Going to be plenty of wind over the next three days, which for small boat guides like myself means scrambling to find lee shores where the water is manageable so that folks without their sea legs can stand and cast. This is especially important for flyrodders where the motion of casting must be in rhythm with the movements of the boat. It also helps to have some form of line control device, which for me is a Fiskars collapsible leaf bucket, in which I have a ¾ inch piece of Starboard cut to match the circular bottom and a Line Lair mat. The spikes on the mat help limit the tangling, but I think I’ll finally get around to drilling holes in the Starboard that will allow me to attach the removeable spikes directly. It might not seem possible, but even with the Line Lair almost adhering to the Starboard, sometimes the line gets under it and impacts line flow and casting distance.
Why all this talk about wind preparation? It’s simple. When you know it’s going to be lumpy, it’s important that you keep the abilities – such as balance – as well as the experience of everyone in your boat. Nothing ruins a trip like someone falling, especially when they end up injured.
MONOMOY
Someone once told me not to chase reports, which seems kind of ironic since I have been penning fish columns – which share a common creative energy with reports – for over 30 years.
Well, after getting the friend of one of my favorite repeat flyrodders all jazzed up with tales about how good Monomoy can be, I took a look at the forecast and decided that there might be more and larger fish on the shoals to the east. After all, I had a number of reports from friends and anglers who said that the rips to the east were on fire.
I knew the trip was starting to go south when the flag at the parking lot for the ramp was standing at attention in contrast to the mild winds in the forecast.
Final result: two brief hook ups, but nothing to the boat – and an increased determination to get comfortable with fishing deep in the water column. We threw amber Hogy Charter Grade Poppers and Dog Walker XL’s and induced a few hits from fish that either rolled on the surface on bait or rocketed from down deep to wallop the plug, but even 10 inch Originals in amber, white, and pink never produced a consistent bite.
On the other hand, a few boats – especially the larger charterboats – opted for wire line and jigs, while a couple of light tackle guides trolled deep diving swimmers like the Hogy Charter Grade Swimmer on spin and light conventional gear. They caught more fish than most every other boat and I was kicking myself for not having my box of Hogy Sand Eel Jigs on the boat.
I spoke to Capt. Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing Cape Cod about his planned tuna trip, but he changed gears due to the wind and elected to bass fish. Now, he was one of the folks who was generous enough to relay how good the fishing was at Monomoy, but even Ben acknowledged that things were much tougher today.
Fishing with Amy Wrightson, owner of the Sports Port in Hyannis, they caught a couple of bass on Hogy Dog Walkers and 10 inch Originals in the early AM, but then the action pretty much died.
Obviously, versatility in terms of understanding and applying different techniques that allow you to react to changing water temperatures and feeding preferences.
NANTUCKET AND VINEYARD SOUNDS
While popular named rips like Middle Ground were inundated with boats in the morning, with a decent number of bass caught on topwater plugs and soft plastics – as well as bait.
But the one thing that I kept wondering about is how does one fish in a scenario where they can barely move their boat or even get off an unobstructed cast.
The answer proved to be a simple one and that is fish the afternoon or evening tide rather than struggling with a fleet in the AM.
Lots of folks call it a day in the early afternoon, allowing those who stick it out for some time to get ready for the tide change or the development of a feeding pattern after most boats have called it a day.
Of course, one must be aware that the morning is popular since it fits into their schedule.
But the simple truth is that if you want to catch fish as well as the sharpies you recognize on the water, then you need to familiarize yourself with things like peat current velocity and how the bait – and the bass and blues – reacts to it.
For the record, the plugs and plastics that worked best were amber and they had pretty much the entire rip they were working to themselves as they targeted a time when conditions were right on the afternoon tide.