I just got off the phone with Evan over at Eastman’s Sport & Tackle on Main Street in Falmouth and he offered up an interesting observation and a confirmation of a Hogy plug that is a must have this time of year. A lot of folks have opined that the early season fishing in the Nantucket Sounds rips has been slow to shape up, with Evan believing we are about a week to two weeks behind. Fortunately, as I mentioned in my earlier report, things are starting to round into shape in Nantucket Sound.
There is a series of rips that start about a mile east/southeast of Nobska Point and run towards L’Hommedieu Shoal and many people lump them in with the latter, but I typically refer to them as the rips off Nobska and I have also heard them called No Name Shoal so this can lead to some confusion when folks talk about where they were fishing. According to Evan, he and his dad, Chuck, started at L’Hommedieu yesterday afternoon, but I suspect they might have been more towards Nobska as this area is a short trip from Falmouth Harbor and very convenient to check out before heading to areas such as Woods Hole or Middle Ground. In any case, things were quiet thereabouts, although Evan noted that a number of local charter captains have been jigging wire near these waters and catching some solid stripers deeper in the water column.
In fact, you can find a video titled Fishing for Striped Bass at Nobska Point on the Hogy Lure website; it features Capt. Mike casting the Hogy Thumper Jig to get down to where some larger fish were holding in deeper water and stronger current.
Due to my love of topwater plugging and fishing surface flies, I fully recognize that I am potentially missing out on solid action when the fish aren’t showing on top and this video is a great way to see how you can get down in the rips if snapping wire isn’t your thing.
I will, however, never apologize for throwing poppers when fish are busting squid or other bait on top, as was happening at Middle Ground this morning.
But Evan found this area quiet yesterday on the east tide, so he moved over to Hedge Fence and hit the jackpot, with plenty of bird action – mainly gulls surveying the water before dropping down to grab dinner.
There wasn’t much in the way of squid showing, but if you think that is what the fish are feeding on, Evan agreed that a must have plug is the 1 5/8 ounce Hogy Charter Grade Popper in amber that is perfect for Capt. Mike’s Casting A Rip Approach. From back in the 40’s when Bob Pond introduced his Atom 40 swimmer in a transparent amber color and then re-invented it as the Reverse Atom by removing the metal lip and moving the line tie to the skinny end, this color has been at the top of the heap when it comes to imitating panicked squid. By working it back a couple of waves into the rip, he wasn’t necessarily able to see the takes, but he sure could feel them.
Last year, Capt. Mike introduced the Hogy Surface Eraser in clear amber as well and it can be fished at different levels of the water column, while the Hogy Charter Grade Popper is designed to float. Sometimes when the rips are really rocking, a subsurface approach will do the trick, which is why casting the amber Hogy seven-inch Original rigged on a weighted swimbait hook or a jighead will result in more hook ups since a floating plug in heavy water can be tough to keep contact with.
Evan added the sea bass bite out on the wrecks off of Oak Bluffs is starting to pick up, with some larger purple heads in the mix; tautog fishing remains good, but fewer people seem to be looking for green crabs as their attention has shifted to the more aggressive BSB which will take a wide assortment of jigs, including Hogy’s Epoxy Jigs, Heavy Metal Jigs, and Squinnow Jigs that will cull out larger fish, but many anglers opt for a traditional bucktail jig combined with a scented soft plastics.
Up inside the various salt ponds, harbors, bays, and rivers that dot the southside shoreline, Evan has heard from a number of folks that there are fewer large bass up inside but there are still a good number of stripers to be caught on light tackle or a fly rod. While many flyrodders who fish these areas seek worm hatches, the east/northeast winds and cooler temperatures last week put a damper on them, Evan said, with no reports from likely locations. But the warmer, southwesterly winds combined with more sunshine this week and significantly warmer air temperatures, as well as a full moon tomorrow, could result in more worms doing their procreation thing.
Finally, this morning Amy Wrightson from the Sport Port in Hyannis reported that along with the squid she jigged up recently were some spike mackerel and it can’t be coincidence that Evan spoke to someone who told of catching small mackerel off of Cotuit.
