Cuttyhunk

[leo]

Has anyone fished from the SHORE of Cuttyhunk? Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[daveb]

I have never fished the shore but I have watched pleny of people do it. Canapisit or however you spell it channel and along the South shore. There are still signs of the old fishing stands along the shore. I suspect about any spot on the South shore could be productive and the channel has given up some monster fish over the years. I guess the obvious question is ....how is it you will be on Cuttyhunk and without a boat?

[leo]

There is a daily ferry called Alert II out of New Bedford.

[reed]

Sorry it took so long to reply. I tried a half-dozen times
last week, and got kicked back each time. Don't know why.

I haven't fished Cuttyhunk from shore for ten years, but I
spent most of the 70s and 80s out there, and it probably
hasn't changed much, except there are an awful lot more
bass. For more timely info, try CMS Tackle in S. Dartmouth,
or Fire Fly Outfitters on Devonshire St. in Boston. They run
trips out of the Cuttyhunk Bass Club.

Here's what I know:

Where to fish:
It's all fishable water, but while places like Canapitsit
Channel, the old barges and the opening to Gosnold Pond can
be hot, I always gravitated to the south side and
particularly the s.w. corner. A dirt road runs along the
south side (you can walk the whole island in an hour - 2
miles to the corner, maybe) and you can peak over the bluff
through the brush to check out the holes and breaks in the
surf. It's all good water.

What to bring:
I used to haul heavy 11' surf sticks and try to throw big
pencil poppers to Gay Head, until I watched a long-time
islander use a noodly (and very lightweight) 7' spinning rod
to lob 4 oz Striper Swipers over the 1st or 2nd wave and
then just crawl the lure through the rocks. Guess who mopped
up big fish, while I heroically fished empty water. The
prevailing souwwesterly makes flyfishing the southside
tough. An 8' spinning rod (14 lb test) with a handful of
pencil poppers, jointed Danny pluges, Striper Swipers and
Atom swimmers (all floaters) will do the job.

What to wear:
Leave your waders home. Also, if it's still there, the black
slime on the rocks near the water is slipperier than greased
ice. Don't even think about walking/climbing on it. And
don't think about wading, because a) you don't need to, and
b) it may send you to the body shop. We settled on old,
stiff leather boots to give us purchase in the rocks and
protection from the barnacles. We tried sneakers and got
bloodied; sandals were worse.

How to get there:
The Alert runs there from New Bedford. I don't know the
schedule. Check with CMS Tackle or the New Bedford Standard
Times.

The good news:
I spent 15 years at Salt Water Sportsman Magazine and used
to get righteously indignent every time Jack Fallon wrote an
article about Cuttyhunk. I figured it would blow a good
secret. Jack's point was, that after 20 years of writing
about Cuttyhunk, he figured he had put maybe another five
fishermen out there. I can't speak for the last 10 years,
but we always had it pretty much to ourselves; and it's as
awesome a surfline to fish as any you will find.

A final postscript: on a summer Friday evening in the late
70s, a friend on mine and I raced over on my old Formula 233
(we have the closest mooring in America to Cuttyhunk) to
fish the s.w. corner at sunset. We anchored up and waded
ashore, and hustled down the island. We started finding
lures in the road, and every so often a ziploc baggie with
striper filets?????

When we got to the corner, there was an old beat-up flat-bed
pick-up truck, with a half dozen guys casting away, who had
obviously started enjoying Happy Hour right after breakfast.
Totally hammered and blissfully unaware,they had bounced
lures and bass of the flatbed with each rock and pothole
they hit. Being more or less honest, we returned the filets.
But only the filets.

Best of luck. It's one of the more special places I h