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Overviews of Season so far?

4K views 24 replies 17 participants last post by  Paxton 
#1 ·
As we eagerly await our annual week on the Cape, the news on the forum seems much less than most years. Hope this means you're all too busy catching Stripers on the beaches to be posting, but whispers on this side of the pond suggest the fishing is a bit patchy.

Any updates would be great.
 
#3 ·
Thanks Fred,

We've enjoyed our flyfishing trips to the Cape enormously, whether we see pods of stripers coming past regularly or not. We'll certainly put in the hours and hope to hit the right spot at the right time a few times during our week.

Neil
 
#5 ·
Season Overview

Things have been a little better this year than last. A few of the places that you could park at a now are gone or severely restricted because they have been posted. That being said I have been still doing fairly well.

Fished Monomoy a few times during the late summer and did manage a few fish and had some good site fishing opportunities as well during July. Actually have been getting a lot more fish along some of the Chatham shorelines in the last 3 weeks.

The Sandwich and Bourne areas have been OK at least for me during the last week or so, as I have been fishing in late afternoons at the low end of the tides and have been seeing a good number of cruising fish.

Hoping this means the fall will be better this year. Cotuit was good in the Spring and I suspect it will be good in the Fall as well
 
#6 ·
the outer beaches to the north have been fishing pretty well in the dark and in places you wouldn't suspect.the fish are relatively small to lil pups 14" to 26" with an occaisional fish to 32-34".Small blues have appeared at 1st light chasing micro baitfish mostly peanut bunker.But this am the mung has moved back in with the s/e winds:roll: So it's to the Bat Cave for the day today and probibly tomorrow.
 
#13 ·
for me last year was alot better than this year,,, early season was okay but I had tripple the amount of fish in this time last year....

waiting for the albies and hoping my luck changes in Menemsha. and finally I'm hoping september will bring a fatty or two my way..
 
#16 ·
Our week on the Cape

Just waiting at Logan for our delayed flight home.

Maybe it was our bad luck / incompetence, but despite fishing the flies long and hard at all hours and many venues we found the Stripers very scarce on the Cape this week. It was by far our leanest week of the last 6 years trips. The baitfish were also relatively scarce and other than Brewster we saw almost no-one out there fly casting for Stripers.

We love all the Cape has to offer, particularly the welcome from fellow fly fishermen but worry about the state of the Stripers population from our very limited experience of the last few years - as UK fishing tourists could we contact anyone in US Marine Fisheries to help express concern / threat to repeat visit tourism?
 
#17 ·
You would have been much better off if you fished RI in the Fall. The legendary Fall run on the Cape is not what it used to be. I feel that the bass are around but have moved into colder waters off shore and migrate from those positions and don't hit the shore spots like they used to.
This has been my experience fishing for Stripers in the Fall. FishHawk
 
#19 ·
I just got back from two weeks on the Cape and the shore fishing by all reports was non existant. I can varify that by not fishing more than a couple of hours in all the time I was there. I fished many of the outer Cape beachs and saw a lot of seals. All the shops also said the fishing was off shore.

On my last day, I met some Brits in the parking lot at the National Refuge where they were going to try the harbor. They also confirmed the poor fall fishing from shore.
 
#20 ·
Am giving Napatree in RI a try tomorrow and catch the incoming tide....reports I receive say that Albies are indeed in the area....but of course off shore and or at the West Wall which my unstable knees will not allow me to do.
So......early morning, front coming in, clouds with some rain....should be snotty enough to maybe bring them in......if not...so what...I will be at the water and have a fly rod in hand. :D
RI was terrible last fall........very spotty at best.....received a lot of "you should have been here yesterdays".......2 yrs ago...was epic with anchovies into the shore line and bass busting them up in the suds for 4 hrs at a time...non stop catching.....am hoping that there will be a rerun of that experience this yr as the Fall approaches. The key is bait near shore. Last yr, boats 100-200yds off shore hammered bass on almost every cast....was tough to watch!
Ron
 
#23 ·
How was RI.............skunked...not a sign of fish/ life/birds/bait. Hit Napatree, Watch Hill, East beach, Weekapog and Fire District beach..........dead, dead, dead!!!
Of course,I was told that YESTERDAY from 4 pm to night- fall, was epic stripers and large blues...I have had only 2 "yesterdays' in 9 yrs.
Local intell says that the best times to fish are 4 to 6 a.m. (ya sure) and 4 pm to dusk only if it is 2 hrs into the drop...........that should fit into my schedule :mad:
Albies reportedly at Weekapog breachway (if one like climbing down rocks with a fly rod) on the drop and the West Wall and of course off the Watch Hill Lighthouse if one has a boat.
Steve...garry has already ordered a 26 ft Boston Whaler for us with his pocket change :D
Ron
 
#24 ·
Ron - don't feel too bad: I took a ride to RI on Sunday and also got skunked. I started at the west wall and casted a couple hundred times but never got a bump. I did see a half-dozen or so albies caught, all by flycasters just blind casting and getting lucky. I left an hour or two after high tide and fished Napatree for the rest of the afternoon without any success. There were some birds working along the shoreline picking some type of food off the water but whatever they were eating was so small I couldn't even see it. I fished around them for a while but never saw any sign of fish.

Q
 
#25 ·
Quentin...I actually had a good time...after not fishing for 3 weeks...it was great to walk the beaches again.
My general synopsis is that there are fish to be had BUT one has to be there often enough, as it is very sporatic.
Met many locals who "POP in" for an hr or 2 before work eveery day and or so the same after work.......eventually...they are successful.
Me.........I have "a day"..........most of the time...it is the wrong day. Howver 2 yrs ago....I had a "yesterday" there.....24 fish caught in 4 straight hours...all mid 20's.............it can happen which is why we all try :)

My finding yesterday was that the reports of fish slamming are true.....but generally true for 1 or 2 hrs at a time (usually when i am not there :hihi: )

Ron
 
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