riptide
06-29-2000, 02:08 PM
I decided to get in on all of the shallow water flats action yesterday for myself. I call in sick and headed to Barnstable Harbor and points east. I was armed with the 6 wt. The 8 wt. and a light-spinning rod. I worked Barnstable from about 0700 for around 45 minutes with little luck. The Bay was glassy so I headed over to Wellfleet again. I hit the flats around 0900 and began a steady pick of fish to 28” on the 8 wt. The tide was still up and most of the fish were caught blind casting a small epoxy sand eel I tied. When the water level dropped the fish became visible and the sight fishing began. It was great. The fish were running in pods of 10 to 20 rather than the huge schools we have seen in the past weeks. There were also plenty of singles and doubles to work on. The fish have become very skittish as of late and I found that the 8 wt. the RIO quick Shooter line was spooking them if I got closer than 5 or 6 feet. Beyond that distance they avoided the fly. So I switched to the 6 wt. with a clear intermediate and flouro leader. It seemed to do the trick. Although my casting distance was shorter the clear light line didn’t seem to spook the fish as much and resulted in some great light tackle sight fishing. There was another boat up on the flats with me 2 guys in a Maritime skiff. I want to thank them if they read this; they were great guys to fish near. We talked between boats, discussed how we would setup drifts to avoid each other, they were outstanding fisherman. They also were not slouches with the long rod. Most of the time both of them was on fish. We all did very well. Then cam the little tin boat with the outboard trimmed half way up powering across the foot deep water. I will not be thanking those guys in this report!! Around 1400 I ran back over to Barnstable to work the bottom of the tide there. As the tide moved in I found a guzzle that held a huge school of fish waiting to get up onto the flooding flats. They were all mid 20”s and eager to feed. At 1800 my cell phone rang and the voice on the other end reminded me I had been on the water for almost 12 hour and I should think about heading home. After another dozen or so fish I took the advice and headed in to the ramp. Overall size was small on the fish, but sight casting to them in a foot of water with a 6 wt. more than made up for it.
Capt. Terry Nugent<BR>Riptide Charters<BR>www.riptidecharters.com
Capt. Terry Nugent<BR>Riptide Charters<BR>www.riptidecharters.com