Cape/Nantucket: 5/25 - 6/1 (long)

[Big Bald Head]

Cape Cod/Nantucket 5/26 – 6/1/02 FISHING REPORT

5/26: Cape Cod: Fished Pleasant Bay 5:00 – 7:00 a.m, bottom half of outgoing tide. Slow fishing with a few big and a few small fish. Got one big striper (33”) on a Gurgler, no strikes on subsurface flies. Big fish totally blew up on my topwater fly, like somebody dropped a cow out of a pine tree, then took off with my fly, line, and backing and didn’t want to stop. Helluva fight on an 8-weight, very exciting. Missed two additional strikes, then landed on small 14” schoolie before needing a coffee and breakfast fix.

Fished Brewster Flats 4:00 – 6:00 pm, bottom half of outgoing tide. Searched ~1 hour before finding fish, then it was EVERY CAST a 12”-16” striper. Decided not to move as had limited time to fish, caught 35-40 schoolies on the fly rod in a nice rip. All on small 3” sand eel flies (chartreuse over white jiggie), just dead drifted through the rip. Changed to topwater for the heck of it, fishing got BETTER as schoolies came totally out of the water, bonking heads to get at my fly. Great fun. ALSO caught a tagged fish from the Hudson River Foundation, worth (according to the tag) between $10 and $1000. I’ll keep you posted about this fish. I tell my wife “Fishing DOES pay”.

5/27: Cape Cod: Sore shoulder, decide to throw plugs instead of fly-casting at Minister’s Point in Pleasant Bay. 4:45 – 6:15 a.m., mid outgoing tide. Catch 2 fish on chicken-scratch bombers, one @ 28” and one a bit bigger, maybe 30”. Fly casters nearby getting a slow pick of schoolies to 20”.

Cahoon Hollow Beach, 12:30-4 p.m. Primarily reading and chilling on the beach, but got up occasionally to throw big wooden plugs in the surf. KABLAMO! Fish on! 30” striper from the surf, the only strike I had all day, she hit a big Gibbs darter plug in the trough between the first and second bar. Drew a small crowd when I was fighting/landing the fish, people couldn’t believe I revived and let that fish go…but it sure felt great to see that fish swim away.


5/28: Cape Cod: Fly-fished Pleasant Bay 4:45 – 6:15, slow going, picked up only one small schoolie (14”) on a blue-over-white half-and-half. Weird tide, supposed to be outgoing but was high and slack, hence the slow fishing.

5/29: NANTUCKET with David Policansky. Fished south shore near Tom Nevers Beach 1:30 – 4:30 on mid-incoming to high tide. Throw metal/poppers/plugs on spinning gear to BIG BLUEFISH finning ~50 yds offshore. Catch 12-15 blues ranging from 8-11 pounds. Strong, aggressive fish. Occasionally close enough for fly rod, but most out too far. Good fishing, very visual, almost sight-casting.

5/30: NANTUCKET. Fished Great Point Rip and beach south 1-2 miles ~1:00 - 5:00 pm. Incredible fishing for moderate to big bluefish. Crushed poppers and metal with the spinning rod. Crashing/slashing at poppers. Total of approximately 25 to 30 fish each, ranging from 6-12 pounds (most about 8 pounds). Got one 31” blue (9 pounds?) on the fly rod from the surf (jiggy, 10-wt)…at one point all three fly-rodders were hooked up and totally alone on this stretch of beach). Incredible fight from the surf…took me into my backing three times before he tired enough to surf in on the waves. Broke off two more fly-rod bluefish, none bigger than the one I landed, though. Big fish on spinning rod went ~34”. Incredible fishing.

5/31: Nantucket. Fished 40th Pole beach from ~1:00 – 4:00, incoming to high tide. SLOW. I get six strikes and one fish, David P. gets 6 fish and 20 strikes (he can cast a country mile). Long casts necessary, but spooky fish and generally slow. Fish smaller 4-6 pounds.

6/1: Cape Cod: Fly-fished the Bass River Bridge (Rt. 28) at night, ~10:00pm – 12:00am. Was skunked on the last night I fly-fished, but was surrounded by hundreds of 4-6 pound stripers slurping tiny sand eels, all within easy casting range, so it was still a great night…I think the bait was so small that the fish just weren't interested in my flies…and believe me I threw the whole fly box at them. After the skunking, I walked up the bridge and leaned over the edge with a flashlight, just WATCHING these big stripers hang in feeding lanes like trout, occasionally rising to sip a sand eel from the surface. It was too cool and although I was skunked I still really enjoyed it.

SUMMARY: Biggest striper ever on the fly rod (32”…11 pounds??), first ever bluefish on the fly from the surf (and a 31” ~9-pound fish at that), and enough quality fish to constantly keep me interested. Plus a few days when you could literally catch fish until your arms fell off. I’m in love.

[Big Bald Head]

Here's a picture of the bluefish we caught at Tom Nevers Beach on Nantucket.

[bdowning]

Nice pix and report.

-bd

P.S. You ain't *that* bald!

[Bob Parsons]

Gee bd that was my first thought as well.

grats on the nice fish on a fly.

[bwana]

Nice report- I was the other guy fishing with you and your buddy on Gt pt. llast week, when we caught all those blues on the east side of the Gulls. The blues were feeding on small fish( butterfish???)which is quite unusual for that spot.Also they were on the East side of the Gulls with a southwest wind. Remindes me of fall fishing on Grt PT. Good luck..

[obf]

Nice Report!~ I was also on Nantucket and fished the Dionis area and took in a few small stripers. I'm returning on the 10th with friends for hard core fishing and the tides appear similar to those this past weekend. Did you fish any further South than the Galls---say down to the Quidnet area? That can be productive at this time of year and was wondering if you had hit that area?

[ChuckD]

I like the day by day play by play report. Nice work on your biggest bass on the fly....for the time being

[AlanP]

Great post. I knew I should have taken "Ray's" advice and fished Pleasant Bay over the weekend. If you see a guy in a kayak with less hair on his head but more on his face that would be me. Stop and say hi.