets. Well, some secrets anyway. If you're interested give Scott a call at (508)977-0700 and tell him that you saw it on "Reel-time"

Now's the time to get out there. There's no excuse as the fishing can be good at any time of the day. You may be the one who is at the right place at the right time and will be telling all of your friends about the blitz that they missed.

Tight lines, but not too tight,
Good luck,
Capt.Bob (508-697-6253)

Falmouth & the Elizabeths

The South Side

Terry Nugent of RipTide Charters reports:

Today was looking a bit snotty for tuna so Bob Pink and I decided to try something different. We met at my house around 0600 and hit the water shortly after that. We went out and located a nice pod of big pogies and were able to put about three dozen in the livewell in short order.

After loading up on bait we headed out towards MV and looked for some nice structure to swim our new little buddies. Once we found suitable water we rigged up the 7' St Croix Musky Sticks and the Accurate Lever drags with some 50# flouro and a 4/0 Gamma. I took out a nice frisky pogie and sent him back behind the boat. Neither of us have much/any expeirience with lie pogies so we were pretty much working on hearsay and a little help from buddies.

As my little guy swam back he made it about 150' before he rushed tothe surface and instantly disappeared into a huge boil! I set the hook and the fish on the other end started taking allot of drag off the Accurate. At 18# of strike drag thats not very common when I'm bass fishing. I told Bob the fish felt good. It made several strong runs and some impressive head shakes. After a few minutes I got the fish boatside and Bob was able to get it in the boat. It was not quite 8 am and we already had a 40# fish in the boat.

Not a bad way to start for a couple of newbies. We worked the area for the next 5 hours and we were able to pick up a good number of bass in the 38-40" range while fending off HUGE bluefish that would cut the pogies in half with one bite.

After all the bait was gone we tried plugging the exact same water. THe only lure that would even get a sniff was a Salty's Spook in Yellow. Other than that it was dead. These fish wanted MEAT!

Final tally for the morning was around 20 fish with the one pictured being the first and the biggest. IT was over 40# on my scale OTW, we weighed it at Red Top (it was bleeding so we kept it) There at 1500 it weighed 39.5# @ 48" long. All of the other fish were released cleanly. The water was 10-15' deep and was 62-64 degrees. All but one bluefish were taken on the live bait. These fish were very aggressive to the bait but showed no interest in plugs.

Overall a sweet departure from all the tuna fishing we've been doing. It was a nice easy half day with the only heavy lifting coming from the fish!!!! As always bob is a pleasure to fish with. He and I both learn some things today about fishing pogies. I have a feeling it won't be the last time we do this

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters

Martha's Vineyard

Steve Purcell of Larrys Tackle reports:

The fishing is better. Some bonito have moved in and they totally changed the whole board. That's all on the north shore. Some albies came in. A 13.5 pound bluefish moved into first place. There are lots of schoolie bass around that are tugging on people's lines and keeping them happy.

There's been a ton of krill on the south, so it might have been that the fish were hanging offshore. Now the storm came through and mixed things up, and maybe the fish weren't offshore as much? Some of the best albie fishing has been from Wasque to Cape Pogue, but the bones are coming from the North shore. I've caught bonito until November 6th -- that was 4 years ago -- but the water is already 59-ish.

Nantucket

Lynne Heyer of Cross Rip Outfitters reports:

Just a quick up date on the fishing. I have gotten several reports this morning that the ALBIES have finally arrived. Great Point the last two days has come alive with Albies, Bass and Blues. I also got a report from a friend from the Vineyard that between here and there the fishing has picked up also. I got a call from a customer on the Steamship this morning that there were a few Albies busting along the rocks at the Jetties. I also got a call from Burt that there are Bass in Polpis Harbor and at Coskata Pond. Things are looking up. Get out and wet a line.

Chatham, Monomoy and the Outer Beaches

Tom George of Fish Pier Charters reports:

Thorne-

Recent trip on the Whit's End yielded this chubby striper. We traveled to many spots around Chatham and Monomoy and tossed many styles of flys but found fish that liked to hang on the bottom and eat lead jigs...

Chatham still has Stripers and Tunas, some very close, but weather and lockjaw can throw a wrench in any given day as usual.

North Side

Joe LeClair of North Eastern Anglers reports:

Both the fishing and the weather were absolutely great this week. I managed to get out at least once on most every day with a couple days going twice a day. This in and unto itself is not that great of a feat during bass season and lots of fishing guides do it all the time. This week however I was able to do multiple trips on the same day for Bluefin Tuna, and people caught.

Unlike a few weeks back when I was happy just to get shots at these fish with the fly rod, we were hooking up and catching quite a few. Most of the fish were between 42-45 inches which meant that they were not leagal to keep and we needed to release them alive. I have been a big advocate of fighting these School Bluefin to the boat quickly and the average fight time was less than 15 minutes. I did however find myself leaning over the customers shoulders and coaching them for most of that time, "Come On Land That Fish".

Every fall the school Bluefin Tuna fishing seems to peak around the time the trees are turning and the early morning fog is settling in on the cranberry bogs. This week I had a late start one day and as I drove along the road with the boat behind me, headed to the boat ramp to meet my clients I watched as they harvested the cranberries. The beautiful colors against the clear blue sky and the clean krisp air that comes to New England in September and October was so great you could almost reach out and grab it, and as I was drinking my coffee headed out for another day of tuna fishing, I knew it was going to be a great day on the water.

Joe LeClair

Curt Jessup of Cape Cod Outfitters reports:

Thorne, Thanks to reel - time for another great season of reports and forums. This past week has been spotty with many Tuna kicking about Cape Cod Bay, the SW Corner and up to Wildcat. If you put in your time, you will score!!! Best bet are Stetzko's needle fish in green and white/silver underbelly. Replace hooks as trebles let go and decrease chance of a solid hook-up. This past week fish have been reluctant to take a fly but the Tuna are the right size for fly rods and some the right size for the dinner table. This fish was about 43" so I gave him a kiss and rocketed him back in the water. Please do not gaff fish if you are not sure it is of legal size. Remember they look bigger in the water than they do in the boat!!! I wish all loyal readers a great "off-season". I will be pulling the Parker in 2 weeks and prepping for our three-week stint at Harkers Island North Carolina. My best to all and keep in touch over the winter!!!

Catch em up!!!!!

Capt. Curt Jessup