Monomoy is still producing fish for the recremercial crew who are using eels, but it has been a tough go with the winds this week. A few members of the Cape Cod Flyrodders visited the area last weekend and found good numbers of funny fish that refused to take anything cast their way.
Monomoy
The rips are alive with bass; larger soft plastics and topwater plugs have been working well in numerous locations, so it is possible to enjoy some good fishing without crowding.
Most of the fish being caught during the day are between the mid to high-20 inch class up to mid-30-inch, but there are good numbers of them. At times, soft plastics such as unweighted Original Hogy’s and topwater plugs have done the trick, especially when slack tide and the change bring the fish on top, while Hogy Pro Tails have proven to be a good alternative to bait when the tide is running.
The daytime fishing at Monomoy is apparently tough as there are bass feeding on the surface in the rips, but they are feeding on tiny bait and unwilling to hit any traditional topwater plugs or soft plastics.
My last trip to Bearses was disappointing, with a brief spurt of activity at Shovelful on the change. That is a pattern a number of folks have reported this year around Monomoy: very short periods where the fish are feeding before they just seem to disappear.
The bass action has picked right back up in a number of areas. There are still some schools of mackerel around the east side of the islands and livelining them has been working, with some larger fishing being caught this way.
Capt. Ron Murphy of Stray Cat Charters in Hyannis said that other than some nice, eight to nine-pound bluefish, the shoals have become quiet. This situation most likely is the result of a combination of warming water and weak currents, but Ron advised that with the new moon on Saturday, things should pick up.
Capt. Ron Murphy of Stray Cat Charters in Hyannis put it pretty succinctly: “Monomoy has become a struggle.”
The fishing around Monomoy remains good, as Bob Lewis explained to me after the completion of the Osterville Anglers’ Club Ladies’ Shoal Troll last Saturday, there were a good number of low 30-inch fish around Bearses, with plenty of bird activity and bass pushing squid.
The fishing remains very good around the rips, with Bearses getting a lot of attention, although Stone Horse and Pollock Rip have been holding good numbers of bass as well. It is pretty amazing to see the multitude of methods being employed around these waters, especially on a bass selling day.