Seaduced Cape Cod Fishing Reports -
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.
