June 30, 2011

It’s all too easy to get preoccupied with striped bass and overlook all the other awesome inshore species surrounding the Cape this time of year. Last Saturday, I did my best to ignore good striper reports coming from Cape Cod Bay and the Elizabeth Islands and joined Kevin Blinkoff and Chris Megan for a day of fluke fishing. It took only one drop to make me forget all about stripers (at least temporarily) when a fluke engulfed my Spro Bucktail, and upon the hookset, began digging for bottom, doing the telltale “doormat dance” that make the rod tip pulse in an almost frantic fashion.

We probably put more than 60 flatfish in the boat that day, and remarkably, none of them happened to be keepers. While some fresh summer flounder fillets would have certainly been nice, with all the action, we weren’t too disappointed on the ride back in.

The holiday weekend promises to bring big crowds to the Cape, but based on this week’s reports, there should be plenty of fish, of all stripes, for everyone.

South Coast and Cape Cod Canal

After hearing from a number of different sources about the excellent fishing in the Cape Cod Canal today, I really wish I hadn’t slept through my 4:00 a.m. alarm this morning. After a slowdown of about 10 days in the Big Ditch, some bait and bass finally returned providing some exciting topwater action.

The bass were mostly in the 10- to 20-pound range, but Mike from M and D’s in Wareham weighed in a 30-pounder that fell to a mackerel painted Cape Cod Tackle jointed swimmer. The baitfish in the ditch were sea herring, mackerel and smaller sand eels.

Some reports mentioned that the bass were on the picky side, while others claimed that the fish were eating anything thrown in their direction – I guess it’s just a matter of what baitfish have set up in front of you. Stripers on small sea herring or sand eels are notoriously picky, while bass mowing down macks will attack anything that moves – though mackerel pattern baits will provide a slight edge.

Bottom fishing in Buzzards Bay is still pretty good. Chris at Bad Fish reported that black sea bass are so thick that they were attacking his eels intended for stripers.  Four- to five-pound bluefish are also plentiful in the bay right now. Topwaters are working well according to Chris, but trolling is also effective at the moment.

Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds
Chris at Bad Fish reported fluke fishing was on the upswing in Vineyard Sound. I can certainly attest to the numbers out there, particularly over Lucas Shoal. For bigger fish, concentrating on deeper water, 60 to 80 feet seems to be the ticket. And there are some big ones out there. Back at the dock Saturday, a crew that had been fishing the deeper areas off Lucas had a 7-pound doormat in the box along with a few other keepers.

On The Vineyard, Coop at Coop’s Bait and Tackle said the big bluefish are the main attraction around the island at the moment. There are plenty of them and they are a blast, hitting topwaters and just about anything else thrown in their direction.

Striped bass are slowing down a bit on Martha’s Vineyard Coop said. Chris from Bad Fish did report some good chunking action last weekend, however. If you are hoping to get in on the chunk bite off Gay Head, go now before the commercial season opens July 12 and the place becomes a parking lot with commercials looking to get their 30 stripers to bring to market.

Fluke fishing is picking up around the Vineyard. Coop said it seems like the good numbers of these flatfish have just moved in recently. The hot bait for fluke of late has been squid/sand eel combos fished behind a small glow squid.

Scup are everywhere, according to Coop. The big panfish are providing fast action, which makes them perfect for introducing someone new to fishing over the holiday weekend.

The first reports of brown sharks appearing off the South Side piqued fishaholic Andy Nabreski’s interest. Chuck Martinson was shellfishing around Waquoit when he spotted a 60- to 80-pound brown this weekend. Though fireworks, crowded beaches and shark fishing don’t mix, getting some fresh dead eels or bunker and some wire leaders and spiking a rod off a south side beach might be a good call for early next week.

The Monomoy Rips are picking up as some squid and bass move in. I fished the rips on Wednesday with Captain Bruce Peters of Capeshores Charters, Dave Bard, Nancy Civett and Adam Enatsky of PEW Charitable Trusts. The plan was to catch some stripers and talk about the importance of protecting the forage species they like to eat – like river herring, sea herring, mackerel and menhaden. There were plenty of surface-feeding fish in front of the rips, but these fish were nearly impossible to fool. By drifting cut squid through the rip, however, we experienced double and triple headers on most passes through and at least one fish to the boat on every drift. The fish ranged from 24 inches to 36 inches, though there may have been some bigger ones in there.

Big bluefish are being caught in Pleasant Bay, making for fun angling close to home. Much larger numbers of the big blues are being found 6 to 7 miles off Chatham, where they are wreaking havoc on spreader bars pulled by tuna fishermen.

Cape Cod Bay
Brewster Flats have been slow over the past week reported Sean at Goose Hummock in Orleans. Billingsgate is still churning out big stripers, however. Dan from the Hook Up in Orleans corroborated the story, saying the Cape Cod Bay bite is still good, and still centered around Billingsgate Shoals.

Outer Cape
The beach fishing on the Outer Beaches is slowing down – or rather, the reports are slowing down. With the beaches closed to driving, Matt at Nelsons said he’s not getting as many fishing reports these days. Boaters and kayakers are still catching off the Race, the Bath House and Herring Cove. Tube-and-worm rigs are the top choice for the kayak crowd, while wire line jigging is the most popular among the boaters.

There is plenty of bait around the P-Town area with mackerel all over and squid in Provincetown Harbor. This ought to be enough to bring some bass in and keep them around.

Tuna and Sharks
After some very nice action late last week, the tuna bite has shut right down again. Captain Eric Stewart of the Hook Up managed a 70-incher on Wednesday. Any day where you hook and land a tuna that size is a good day, but it is significantly slower than last Friday when Eric hooked 8 and landed 5. The fish are out there, however, they just seem to be choosy when it comes to what they’ll strike.

There are some reports of more tuna filling in on Stellwagen Bank, giving the run-and-gun crowd some shots. The tuna fishing is expected to pick up after the new moon phase passes, however.

Anglers looking to tangle with something with some teeth will have no problem catching blue sharks. Reports from the weekend had boats landing as many as 30 of these blue dogs. One boat fled the scene after catching 18, stating that they had had enough. This fishery is a great way for anglers inexperienced at big game fishing to get into the game. All you need to catch a blue shark is a sturdy boat, a stout rod and reel and a bucket of chum.  Set up in some 60-degree water in 100-foot depths or more and the sharks will find you.

The more desirable makos and threshers are nowhere to be seen, however. These species may still be making their way up the coast, as New Jersey anglers were reporting excellent action with makos as of last week.

Best Bets for the Weekend
The tides are good for the Canal right through Sunday, so anglers looking for a shot at topwater bass from shore should check it out. Because the good tides are in combination with a holiday weekend, the crowds are expected to be mammoth. Stake a claim early, and in the East End.

Fluke fishing is good and getting better. Lucas Shoal is the hot spot, but any deepwater-adjacent structure is likely to hold flatfish. Look for the bigger fish to be hanging in water deeper than 60 feet, and bring plenty of bait because you may end up having to weed through dozens of short fish before catching one for the box.

The big bluefish in Pleasant Bay, around Martha’s Vineyard or 6 miles off Chatham are sure to be crowd pleasers if a novice fisherman tags along with you this weekend. Bring topwater poppers for the Vineyard and Pleasant Bay and diamond jigs for the deeper water off Chatham.

 

Don’t forget to watch the fireworks this Fourth of July weekend, and if you can do so with a fishing rod in hand, all the better.