Seaduced Cape Cod Fishing Reports
Capt. Robbie's fishing Report for 2010
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Over all 2010 was a really good year
here on Cape Cod for fishing. The
spring started with an abundance of
tasty black sea bass. Heidi loves
fishing for these and they are one
of the few fish I enjoy eating so we
like to load up when we get out and
stock the freezer.
The stripers showed up mid May but
refused to fall into a pattern as
usual. The bait was scattered and
the fish did the same...here for a
tide or two and then gone. By
Memorial Day the bigger fish showed
up in numbers and Great Island was
hot one day and cold the next. The
same for my other spring spots. Then
I heard rumors of lots of fish off
the great backside.
My first trip there I cruised all
the way to Nauset Inlet and it was
worth the long ride. Big stripers
chasing sand eels, small herring,
krill and small shrimp. What a
sight...thousands of birds of all
types...gulls, gannets, shearwaters
and terns....all wheeling over
massive schools of stripers busting
and cruising on the surface in 25 to
80 feet of water. The two guys and
one of their fathers who had hired
me to “show them the ropes” had
quite a day with 40 plus stripers to
30 lbs.
While the rips off the end of
Monomoy were good for about 10 days
when the squid were coming through
the end of June it became evident
the best fishing was off Chatham in
40 to 80 feet of water. It was
spectacular to say the least with
bass, blues and bluefin tuna all in
the mix. Many days we would see tuna
busting all over as we got out to
the deep. They where hard to catch
but fun to try for with heavy
spinning gear and popping plugs.
Then NOAA decided to change the
rules and we couldn’t keep fish
between 59 and 73 inches which is
exactly where 95% of these fish
fell. As these fish were played to
exhaustion on the heavy spinning
gear many of us stopped fishing for
them. That isn’t to say that
occasionally you’ld hook up on one
with the bass gear. About ten
seconds is all it takes for one of
these “small” bluefins to empty the
15# test off of the reels and it
would part. Fun while it lasts but
your chance of landing one on bass
gear is pretty much impossible.
By fishing out off Chatham all
summer the extra show you got was
the whales. I must have seen 40
breeches this year! Almost daily we
got some sort of a whale show from
swimming by to jumping on the
horizon. This was an added bonus for
all. Many times my party would
request to stop fishing and get
closer to the whales to watch. A
safe distance is a prudent idea when
in a small boat, remember these
animals are as big as the dinosaurs
and weigh 20 to 35 TONS.
Labor Day came all too soon and the
fish gods decided to hit the wind
switch. The days we could get out
were very few. I did fish Cape Cod
Bay when the wind was from the south
and had some good days and some that
weren’t so good. When we could get
out off of Chatham the tuna were
still around in numbers and chasing
them was fun. My last trip was the
middle of October and the bass,
blues and tuna were still around.
After that last trip it was time to
go hunting. To make a long story
short I missed a buck in Maine and
got a 7 pt. during the shotgun
season on the Cape. I finished out
the season with my muzzleloader and
chased a big buck I only saw once
and never got a shot.
I’m already booking trips for the
2011 season and looking forward to
getting back on the water. Squid and
black seabass will be first at the
beginning of May and then the
stripers should show up. Heidi and I
are once again going salmon fishing
on Lake Ontario with Capt. C.J.
Crisp the first of May for two days.
This will be our third year with C.J.
and we can’t wait. We always have a
great time and catch some incredible
fish. He is truly a master at
trolling for salmon and trout from
his boat the Rally Killer. If you
ever want to try this fishery he is
a great guy to fish with. He comes
to the Cape the middle of June to
fish for stripers with me. Last year
he caught one on his fly rod and saw
his first whales. They don’t have
them in the Great Lakes!
Looking forward to seeing all my old
customers and meeting some new ones
again this year. Remember to take a
kid fishing this year.
Tight Lines,
Capt. Robbie |
Capt. Robbie's fishing predictions for 2010
Hello, here we
are looking forward to another season of
fishing fun. Hopefully you’ll be able to
join me for a day of light tackle fishing.
I’ve bought some new gear and can’t wait to
get the skunk off of it. New this year I’ll
be chasing early season squid, black sea
bass and scup/porgies. Three anglers, for 4
to 5 hrs., or until you reach your limit for
only $350.00. Heidi, my better half, got me
back into these species last spring and we
had a ball. Especially good for your kids or
wife as its easy fishing and usually fast
action. Last year the black sea bass were in
abundance with some real whoppers thrown in.
Everyone I know is looking toward to another
great year for this tasty bottom feeder.
The
stripers and blues should be around in good
to great numbers by the end of May. I’m
getting a lot of calls for the month of June
and the first two weeks of July during prime
time for these hard fighting fish. If you’re
interested in stripers on the fly I highly
recommend this time frame as the fish are
usually near the surface feeding on squid
and sand eels. For those who don’t know,
surface plugs work really well at this time
of year and a 20lb. bass smashing a plug on
the surface is really exciting.
Last fall
was good fishing for tuna and I spent a few
days chasing small blue fins with friends
and got the fever. Some new gear able to
handle these fish has been readied and I’m
looking forward to chasing these fast tuna
with my clients. I know my friends Eric and
his son Frank, 9 yrs. old, got a taste of
this exciting fishery last summer in August
when we saw some school size fish smashing
bait on the surface and chased them for a
while before going on to catch stripers. At
the end of the day Eric was ready to sign up
for a tuna trip. I believe I’ll be indulging
them this year on their vacation in August
and hope I can hook Frank to a 100 pounder.
We’ll be plugging and deep jigging for them
in Cape Cod Bay or off Chatham. This is a
sight fishing game that’s lots of fun.
I’ve done
the show at the Hamburg, Pa. Cabela’s store
in March and I’m doing a seminar for the
Buzzard’s Bay Anglers Club on April 8.
I hope to
see you this year…..till then, Tight Lines,
Capt. Robbie
Seaduced
Cape Cod Fishing Reports - 2008/2009
The 2008 charter fishing season started off slow
with almost no squid in Nantucket Sound.
Schoolie stripers started arriving and feeding
in the rivers at the end of April and were in
full swing by the middle of May despite the cold
weather. By Memorial Day the bigger striped bass
and bluefish had moved in and their numbers grew
steadily. My spring spots in Nantucket Sound
were slower than usual because of the cold
weather, but we did catch fish up to 25 lbs.,
mostly on surface lures. Days with 20 plus fish
were not common but we did have a few.
Cape Cod Bay proved to be more productive during
the middle of June with most of the fish falling
to RonZ lures on leadhead jigs. The end of June
brought the stripers to Handkerchief Shoal off
the end of Monomoy Island. We had our usually
great fishing till the middle of July. During
this time we landed many stripers over 20 lbs.
with our biggest being 33lbs. This is some of
the best fishing of my year and most of the fish
fall to surface plugs. If your goal is to catch
stripers on fly fishing gear, this time of year
will be your best opportunity.
After the middle of July the fishing slowed down
till the bigger tides of the third week when
squid moved back into the rips for a few days.
Bluefish started to show in greater numbers
around this time and provided some fast action
at times and proving elusive at others. The
fishing during August was spotty at best with
good action one day and a complete absence of
fish the next. I had a few good days but over
all it was not as good as usual.
September brought falling water temps and some
better action on the water. Cape Cod Bay began
to pick up and I got on a really good bite on
Scorton Ledge. My usual casting with light
spinning gear was replaced with trolling with
tube and worm rigs on 18 lb. test lead core on
medium casting rods. Leaving from Barnstable
Harbor or Sesuit Harbor we often ran into large
schools of feeding bluefish up to 14 lbs. with a
few stripers mixed in. These were great sport on
12 and 15lb. test and mostly caught on avis jigs
dropped to the bottom and retrieved upward. The
middle to the end of September also saw some
spotty action at the end of Monomoy for the
always elusive false albacore. There were days
of fast action followed by days of frustration,
a solid pattern never did establish itself for
these speedsters.
In
October action slowed and we had lots of wind.
But I kept wishing I could go out one more time.
I made my last trip on October 24 and was the
only trip of the year that we got skunked. I saw
no bait or fish but have heard of lots of big
stripers way offshore out of reach. A video has
been playing showing approximately 3 miles of
dead stripers thrown overboard as bycatch by a
dragger. This makes me sick and in talking to a
fisheries manager was told there is little if
anything they can do!! I couldn’t believe what I
was told!! These fish should be counted towards
the commercial quota or the offending boats
fined for fishing over stripers. These were
commercial draggers fishing for herring and I
feel they know the stripers are there and do
this every year. This year they were caught on
video by tuna fisherman on their way in. I
certainly hope this can be stopped as I sure it
impacts our inshore fishing next year by
removing so many large fish. See the video on
the
Stripers Forever site.
The fishing season is over for another year and
it’s time to think of other things….such as
hunting. It’s off to Maine for two weeks the 4th
of November and then some deer hunting on the
Cape till the end of the year. Maybe we’ll get
some ice this year or I’ll have to wet a line in
the fresh for trout and salmon till the stripers
and blues show up again next spring. Look for me
at the Cabela’s in Hamburg Pa. for their
captain’s weekend in March and the great Rhode
Island Saltwater Anglers Association show the
first of April in Providence.
