!!!!OK folks, here is what a lot you have been waiting for: a confirmed albie catch and photo, courtesy of Capt. Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing Cape Cod.
Cape Cod Bay:
The bass population in Cape Cod Bay appears to be thriving, particularly in the areas around Provincetown and Nauset. Anglers have reported success with both mackerel and pogies as bait, resulting in catches of larger bass and occasional bluefin tuna sightings. Five-ounce nylon hair jigs and soft plastics mimicking sand eels have proven effective, especially when targeting deeper water schools. The tip of Cape Cod has also seen an increase in bluefish activity, adding to the diverse fishing opportunities in the bay.
Buzzards Bay:
Buzzards Bay has been a mixed bag this week. Nick Santolucito from M & D Outfitters in Wareham highlighted the continued presence of decent bass and fluke, despite super warm and stagnant water conditions. The south-facing beaches from Nobska to Popponesset are gearing up for a solid bonito run, with lighter fluorocarbon and smaller tins flying off the shelves. Mark Tenerowicz noted some success with mid-sized blues in the Sakonnet and sporadic bass activity in the Mattapoisett River and inner harbor.
Relevant Video: How To: Combo Trip | Jig Seabass | Topwater Stripers
The Elizabeths and Woods Hole
Fishing in the Elizabeth Islands has shown some promise, with sightings of terns and bonito adding excitement to the waters. Capt. Mike reported good action on baby squid in Woods Hole, resulting in multiple catches and losses of sizeable bass on poppers. The islands also continue to produce solid catches of scup, sea bass, and fluke, particularly in deeper waters. Felix Bandito found success with mackerel around Cuttyhunk, using them to catch slot-sized bass.
Relevant Video: How-To: Casting Big Topwater Plugs for Striped Bass
The Vineyard and Vineyard Sound
The Vineyard:
Bluefish and bonito have been the highlights around the Vineyard this week. Capt. Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing Cape Cod reported excellent sea bass fishing around Wasque, with plenty of sizeable fish caught using larger jigs and strips of squid. Trolling deep diving swimmers has been effective for both blues and bonito, although the blues have been finicky due to their preference for smaller bait. Aiden Olsen at Dick’s Bait & Tackle confirmed increasing numbers of bonito, particularly around Squibnocket and Gay Head.
Vineyard Sound:
Evan Eastman from Eastman’s Sport & Tackle noted the abundance of small bait and terns around Nobska, though fish activity on them has been sparse. Anglers using eels around the Elizabeths and Woods Hole have had success with bass. Sea bass fishing remains good, with deeper waters producing larger catches. For dealing with finicky striped bass and micro bait, check out this video.
Relevant Video: Finicky Striped Bass | Micro Bait | Surface Erasers
The Canal
The Canal has experienced a solid bass bite, particularly around the east end near the Sagamore Bridge. Mackerel have moved in, sparking topwater action with white pencil poppers and glide baits. Smaller bonito have also made an appearance. Jeff Miller at Canal Bait and Tackle emphasized the importance of matching the hatch with smaller lures, particularly Hogy Epoxy Jigs in silver, olive, and anchovy colors.
Monomoy and the Outer Cape
Monomoy continues to be a hotspot for bass, with topwater action producing slot-sized fish. Sand eel imitations and soft plastics in brown, olive, and white have been effective, particularly around Nauset and the backside of the Cape. The shoals are still active with bass pushing sand eels to the surface, making for exciting fishing with jigs and topwater plugs. Tips on fishing rips with big plugs can be found in this rips fishing video.
Relevant Video: How-To: Fishing Rips with Big Plugs
Nantucket
Nantucket’s bass fishing has slowed, particularly on the west side of the island, but the colder water areas farther east are still holding bait and stripers. Great Point remains a reliable spot for bluefish, with both shore and boat anglers finding success with deep diving swimmers and vertical jigging. Sharking from the beach is gaining popularity, with fresh bluefish chunks being a top bait choice.
Relevant Video: How-To: Topwater Bluefish on Hogy Surface Pencils
Offshore
The canyons have been on fire, with consistent catches of yellowfin and mahi, along with occasional bigeye and blue marlin sightings. Closer to shore, south of the Vineyard, the action has been slower, but there are still opportunities for smaller mahi and the occasional tuna.
Additional Notes
- Early Morning Success: Early morning and late evening hours continue to be the most productive times for bass and bluefish across all regions.
- Weather Impact: Fog and overcast conditions have played a significant role in the activity levels of fish, with many anglers finding success during these times.
- Matching the Hatch: Smaller baitfish are prevalent, so matching lure size and color to these baitfish can increase success rates.
- Gear Recommendations: Ensure your tackle is up to date, particularly for bonito and albie runs, with a focus on lighter fluorocarbon leaders and smaller lures.
- Exploring New Waters: Venturing to less frequented areas, such as deeper holes and rips, can yield surprising results, especially for sea bass and fluke.
- Safety First: Always check weather conditions and be prepared for sudden changes, especially when fishing offshore or in the Canal.
TL;DR
This week saw diverse fishing action across Cape Cod Bay, Buzzards Bay, the Elizabeth Islands, Vineyard Sound, and beyond. Bass and bluefish were plentiful in Cape Cod Bay, while Buzzards Bay showed promise for bass and fluke despite warm water. The Elizabeths and Woods Hole reported solid catches of scup, sea bass, and fluke. Vineyard Sound had increasing numbers of bonito and bluefish. The Canal experienced a strong bass bite, particularly around the east end. Monomoy remained a hotspot for bass, and Nantucket saw reliable bluefish action despite slower bass fishing. Offshore, the canyons yielded consistent catches of yellowfin and mahi. Early mornings, matching the hatch, and exploring new waters are key tips for success. Always prioritize safety, especially with changing weather conditions.
Product Recommendations from Hogy Lure Company
- Hogy Protail Paddle – Excellent for mimicking baitfish like mackerel and pogies, which have been effective in Cape Cod Bay.
- Hogy Epoxy Jig Lure® – Ideal for surface blitzes and matching smaller baitfish, highly recommended for the Canal and Vineyard Sound.
- Hogy Charter Grade Popper – Great for topwater action in Monomoy and the Outer Cape.
- Hogy Sand Eel Jig – Perfect for imitating sand eels, which are prevalent in many regions, especially around Nauset and the shoals.
- Hogy Squinnow Jig – Excellent for targeting sea bass and other groundfish around the Elizabeths and deeper waters.
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Thursday
If you’re old school like I am, it can sometimes be too easy to celebrate old school craftsmen who used Yankee ingenuity to transform natural materials into fish catching items while on occasion disparaging those more contemporary, yet equally creative, folks who dabble in manmade elements.
Once upon a time, I warned myself against ever sounding like old folk who found it far too easy to criticize the present while reveling in recollections of the past. Today, as my friend, Capt. Warren Marshall, and I made our way up the Buzzards Bay side of the Elizabeths from Quick’s Hole, I had to ask him, “Was it really that common to see birds working as I like to recall or am I just making it up?” The question was an important one for me since today’s trip was another where I saw nothing that resembled life in so many places where I could always count on catching fish.
No doubt, these spots typically held mainly smaller bass or schools of the best kind of bluefish to eat – you know the four to six-pounders. I wondered if the fish were still there, but had become used to, and therefore immune, to the allure of surface plugs that always seemed to bring a response.
It’s possible that there are far more fish around than I believe there are, but they could very well have changed their feeding habits, preferring to hang in deeper water away from the shorelines where I plug or sling flies. Then again, since there are – in my estimation – far fewer small bass around that are typically more inclined to jump a popper, spook, or even an unweighted soft plastic, then maybe I’ve been sticking with an old school approach that isn’t as attractive to larger, more experienced fish.
As an angler who spent a lot of time on my own figuring things out and succeeded in a number of ways, I’m beginning to think that there might be nothing worse than getting in a rut that keeps me from recognizing the opportunities and challenges right in front of me.
It’s kind of the same thing when it comes to classic wood, lead, bucktail, hackles, and fur vs. new fangled synthetics like manmade “hair,” foam, and extruded flash, along with the multitude of resins and plastics that are now used in plug building and jig making.
In the old days, if you wanted a fly to float, you might use spun deer hair while today buoyancy can be achieved by using sheet foam, cylinders, or molded popper heads.
Based on what someone had in mind when shaping a plug out of wood, he or she first had to consider characteristics such as density, grain structure, and overall weight of a block of what they could get their hands on. If the plan was to carve a plug body, then a softer wood was preferable; on the other hand, when shaping darters with their complicated slopes and angles and need to work subsurface without an added metal or plastic lip, a harder wood such as maple was often chosen.
Determining the placement and amount of lead to create the proper action and depth that a plug would swim at is extremely important in wooden plug making and they still carry their own weight amongst plastic lure makers. The modernist more and more delves into the use of internal weights that move within the hollow body of a synthetic plug, helping with casting distance while adding a sonic element – like a rattle – as they move fore and aft or just roll around.
Folks who create solid body lures out of synthetics – typically pouring resins into a mold – also have what are called microballons at their disposal that can be used to not only guarantee that a plug floats, but also control sink rate in subsurface plugs.
Ultimately, as much as I love to hold – as well as fish – wood from old masters such as Pichney, Gibbs and so many others as well as the newer generation who excel in both reproducing exacting copies of older, proven designs and their own original plugs, the fact is that the modern angler benefits in so many ways from the efforts of folks like Capt. Mike.
Whether hard or soft plastic, resin or rubber, hollow or solid, there is a great deal of thought that goes into designing, testing, and tweaking today’s synthetic lures. Some advantages are obvious – such as the longevity of a lure made from modern materials and the consistency possible in modern plug production – but before the molds are made and the end product rolls down the line, there are so many choices – including compromises at times – that have to be made.
Next time you pick up a Hogy Protail Paddle, try to imagine what Mike had in mind when he developed the overall body shape and specifically the paddletail itself. What was the order of priority in terms of design features and how these characteristics are balanced out to create the plug, jig, or soft plastic that you can fish with confidence.
And, frankly, whether new or old, a huge key in using any lure is to take the time to learn its nuances and how it “works” in the water. There is certainly a lot of pride and time involved in learning how a wooden Danny works, in large part since each one will do something different – either subtly or obviously. While wooden plugs of the same model or size might be close in their weighting and hardware, when the whole package comes together, some of them will be amazing fish producers and others not so much.
Heck, two bucktail jigs from the same lot may not sink or swim the same way simply because of the amount, density, and length of hair.
So kudos to everyone who puts the time into making the multitude of plugs, flies, jigs, and other lures that we use today, but no matter how they are made, I always remember that the other part of the equation is in the hands of each angler.
CAPE COD BAY BY WAY OF BUZZARDS BAY
The best kind of tackle shop owner to my way of thinking is someone who not only has the requisite knowledge about the different types of fishing, but also an enthusiasm and appreciation of all the ways that people go about catching fish.
Nick Santolucito from M & D Outfitters in Wareham clearly embodies that ideal and goes beyond by thinking about both the big picture in angling and the subtleties and seemingly minor details that can make all the difference on the water.
He is quite familiar with the different approaches to fishing outflow areas – which are perfect for a fly fishing technique called “the swing” – and he noted it “always seem this time of year that most shallow water opportunities on the fly are the 24 to 28 inch cookie cutters. These fish still tend to be racy, seem to be most resilient to the water temps, and will make up most of the action while the larger fish become more lethargic seeking deeper refuge. During an outgoing tide at these outflows those larger fish will find their way in from deeper water to feed especially in the PM and early AM hours. These outflows provide the ideal current for these fish to stage in with minimal effort, allowing them to ambush bait that is being flushed out.”
One of the more popular shore fly fishing spots on the Cape is Scorton Creek, which Nick said “happens to be primarily sandy by nature with a deep cut, often changed given the season’s weather patterns. Other locations may be different, with more structure that tends to break up the current and often times puts the fish into pockets.”
Although extremely important to flyrodders – remember “the swing” – as you “present your fly to naturally flow in these conditions,” Nick concluded, “allowing it to reach the end of its course, often resulting in a hook up on the swing, once the fly becomes tight to the line again,” this same kind of thinking can be applied to fishing soft plastics and even plugs. While flyrodders are usually familiar with the concept of working with the current, too many spin anglers are inclined to spend too much time winding line in rather than keeping it in the strike zone.
I would not suggest doing this in the Canal, but in the Rhode Island breachways a common approach was the cast upcurrent and the let your jig or plug flow with the current, including opening the bail or putting a conventional reel into free spool and then letting it swim towards the end of jetty and even out beyond. The key is each angler has to walk with the current and swim his offering to the point where he or she catches a fish or reaches empty water; at that point, it’s time to walk back in along the jetty and await your turn to do it all over again.
Nick recommends sand eel, traditional flatwings, and smaller baitfish patterns as they “are all on the menu as most of these outflows hold smaller estuary based bait.”
Despite water temperatures reaching close to 80 degrees in the Mattapoisett River and the inner harbor, Mark Tenerowicz fished an hour either side of high tide and there was not a thing happening “except a fleeting sight of slashing fish moving very fast across my bow,” referring to his kayak. He didn’t think they were small bluefish because he cast a small soft plastics into them and the result was “nothing.”
In his usual self-deprecating style, Mark admitted “I tried to tell myself they were bonito, but I am admittedly desperate to have a shot at any fish.”
But on Monday, finding and catching fish was no problem around the Sakonnet as he found “the same blues in the same spot and they were equally entertaining.”
THE VINEYARD AND VINEYARD SOUND
Evan Eastman from Eastman’s Sport & Tackle on Main Street in Falmouth had some bluefish news as he and his dad “Chuck went out on Monday and caught some nice bluefish once we took the turn around Cape Poge on the 7/8th ounce silverside (Hogy) Epoxy Jig with an inline hook.”
They then went to the Hooter and “trolled around for a while and caught nothing and then went over to Squibby and trolled for a while and just caught sea bass. There were tons of boats out around Gay Head, mostly bottom fishing from what I could tell. A few boats were trolling, but I didn’t see anyone hook up with anything but sea bass. There were about 15 boats at Devil’s Bridge, but it was too weedy to fish and too many boats.”
Evan added that he saw a couple of guys hook up trolling wire, but it once again seemed like most of the boats were bottom fishing on the rougher side of the rip.
WOODS HOLE AND THE ELIZABETHS
I got to fish with my buddy Capt. Warren and we were pleased to find a good number of bass feeding on baby squid in the Hole on all of the ledges and reefs. Warren was tossing a popper on the fly rod and ended up with the trifecta: one bass ran over the rocks and parted the leader, another fish took him into his backing three times and he couldn’t budge it before the tippet snapped, and a third fish bent the hook, which was a heavy wire 3/0.
We also tossed an amber Hogy Charter Grade Popper as the tide slacked and had a number of blow ups before bringing a smaller fish to the boat.
In all honesty, we were both particularly disappointed not to get a look at the one fish that pulled off so much backing multiple times; I thought it might have been one of those big, gnarly Elizabeth’s blues, but the leader showed no signs of being frayed.
It was such a FAC day and overcast to boot that we decided to run towards Cuttyhunk to see if could find any bonito, but other than a brief flurry of terns outside Robinson’s and a similar here-and-gone show inside Quick’s, it was quiet.
Wednesday
There might be a difference of opinion on whether the union of social media and fishing is a good thing, but the reality is the connection is here to stay.
So, I feel pretty confident that anyone who follows posts about fishing has seen the video from New Hampshire of the whale landing on the stern of boat as it breaches to inhale a mouthful of pogies.
This is similar to what happened off Manomet a couple of years ago, but in that case the whale glanced off the boat, while this time it was right on top of it, ultimately capsizing the vessel and tossing its two occupants into the water.
Although the interaction was obviously the highlight, I also found it interesting that the two teenagers who shot the video reported that they were into really big bass up to 50 inches.
Around the Cape, the vast majority of stripers being caught by recreational anglers are either in the slot or just beyond the 31 inch figure – remember that the rec community can take fish from 28 inches to less than 31 in Massachusetts – up to around the starting point where folks who sell bass can keep them, in this case 35 inches.
The word is that Cape Cod Bay – which is below a line from Brant Rock in Marshfield to Race Point in Provincetown – is where most of the stripers of sellable size are being caught in and around the Cape, but there are a few boats that target bass for the market fishing around the Chatham area as well.
Otherwise, bigger bass are scarce right now throughout the Cape’s waters, leading to one question: is this shift in the population demographic a permanent development that we can continue to expect in the future during July and August due to natural changes such as water temperature and bait movement or has overfishing significantly depleted the stock of so called “resident fish” in areas such as Woods Hole and the Elizabeths, as well as the deeper holes of Vineyard Sound down to Gay Head and Noman’s?
Again, social media posts have provided clear evidence that both shore and boat anglers from the south shore of Boston into the waters of Boston Harbor and its surroundings are catching the kind of bass that all of the Cape was known for, but cows in New Hampshire just might outnumber us as well, something that I could not imagine once the striper recovery was in full swing in the early to mid 2000’s.
It was so common to catch 40+ inch bass on pretty much every trip, day or night, that I realize now I was spoiled and that even as the fishery managers were saying that the stock was “fully recovered” and liberalizing recreational bag and size limits, I was complicit in sowing the seeds of the decline we are facing today locally.
Meanwhile, I know that to our north, far too many anglers are reveling in their haul of big fish, leading them to scoff at people like me who recognized my folly and concluded that if we continued on the track that was being followed on the Cape and islands that we would eventually, as they say, have to “pay the piper.”
These final thoughts may be far too Biblical for some, but even though the humpback didn’t swallow the two fishermen up north as the whale did to Jonah, I can only hope that as an angling community that we can come together and head off the kind of greed and myopia that had the striper population on the brink in the not so distant past.
THE CANAL
If someone has fished the Big Ditch for any length of time, he or she will come to realize the importance of mackerel in determining how good the fishing is throughout the season.
No doubt, other bait such as both adult pogies and peanut bunker, squid, river and sea herring, butterfish, and smaller fish such as sand eels, silversides, and bay anchovies can and usually do play a role in what can be caught and to what degree, but mackerel have arguably provided the spark that has ignited some of the best action recently.
That’s why it was good to hear from Jeff Miller at Canal Bait and Tackle in Sagamore that “mackerel moved in” and there had “been a solid afternoon bite happening in the vicinity of the Sagamore Bridge, with topwater action from Portagee Hole to the Stone Church area.”
Pencil poppers were working well, both the classic Stan Gibbs’ style – including the Canal version – and the newer “bowling pin” design; green mackerel is typically a good color to start with for obvious reasons, but white and Wacky Mackerel are other good options.
Jointed glidebaits in the same colors bridge the gap between true surface plugs and either heavy bucktail or paddletail jigs; most Canal anglers use the fast sinking versions, but one of these can still be fished in the upper part of the water column by starting a fast retrieve soon after it hits the water.
Another style of swimmer is also a Canal staple among a select group of regulars, that being a larger narrow profile or Finnish style swimmer. The main issue with this style is casting since they are usually light for their size, being hollow plastic, and any lipped swimmer is wind resistant. Back in the day, hardcores used to solve this problem by drilling or melting a hole in a strategic location on the plug’s body and then filling the hollow chamber with water, mineral or even small BB’s. Some sharpies even opted for mercury, a liquid that had well-known negative health consequences, but they swore that nothing worked as well.
Fortunately, some plug manufacturers make these types of plugs with what are known colloquially as “long cast systems” which feature a number of BB’s that move towards the tail end of the plug on the cast, thereby producing longer casts due to better weight distribution. Jeff said that white or bone are the most frequent colors used, but some can be found in green, blue or even wacky mackerel.
Having recently moved and with a new car, Connor Swartz from Red Top in Buzzards Bay found himself at Bell Road early, early this morning without any of his Canal gear. What he did have was a seven foot spinning set up with a ball type leadhead jig with a free swinging feathered hook that he used on a fluke trip on Sunday. With no other options, he went about working it like he would any jig in the Canal, managing to pick up a few mid-20 inch schoolies that were extra heavy for their length. The action stopped around sunrise, but Connor explained that this was more a function of the west tide tailing off at about the same time as the skies brightened.
CAPE COD BAY
Even though he caught fish in the Canal, Connor Swartz recommended fishing the beaches along the northside of the Cape if someone was hoping to get into some consistent bass action. Casting at first light with topwater plugs has been effective from Sandy Neck to Barnstable Harbor, with spooks and pencil poppers the way to go from the open beaches.
On the other hand, I spoke to a couple of flyrodders earlier this week who managed a number of bass from the mid-30 to 40+ inch class fishing the early, early outgoing tides around the Sandwich creeks. This is a common pattern during the summer, with bigger fish moving into the creeks under the cover of darkness to feed on bait that either resides in the marshes or is flushed in and out. During days where the last couple of hours of outgoing water occur in the morning while it is still dark, the fishing can be excellent with both floating or intermediate lines and basic Clousers or flat wing patterns, as well as shrimp ties.
This same timing pattern works on the open beaches as well, with sand eel imitations a common choice, but crab and other crustacean flies like mole crabs.
At night, fish will typically come into shallow water and spin anglers can use unweighted or lightly weighted soft plastics to imitate sand eels if that is what they are feeding on, but live eels and their larger soft plastic impostors are popular as well. Bouncing small jigs on the bottom will imitate the movement of crustaceans that frequent the intertidal zone, but fishing chunk baits such as mackerel or pogies at night is effective as well.
Although many anglers associate leadhead jigs with either fishing from a boat or in a deeper channels that often feature strong currents – think the Canal – the truth is they can be effective when casting along sand beaches. One of the keys is to select a jig with a head shape that allows it be dragged through the sand without tumbling as well as fished with a traditional jigging retrieve. Hogy’s new Groundfish Biki Jigs not only feature the perfect head shape, but they are also painted in crabby colors that increase their attraction.
MARTHA’S VINEYARD
There are lot of moving parts involved in managing a tackle shop, but Julien Pepper at Larry’s Tackle in Edgartown took some time out from his busy schedule to fill me in on what he has been doing and what he has been hearing.
He went out this morning looking to catch some bass to sell, but with no luck at finding pogies to liveline, Julien chose to throw a big bone/white spook that raised a couple of smaller fish that never got buttoned up. This has been a common refrain recently, with many folks turning to scup or live eels although they would prefer menhaden.
Wading the rocky shoreline from Squibnocket to Gay Head and throwing topwater plugs at dusk before turning to after dark offerings such as needlefish or darters is a good approach, but a few serious anglers elect to use live eels both on this stretch of shoreline, as well as along the northside of the island. Julien has heard of at least one 20 pound shore fish, but generally you will be catching mid 20 inch to slot sized bass.
Wasque is holding an amazing number of sea bass that are at times blitzing like bluefish, pushing small sand eels and tiny, one inch squid to the surface. Julien explained that there are bonito mixed in with the BSB and anglers tossing Hogy Epoxy and Heavy Metal Jigs are doing well, as well as regulars who still count on chrome and green classic Vineyard jigs. In fact, Julien spoke a couple of young Vineyard anglers who managed to catch 16 bones yesterday.
Down around Squibnocket, Gay Head, and Devil’s Bridge, trolling deep diving swimming plugs is producing some bonito, but there are an increasing number of bluefish that will do a good job of cutting into your supply of plugs if you are using light leaders for funny fish.
Julien heard that more sizeable fluke are being caught on the north shore of the island, but he prefer to scope out new waters to the east of the island. He checked out some new spots yesterday and managed a few summer flounder in the five pound class in only a couple of drifts.
Tuesday
An error that fishermen should avoid, I think, is to make the suggestion that fish don’t feel pain or that we in any way aren’t doing them harm if we release them.
Although it almost eleven years ago, I was surprised to read the following in the August 8, 2013 Internet issue of ScienceDaily, under the question: Do fish feel pain?
There was a summary of a German study, and while I realize it can be a mistake to rely on a condensed version of scientific research that might not capture all the nuances and suggestions in the original, but here it is:
Fish do not feel pain the way humans do, according to a team of neurobiologists, behavioral ecologists and fishery scientists. The researchers conclude that fish do not have the neuro-physiological capacity for a conscious awareness of pain.
While that might make anglers feel better about themselves and their sport, it is quite clear that when a fish is hooked, they are completely aware that something is wrong and typically do whatever it takes to run and escape from whatever is causing their discomfort.
As a non-scientist, I am aware of my limits of understanding what causes pain in terms of physiology and neurobiology, so I kind of abide by the common sense tautology: if it quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, flies like a duck, swims like a duck, and walks like a duck, then I’m pretty sure it’s a duck.
It’s kind of like going to the dentist and getting all shot up with novocaine before a procedure; you might not feel pain, but you sure as heck know something ain’t right with all that poking and tugging, not to mention the drilling.
That’s why I always felt that using a stomach pump to examine the contents of a fish’s stomach – typically trout – was going a bit too far and that, in fact, it isn’t as commonly used today.
But then I checked my favorite fly fishing shop’s website and there was one for sale; I even found out that Wal-Mart sells one of these devices.
For my own edification, I also looked up an explanation of how one works – and I have to say I was a little bothered by the certainty of one assertion:
A stomach pump is a tool that fly fishers can use to see what fish are eating. When used correctly, it can be an effective tool that doesn’t harm the fish.
Due to the constraints of time, I couldn’t investigate whether there have been any studies to support the notion that pumping a fish’s stomach – whether done correctly or not – doesn’t cause harm, but I am skeptical.
I do understand the benefits of examining the stomach contents of a fish that one has decided to harvest, even if what is learned is not usually immediate since most anglers don’t typically take the time to eviscerate a fish when it is caught.
Taking the time to look at stomach contents can, however, help down the road when running into a situation where the fish are clearly actively feeding and you have exhausted all methods at your disposal to draw a response.
So why all of my interest in what can be found in a fish’s belly?
Well, yesterday while fishing with Michael Beebe at Monomoy, we did quite well with sand eel imitating fly patterns and a popper designed by the late Tom Sledzik; using my rudimentary skills of deduction, I assumed they were feeding on these common baitfish.
Last night, however, Michael emailed to say that he did find sand eels in the stomach of the one fish he took home for dinner, but also small, two inch or so squid. Pretty much anyone who has fished any of the shoals on the Cape, Nantucket or the Vineyard is aware that squid are a prime food source for many species of fish.
And we had one rod set up with a large, bright orange squid pattern for fishing the many rips to the east of the point as Jake Mandirola from North Chatham Outfitters told me recently that orange and pink are still productive plug and soft plastic colors, a good indication that they are feeding on Loligo Pealeii.
But now that I am aware that some baby squid might be in the mix, I need to sit down at the vice and spin up some smaller white, silicone squid bugs as well as a handful of bunny fir squids, with the very important difference between them and the ones I used for funny fish being the placement of the eye towards the rear.
After all, when the fish are picky and feeding on small squid, you better make sure that your flies have the all important eye position down just right!
Before I move on, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that a couple of spin anglers in a boat near us were doing just fine with smaller white bucktail jigs as well as leadheads adorned with small soft plastics – in white.
MARTHA’S VINEYARD
As a continuation and confirmation on my bluefish news yesterday, Aiden Olsen at Dick’s Bait & Tackle in Oak Bluffs confirmed this morning that their numbers have been filling in quite nicely around the islands. Squibnocket and Gay Head are areas where folks are trolling deep diving swimmers and vertical jigging for them, with periods of the tide seeing them up on the surface finning and swirling and more than willing to hit topwater plugs. Most of the blues are ranging between four and eight pounds, but there are some significantly larger ones mixed in.
The advantage of trolling the aforementioned type of swimming plugs – both solid body and jointed – is that with their longer bills they can be trolled at higher speeds, something that not only attracts blues but also bonito and Aiden said that more and more of these are being caught with each passing day. It is important, however, to note that when trolling in waters where both bluefish and bones are being caught, it’s important to have more than just a couple of plugs on board if you are using lighter fluorocarbon leaders. Then again, some very experienced charter boat captains stick with the heavier leaders they use for choppers and they do quite well on bonito, perhaps as a result of fishing deeper water.
A lure category that once was at the top of the list when trolling for all species on the Cape and islands and is still very productive when fishing for blues and bones is the classic trolling spoon, perhaps best exemplified by the Tony Accetta Pet Spoon. But there are plenty of others, some of them targeted towards freshwater species, but they might be worth a look for use in the salt as well.
When fishing for the bonito’s larger relatives offshore, including yellowfin, big eye, and bluefin, trolling spreader bars is a common technique since they represent a school of bait and draw fish in with sight and sound. While umbrella rigs are most often a subsurface way of attracting fish, remember that there a hellacious creation known as a bait dredge that can be used to catch tuna and in many ways it is an umbrella rig on steroids. Since they are usually called “bait dredges,” people mistakenly assume that they are only rigged with baitfish such as ballyhoo. In point of fact, when making up these rigs, some sharpies add shiny spoons to help draw a pelagic fish’s attention.
I can’t guarantee it, but I would not be surprised to learn that a custom umbrella rig that is used in other waters around the world where bonito are caught has found its way – very quietly – into our area. I know of at least one commercially made version, but the general concept is a smaller, lighter frame outfitted with plastic – often hollow – squid in bright colors and hookless spoons with a stinger – often a larger spoon or swimming plug – down the middle.
Another popular bluefish haunt – both for shore and boat anglers – is the Wasque area, along with East Beach, Tom Shoal, and Cape Poge. Aiden emphasized that unlike last season when these waters were filled with really big blues, at the moment they are ranging between four and six pounds on most tides.
He added that the local sandy shark crews are perfectly happy to have this bait source in any size since they make sandbar sharks – most commonly and incorrectly referred to as brown sharks – very happy.
There hasn’t been a major push of bonito into the near shore waters from Edgartown to Vineyard Haven according to Aiden, but there is a ton of small bait around in the form of sand eels, silversides, and baby squid that bones just love in these waters. Frankly, I would not be surprised that the dedicated funny fish fanatics on the island have been casting at scattered, smaller schools of bonito in the morning, but keeping it to themselves as long as they can.
Bass fishing is definitely best at night -or at least well before sun up – from the up island beaches and along the north shore. Although it can make for more challenging fishing – both in terms of footing and maintaining contact with a plug to make sure it is working correctly – nights with heavy surf and stronger currents are worth losing sleep over at this time of year. You might pick up a smaller fish or two walking the beach at dusk while throwing a topwater plug, but needlefish, darters, and larger, tandem rigged soft plastics are typically in an experienced Vineyard surfcaster – along with a few bucktails and a floating swimmer or two.
We are definitely into eeling season as well, with live snakes probably the top choice, but if you can get your hands on a few riggies made by someone who is familiar with the art, make sure you stay on his or her good side.
One area that has been producing bass for both small boat and shore anglers early in the morning and again at night is Menemsha, both in the channel and up inside the pond. Fishing live bait or even drifting fresh chunks is effective here, but flyrodders target this area in the heat of the summer as it is close to areas with cooler, deeper water that often flushes in and the marshes are prime spawning and schooling areas for silversides and sand eels.
NANTUCKET
Out on the Grey Lady, the word from Nick Beakey at Nantucket Tackle Center is the bass fishing off the west side of the island has definitely tailed off which is typical for late July and into August. Most of the boats are towards Old Man Shoals if they are looking to stay closer to the island while the colder water areas farther east are holding more bait and stripers.
A common mainstay around Nantucket during the dog days of summer is their bluefishing, but Nick said it still remains slower than usual. Great Point is one beach spot that has been holding blues fairly regularly and even boaters have been focusing their efforts around there, both trolling deep diving swimmers that can handle faster speeds and even vertical jigging in deeper water when they aren’t showing.
Great Point is also where more and more people are getting into sharking from the beach, which is a great way to tangle with a much bigger fish than pretty much any shore angler has had the opportunity to previously. Fresh bluefish chunks – or even a smaller whole one – is an excellent bait, with fresh dead eels another option if the blues aren’t cooperating. Hooking into a brown shark is one thing, but getting control of one and then landing it is another, so your typical bass or bluefish beach outfit is often inadequate for the job and Nick told me that more and more people are coming in to get properly set up for this fishery.
Bass fishing from shore has also really slowed, with your best bet fishing live eels at night, with Nobadeer and the Sewer Pipes two areas that Nick recommended on the south shore. While beachgoers might not appreciate heavy surf and lots of white water, these kind of conditions make for the best fishing with lures, including large black or darker colored soft plastics or bucktail jigs.
Paul Caruso and his neighbor Kelley Dumas made the run to the Nantucket Shoals for what he called the Nantucket Trashcan Slam after enjoying some early morning topwater bass action at Monomoy. I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know if this an actual tournament or something Paul made up, but in any case they had the perfect FAC conditions for running there in a small boat – if you don’t count the fog, which he said “is getting old.”
They picked up some really nice fluke as well as sea bass of the size you just aren’t seeing in the sounds right now. And Paul is one of those anglers who genuinely enjoys catching any species of fish, noting they caught a mixed bag that included “windowpane, mackerel, smooth dogs, and sea robins.”
OFFSHORE – NEAR AND FAR
I realize that running to spots such as Crab Ledge or the Dump or even south of Noman’s is a haul for many folks, but right now it’s especially important to different fishing east of Chatham and south of the Vineyard from the running to the canyons.
Howie Baker said it isn’t an exaggeration when folks are saying the canyons are on fire right now. Pretty much every boat heading that way is catching yellowfin and mahi, with a good number of bigeye or a few blue marlin showing up, with the former occasionally wolfpacking the spread while the billfish will drive you crazy, working from bait to bait with their bill seemingly testing each one.
Meanwhile, boats making the run south of the Vineyard have been reporting action – for the most part – that is anything but inspiring. Capt. Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing Cape Cod keeps doing what every good offshore angler does – putting in the time and burning lots of fuel – but yesterday the conditions weren’t as predicted and it was another tuna less trip. They did catch some small mahi as the water has cleared up enough from that kind of greenish brown that pelagic fish don’t like and they hooked up one in the 10+ pound range that threw the hook.
In my few conversations with Capt. Mike about offshore fishing, he mentioned that the area known as the Shipping Lanes probably marks the boundary between the spots that comprise south of the Vineyard – although he added this is not a hard and fast rule amongst everyone who lives for this kind of fishery – and the beginning of the canyons. And Aiden Olsen said that Steve Morris, owner of Dick’s Bait & Tackle in Oak Bluffs, found some tuna at the Shipping Lanes while returning from a recent canyon trip.
And out east of Chatham, the boats from Nantucket that have lately made the run to Regal Sword and far more rarely up to Crab Ledge have shifted gears to the canyons, according to Nate Beakey. There are still some smaller bluefin in these areas, but not as consistently as last season, and there are far more recreational people who have no interest in tangling with a giant on casting or jigging gear than the assortment of charter operators who cater to a boatful of folks who want to take turns pulling on a fish that most likely is DOA due to the use of too light tackle.
Monday
I guess it’s a good thing that so many people are asking about bluefish these days since in a world of striped bass, striped bass, and more striped bass, these outstanding gamefish too often are lost in the bass mania.
Back in his days running charters for Jim Tietje at Patriot Party Boat, Capt. Mike relied on bluefish to keep his anglers hooked up and happy. In fact, while in high school in the early 90’s, Mike was a mate on the Patriot charter boats that specialized in trolling for blues, especially on The Minuteman – and I suggest you don’t get him started on his love affair with this stalwart in the Patriot fleet.
Eventually Mike graduated to captaining his own trips, putting advice that he received from Jim T. to good use, especially an emphasis on having fun and keeping the fish coming over the rails.
And that’s why I grind my teeth when someone hooks up with one of these great fish and says, “Oh, it’s only a bluefish” since at one time Pomatomus Saltatrix kept the charter industry alive on Cape Cod when the bass population had plummeted to the point where many folks wondered if they would ever recover.
As part of my angling education, I eventually earned a few trips on my Uncle Byron’s Hi Liner where we jigged wire at Horseshoe Shoal and I discovered whole new world where the fish “fought” back and never gave an inch.
There have been scattered reports of blues in some of their usual haunts, but even on Nantucket where the chopper is a celebrity, their numbers have been slow to build.
But that seems to be changing recently, with a good blue bite around Squibnocket and Gay Head, as well as between Woods Hole and West Falmouth, said Howie Baker at Eastman’s Sport & Tackle on Main Street in Falmouth.
Perhaps the best revenge that the bluefish can exact on the angling community is when someone only needs one to complete a Cape Cod grand slam, having already caught a legal sized striper, a bonito, and an albie – and they are nowhere to be found.
But they also are a source of great memories such as the one that Jonathan Gitlin shared with me this week and agreed to let me pass it on to you: “I am sorry we did not get to fish this week. Nevertheless, I had a day that made me think of you. With a break in the wind, Albie and I made our way to Vineyard Sound where diving birds revealed a hungry school of bluefish. I looked in my plug box and saw my old battle-scarred Gibbs popper. The first fish leapt for the plug before it hit the water. We fished alone till the afternoon wind and headed home from what was as nearly a perfect a day on the water as I think possible. There are magical times when the present merges with the past and you are once again a boy on the bow of your grandfather’s Lyman, the pain and joy that will become your life a distant horizon and the world narrows to the perfect cast of your new Gibbs popper, your dog at your side and one beautiful bluefish at the end of the line.”
MONOMOY
According to Jake Mandiirola at North Chatham Outfitters, the last couple of weeks have seen more blues hanging in the rips, but despite our best efforts, Michael Beebe and I could not buy one, even on the west side shallows where the grass and week patches harbor small bait hors d’oeuvres for schools of marauding blues.
Not that we were complaining since Michael had a fantastic day wielding a fly rod – and a floating line. I emphasize the type of line since so much flyrodding on the Cape and islands is done with some sort of sinking line, from a slower sink intermediate to a variety of fast sink varieties that plummet to depths that were once thought unreachable with fly equipment.
Sinking lines are especially popular when fishing rips where the current and white water make it a challenge to stay in contact with a fly, with a multitude of squid patterns typically productive since they are a major food source in the rips of Monomoy throughout the season.
What we experienced, however, were terns hovering over bass swirling and popping in shallow water as far as the eye could – which sometimes wasn’t far at all due to the fog.
There was plenty of moving water, but not much wave action, allowing Michael to use a floating line and a popper, which produced some impressive topwater takes and a number of fine bass. Casting across or upcurrent will produce a belly in this type of line and a common strategy is to throw an upcurrent mend to control it, but even in the best of conditions, missed fish are a reality. Working downcurrent is one way of lessening slack in the line, but another option is to change from bow to stern – or vice versa – to maintain better control of line, leader, and fly.
The number of fish and the quality of the action allowed for some experimentation and Michael managed to hook one especially nice fish with a Clouser style sand eel imitation to maintain better control along a rip line that was much larger. Once again, I have to thank some terns for pointing out where to cast, although in this case it was just a handful in one area where the currents formed a point of sorts.
Perhaps the highlight of our trip was towards the end when we were looking for the elusive bluefish towards slack tide and sure enough on the east side of the point we ran into birds working over rolling and slashing fish. They were difficult to get on and we tried to the bait-and-switch as I tossed a hookless plug in hopes of raising a fish and drawing it to the boat, where Michael could deploy his fly rod popper – now attached with a piece of knottable wire.
But when the water began boiling with active fish, there was no need for my assistance and he delivered the foam bug effortlessly and almost instantly it was inhaled by what I was sure was a blue given the location and stage of the current. I was, however, wrong as it proved to be another bass that – like all of the others we caught on the day – fell within the range of the recreational slot limit.
THE CANAL
If you want to get a rough idea of how the Big Ditch is fishing on any given day, the number and location of the vehicles parked along the side of Sandwich Road will give you a pretty good idea.
This morning, based on my observations, it was pretty clear that something was going on as they increased significantly from about the middle of the land cut heading east.
I didn’t make it past the Sagamore Bridge as I jumped on Route 6 headed towards Chatham, but Jeff Miller at Canal Bait and Tackle in Sagamore said there was a solid first light, subsurface bite. The fish were mainly slot to mid 30 inches and concentrated from the middle of the water column to the bottom.
White was definitely the most productive color, based on what folks came into the shop to stock up once the fishing slowed, with paddletails and long cast, narrow profile swimming plugs high on the list.
The farther east you went, however, there was a change in preference to mackerel varieties – mainly green – coinciding with a shift from pogies to mackerel as you got to the east end. Along with both chub and Atlantic varieties, Jeff explained that the bass were also feeding on baby bonito of about 12 inches max in length.
Some anglers opted for targeting the baitfish when the bass proved to be elusive, but in most cases they opted for Hogy Epoxy Jigs that were too large as they focused on distance rather than matching the smallest bait that were at the bottom of what Jeff called “a good example of the circle of life.” He suspected that these might have been silversides, followed by larger albeit still small members of the mackerel/tuna family and finally the bass themselves. As opposed to the larger size, Jeff recommended the 5/8th HEJ’s in silver, olive, and anchovy.
On the other hand, folks who elected to go with sabiki rigs did well using up to two ounce Epoxy Jigs as the weight source, removing the hooks and using flashier colors for attraction, including electric chicken and pink.
Sunday
During my podcast session with Capt. Mike today, we talked a great deal about fishing for tuna and other pelagic species, especially the difference between plying waters closer in like Stellwagen, east of Chatham, and south of the Vineyard as opposed to the longer trek to what are generically referred to as the canyons.
I will be the first to admit that I know nothing about this type of fishing, including having yet to experience the spirit of tangling with a tuna of the larger type, sticking with relatives such as false albacore and bonito.
It made me realize my shortcomings as an angler, specifically in the realm of what Mike refers to as “adventurous” fishing, including shifting tactics for familiar species and areas, as well as those well outside our norm.
This willingness to being open to new things is especially important when what has worked in the past simply isn’t cutting it. This inability to get it done in the old familiar ways is obviously frustrating, but speaking from personal experience, it can lead to losing touch with the basic joys of fishing.
As a kid, every time I wet a line, it was something new and fresh, but as I grew older and started believing that I knew so much more about fish and fishing, that spark morphed into a kind of redundancy, almost an expectation that I would catch fish if I tried this method, fished this tide, or worked a spot that had always been good to me in the past.
It’s pretty clear that a great deal has changed in the striped bass world and that has led in some ways to a crisis in confidence, if you will, for me. In the past, as things changed, I found it convenient to just move to another prominent striper ground.
But as more and more of those have seemed to dry up and there are more and more boats and shore anglers converging on the few areas that consistently hold bass or at least give one hope of success, I just find it so hard to participate in these madding crowds.
For a long time I have pursued the route of taking folks out for hire, resulting in a level of inner pressure to get them into fish that has increased as the way I like to fish – casting plugs, plastics, jigs, and flies above all else – has tailed off, especially when guiding less experienced anglers.
At one time, even my one fall back to bait – slinging live eels – was pretty close to – and I shudder to say this – a guaranteed thing, but I have yet pitch Mr. Wiggly because my level of confidence in him – or her – has waned in the boulder fields and rip lines of my past.
So, what to do?
Well, taking Mike’s approach, I plan on taking risks in my own fishing – with emphasis on doing the casting and retrieving myself as opposed to spending so much time doing my best to help folks master in one trip what I have learned over a lifetime.
I really enjoy watching others experience the thrill of hooking and landing a fish using a method I suggested, but I suspect that it will be far more exciting when I break out of my comfort zone and try something new – even if I don’t garner immediate success.
WOODS HOLE AND THE ELIZABETHS
Today was a very special day for me as I got to fish with Erica (Twomey) Maguire, one of my former players from my days coaching field hockey at Mashpee High School. As a goalie, Erica was instrumental in leading the growth in the Falcons’ success, from no wins the year I took the reins of the varsity to qualifying for the state tournament and finally winning a game in the postseason.
But more importantly, it was Erica’s work ethic and genuine joy for the game – along with her many teammates who shared the same passion – that will remain with me forever. Individually, they were obviously all different, but collectively they morphed into a family – with all of the challenges and ups and downs that characterize one of these units – that achieved so much more than they would have if had worked solo.
So, it was truly amazing to be with Erica and her husband Matt, along with their youngsters Devy, Callum, and Nuala as part of Devy’s – the oldest – birthday gift. Out of the blue, Erica contacted me and relayed that Devy had been talking about going fishing for a long while. She wondered if I was still guiding and frankly I would have offered to take the Maguires out even I wasn’t.
Although this morning got off to a bit of a wet start, the showers passed, the sun came out, and the fish cooperated. Now, realize that the Maguire kids are seven, five, and three, respectively, and the two oldest put the kind of effort and reflected the same type of infectious joy that Erica shared with me so many years ago.
Even Nuala got in the act with the kiddie rod that Erica had bought for her, standing next to her brother and sister, repeating after them, “I got a fish!” – which indeed she had, even if were only a plastic one attached to her line.
They caught plenty of scup and black sea bass, as well as a nice fluke, proving once again that the groundfishing around the islands remains very good, especially in deeper water if you seek fish to take home for dinner.
THE VINEYARD
I was super excited to hear that my good friend, Capt. Warren Marshall, finally splashed the Outcast for a family trip of his own.
After waiting out the showers, they headed first to Succonesset where they were covered up by small sea bass, which is a pretty common scenario on the shoals throughout the sounds, for everything from BSB to fluke to scup.
Since Warren’s family likes nothing better than a good fish fry, so he made the move to Wasque where – after some moving around to deeper water and a pick up in the current – they were able to take home 17 sizeable sea bass and a pair of legal fluke.
They did see some terns working the water on the way back in and put some casts into the area with no results, another example of finding loads of small bait with no bass, bluefish, or even funny fish on them at the moment.
That said, there definitely is more news about schools of bluefish around and the bonito action should only get better, both for folks casting – think Hogy Epoxy Jigs and Heavy Minnow Jigs – and trolling.
Saturday
One of the biggest mistakes an angler can make when groundfishing is failing to use sufficient weight to reach the bottom and then hold it there so that you are as directly connected as possible.
And that means keeping your line vertical or nearly so; whether you are drifting or at anchor, if your line is scoping away from the boat, you are at a serious disadvantage.
If you were to ask me how I know this, I would reply honestly that I make it way too often.
In my earliest years of angling, I only fished from shore and primarily for two species: winter flounder and scup. Yeah, I soaked chunks of herring in the spring for stripers and even tried doodlebug rigs with seaworms when that didn’t work – actually neither did since I never caught a bass on bait from the Popponesset area. I’m not saying that the shops the sold me bait and gave me advice misled me or that the articles in Salt Water Sportsman that said my home waters were a prime location for early season schoolies.
The truth is I had yet to learn the subtleties of surfcasting such as how to the read the water, thereby determining the best areas to present my bait. After all, if I cast out and let my herring, seaworm, or whatever sit there, it would only make sense that any stripers in the area would swim by eventually or pick up the scent and vector in.
Clearly, I had a lot to learn and that became even more obvious when I started groundfishing from a boat – a learning curve that I am still working on shortening.
During my formative beach fishing days, I really never had issues holding bottom with no more than two ounces and if you’re fishing in an enclosed body of water like a backwater bay, salt pond or harbor, it might suffice.
But get into open water with current and greater depths and the game changes; Jim Young would often mention that if he was fishing along the north shore of the Vineyard for fluke or sea bass, he might start with four ounces during the slower stages of the current and eventually ramp up that number to eight or more, whether he was looking to hold bottom with a bait rig or bounce bottom with a bucktail jig.
I even read an article recently where anglers were using up to 18 ounces jigs when fishing for cod, which just boggled my mind.
Obviously, if you are going use sinkers or jigs with that kind of weight, you need the right outfit and I definitely fall short in that regard. The Ugly Stiks and spinning reels I mainly use on kids’ trips are way too light for numbers like that, although Capt. Mike explained that when dropping sinkers or jigs down as opposed to casting them with any rig, you can use something heavier. Within reason, of course.
So, I am making a commitment to finally rig up the two Shimano jigging sticks I bought three years ago that still have the tags on them, pairing them with level wind reels and braid. Of course, if you have the appropriate spinning combos, you can do just as well, as you will see on Mike’s many groundfishing videos, but I have these conventional outfits, so I might as well justify the cash I shelled out for them.
Most importantly, I put in an order for some heavy Hogy Squinnow Jigs and Jig Biki Rigs because, as Mike likes to say, it’s all about “cracking the code.”
All of that said, there is one thing that many successful groundfishing anglers do that I still have an aversion to: anchoring. I saw a couple of boats on the hook yesterday and the idea of finding a piece of good structure and then holding your boat on it makes perfect sense – but nobody ever accused me of having much in common with common sense.
Deploying an anchor – or even a pair in some scenarios – while fishing is a skill that I have not practiced and probably never will, so for now, I’ll focus on maintaining controlled drifts and keep my Danforth available for use in emergencies.
THE SOUNDS AND THE ELIZABETHS
Like many, many other folks I hear from on a regular basis, Evan Eastman at Eastman’s Sport & Tackle on Main Street in Falmouth encountered a concentration of bait and birds – mainly terns – on Thursday, this time in the Nobska area – but he offered the same refrain: no fish on them. He has heard of a few bonito in some of the rips between Falmouth and the Vineyard, but nothing consistent yet.
On the other hand, Evan emphasized “I’m selling a ton of eels and guys have been doing very casting into structure in Woods Hole and along the Elizabeths. Eels are by far the most way to catch bass right now unless you want to go to Monomoy or Cape Cod Bay.” Unless you have a large boat – preferable a fast one – and lots of cash for fuel, that kind of trip is outside the scope of many anglers who keep their boats moored or at the dock in the Falmouth or Mashpee area.
It’s really disappointing that there aren’t any significant numbers of bluefish in Nantucket or Vineyard Sounds since trolling and casting for them traditionally provided good action for boaters when the water warmed up on the shoals. In fact, around the upper Cape, the only news concerning blues of any size have been from Buzzards Bay, but even there, we’re not talking about big numbers of surface feeding fish.
Fluke fishing is OK in the sounds if you don’t mind releasing a lot of short fish; nothing short of a trip to the Nantucket Shoals or some exploration of deep water between the Vineyard and Nantucket will produce good action on summer flatties that you can take home for dinner.
Although there are some deeper holes in Vineyard Sound that are holding decent numbers of legal sea bass, more boats are opting for a trip down to the waters between Gay Head and Noman’s if they are looking for the biggest kind.
Evan also sent me photos from some of his regulars who fished Squibnocket this morning and they had a very good trip trolling deep diving swimmers for small bonito and large bluefish.
THE VINEYARD
Capt. Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing Cape Cod took a party out to Wasque this morning and called to fill me in on some very good sea bass fishing. In fact, everyone on board limited out and they also managed some legal fluke as well in the waters from the Point out to Muskeget Island. Ben said the key was using larger offerings, whether it was a bucktail jig, a piece of metal, or even a strip of squid; the BSB were all over them.
They also caught some bluefish, both casting and on the troll. Unlike the image that many people conjure up when you talk about blues of frothing waters, terrified bait, and multiple fish fighting over a plug, in this case Ben said they were very finicky because they were feeding on really small bait, stuff that was at best only a couple of inches.
INSHORE OFFSHORE – OR SOUTH OF THE VINEYARD – AND OFFSHORE OFFSHORE – OR THE CANYONS
Capt. Mike and I catch up quite often during the week, which I find convenient because I can dump some of my complaints on him and then sit back and listen as he provides intelligent counterpoints as well as taking a contrary position just to tweak me. One of my most recent b—- fests concerned folks who tell me they did well south of the Vineyard and when I ask for a bit more specificity, they mention places that are nowhere close to the waters associated with
As he was closing up yesterday, Evan received a call from a customer that “heard a bunch of yellowfin were caught at the Dump and Gordon’s Gully” on Thursday, something that Capt. Mike mentioned this morning as we talked about his successful tuna trip yesterday using Hogy Sand Eel Jigs – twelve ounce ones!
Evan sold a lot of ballyhoo yesterday to anglers headed to the Dump, as well as those making the long run to the canyons which “remain on fire,” he said. Some folks are concentrating on deep dropping for swordfish and picking at fish, but the most consistent bite has been for bigeye and yellowfin.
Friday
In all honesty, I sincerely believed that compiling daily reports for Salty Cape would be a welcome change from scrambling on Thursday or Friday to make calls to tackle shops and a list of anglers and then sit down for three to four hours – sometimes even more – to produce a weekly column. With no word limit, in general those things could run upwards of 5,000 words – and pretty much every week I was surprised by the final number.
When I was scribbling a column for a local newspaper, there was a lower allowable word count – which I willingly acknowledge I paid little regard to. After all, that’s why they had editors at the paper, right?
Still, there was always that deadline cloud hanging out there – and, yes, I missed plenty of those as well – so sitting down each day and banging out some commentary and news I had gathered that day would be a breeze, right?
Ah, not so fast. I won’t be so bold as to suggest that the way I write is similar to anyone else’s since I have no idea how others go about formulating thoughts and turning them into words.
For me, sitting down at my laptop is a love-hate affair, filled with fits and starts, breakthroughs and writer’s block, and moments of sheer frustration.
Heck, even this introduction is a second attempt, with the first one copied and dropped into a folder that I simply call Thoughts and Such. Even if what I save in there never sees the light of day, I put those words together and might want to look at them for inspiration or perhaps a good laugh.
I wanted to talk about the current state of bass fishing right now on the Cape and islands as compared to what could be considered a good or healthy or positive population model.
If you happen to be a fortunate angler who is able to consistently fish Monomoy or keeps tabs on the pogy schools in Cape Cod Bay and the bass that follow them, then I assume you are happy with the quality of fishing and/or catching that you are experiencing.
No doubt fisheries biologists and managers have a clearer, more evidence based assessment of what ideally the striper world should look at; that’s something I hope someday to study and read up on as a way of educating myself and buffering my often overly emotional beliefs.
Sometimes it’s easy to become so enamored with one of my ideas or that of someone else which I like, but it always helps to reassess where I am and acknowledge that nature is as unpredictable as what comes out of my brain and onto a screen and then out to the greater internet world.
THE ELIZABETHS
I’m going to start with my favorite place to fish because after talking with Capt. Mike about his trip on Wednesday, I took a step back and began to think that maybe my pessimism about our local archipelago was short sighted and narrow minded. After all, I am but one angler and as the saying goes, “Your experience may differ.”
Today I did a little scup and sea bass fishing with Ruth Anderson and Michael Beebe, and while the action for us was underwhelming, it was kind of cool to watch the parade of small flocks of terns working their way up from Tarpaulin to the Hole with the incoming tide.
In fact, it was difficult at time to focus on the task at hand – get a few sizeable scuppers or porgies for their dinner – as reports of bonito kept me looking over my shoulder at the birds, hoping against hope that at least one would morph into some funny fish.
At one point, while on the fringes of Lackey’s Bay, Michael put a cast right on some fishy looking activity – including spraying bait – and something took his Hogy Epoxy Jig. I waited for the sudden burst of speed that signaled it was a bone, but ultimately he reeled in a mackerel – in 75 degree water.
Both Mike and an anonymous individual I will call Felix Bandito – or FB for short – mentioned seeing fish feeding on masses of orangish bait and the small stuff I saw taking flight to escape becoming dinner mirrored their description.
When the water becomes as warm and cloudy like it is right now and bass, blues, or other species are actively feeding on the surface yet being incredible finicky, I typically think of a krill or crab hatch, but the concentrations of bait showed up clearly on my sonar screen. Mike had suggested that krill or other microscopic critter colonies would not show up as clearly and distinctly as what we marked, so given that I caught fish in these scenarios with flies that mimic tiny sand eels or silversides as well as small, narrow profile soft plastics, the notion that the fish were feeding on baitfish makes more sense.
FB fishes the islands a great deal and on a return trip from Cuttyhunk on the Buzzards Bay side, he found fish pushing the same kind of small bait and jigged up some mackerel that he put in his livewell. He caught some slot sized bass casting the macks into the rocks like he fishes eels and livelined one with the rod in holder when he decided to cast a white Hogy Charter Grade Dog Walker XL, at one point having the largest number of sizeable bass he can remember following the plug.
He also corrected my assumption that he was fishing at night in Woods Hole when he got into some better stripers measuring well over 40 inches on scup; in truth, he was fishing right in the middle of the day, placing more importance on the stage of the tide rather than time of day.
BUZZARDS BAY
Nick Santolucito from M & D Outfitters in Wareham texted to say he has heard “no mention of bonito locally yet, but reports seem reassuring and should be teeing us up for a solid run! South facing beaches from Nobska to Popponesset are always a solid bet to see the first push, often times within the range of shore guys, even on the fly.”
“Hogy Epoxy Jigs and smaller tins are starting to get depleted this week,” Nick continued due to the presence of smaller bait and those gearing up in preparation” for the arrival of funny fish. “Lighter fluorocarbon is starting to move also, an indicator at this time of year that people are starting to get their bonito and albie tackle up to snuff.”
Nick concluded his news by saying that upper Buzzards Bay is still holding some decent bass and fluke, with the water “super warm and stagnant”, leading some folks to opt for Cape Cod Bay from Plymouth on up towards Boston “in order to capitalize on colder water.”
Mark Tenerowicz really spread out his fishing recently, with local pockets of just under gator size blues in the Sakonnet on Sunday before the fog burned off. He wasn’t sure what the bait they were on was, but they “loved everything offered and worked over the Charter Grade viciously.”
On Monday, Mark fished the Mattapoisett River which was “filled with rain bait and some stripers chewing, but couldn’t get a bite. The inner harbor was dead.”
It was more of the same today as Mark spent four hours covering eight miles of water including Fairhaven and Mattapoisett, including some of his favorite flats “without a sign of life.”
THE CANAL
Jeff Miller from Canal Bait and Tackle in Sagamore said today was a repeat of yesterday as “a lot of slot bass have moved into the east end of the Canal. We’ve been selling tons of white pencil poppers this morning.” Small numbers of mackerel continue to bounce in and out of the east end, but given the preference for white plugs, there is a chance that some of the pogies that have been up around Plymouth as well as in deeper water off Sandwich moved in.
Along with the bass, “those baby bonito have slipped in as well.”
CAPE COD BAY
A mix of pogies and mackerel is producing some solid bass action up around Provincetown according to Jake Mandirola from North Chatham Outfitters; in fact, he spoke to one younger guy who caught plenty of bigger bass, as well as seeing a few tuna and then hooking a recreational size bluefin that he ultimately dropped. Since he was snapping wire for bass, odds are that a couple of tuna muscled their way in. They have been selling numerous five ounce nylon hair jigs, a good sign that folks are managing to locate schools of bass in deeper water.
In a similar vein, Jeff Miller spoke to someone who sells bass and he had no problem catching his limit of 15 fish on Jeff’s version of the original double jointed swimbait.
There are also some big bluefish up off the tip of the Cape as well.
MONOMOY/THE OUTER CAPE
It was good to hear that there has been more shore action up around Nauset, as well as farther up the backside from Truro to Provincetown; Jake Mandirola said both narrow profile swimmers – the type I call Finnish design – and sand eel imitation soft plastics have been working well.
Boaters are also finding some larger stripers feeding on pogy schools off Nauset, with both broader profile paddletail and eel style soft plastics productive; brown, olive, and white are good colors when casting plugs or plastics to bass hanging under and around pogies
The shoals are still fishing very well, with pink and orange still good colors, a sign that there is still some squid around. Towards slack water, it’s still common to see bass pushing sand eels to the surface and while it might be tempting to toss lures at these fish, a more consistent approach most likely would be dropping jigs such as the Hogy Sand Eel or Epoxy Jigs down to the fish where they are hanging most of the time.
It might not be good news for anglers targeting bass, but Jake confirmed that there has been a good push of bluefish, mainly to the west of the point.
My nephew Frank made a late run to Monomoy on a friend’s boat today and they had continuous action on bass just shy of the slot, although they did manage one 31 inch fish. It was mostly topwater action and got better as the rip set up.
NANTUCKET
Like me, most anglers prefer to fish on their own boats, but yesterday good friends and Osterville Anglers’ Club members Bob Lewis, Charlie Richmond, Ken Cirillo, Bruce Cunningham, and Paul Caruso opted for a fluke trip aboard the Helen H out of Hyannis.
Bob said they caught 27 fluke among the group, with Charlie winning the big fish pool with an 8+ pound doormat. The shoals around Nantucket are well known for their outstanding fluke fishing and I imagine along with the jigging and catching, there was plenty of good natured ribbing.