Played hooky with J.T. yesterday and put the boat in at Centerville River around 8:00 a.m. Headed strait to the Wianno/West Bay outlet in Osterville where we were greeted with lots of happy false albacore who stuck around until about 9:30 and suddenly vanished. We picked up and headed to the Cotuit cut near Oregon beach where there were birds circling and lots of splashing going on. We set up a drift right at the oyster beds with the wind pushing us slowly East along Dead Neck/Sampson's Island. Looking down into the 2-3 feet of clear water, we could see literally thousands of stripers hugging the bottom and cruising along under the boat right off the beach. Every cast was met with a fish. We used clousers, herring flies, sliders, poppers, slug-go's and Acme Fjord spoons. Everything worked. These were not small fish either. none was under 25 inches and there were some cows we spotted that may have been twice that. This continued for about three drifts or a little over an hour and then
the fish just disappeared. I think they headed into the channel when the tide went slack. We picked up and headed West again where we met up with some more splashes at the New Seabury golf course. I picked up a bluefish there to complete my slam and it was off to Cape Pogue on the Vineyard. The scene at the Vineyard was different than it had been in recent weeks. There were some pods of albies popping up here and there but nothing too consistent. There was a pod in Edgartown Harbor and another off West Chop, but neither were worth fighting the other boats for. We did pick up a couple about 1/8 mile off the Big Bridge. Back to Cotuit around 4:30 p.m. where the school of big stripers was still milling about . This time they were tearing it up on the surface very close to the beach on the flat near Oregon Beach. There was a school approximately an acre in size of very big fish that would circle the flat and explode on the bait right on the surface. Again, every cast was a hook-up. We sta
yed until the light began fading and headed for home with the fish still breaking, arms aching and smiles on our wind-worn faces.