Well the dates for the South Tip Rip Trip are not going to work for Mike and I so we decided to do a little scouting for you guys. We had the loan of a couple kayaks and set out from Hardings beach as per Juro’s recommendation. Launch time was Sunday at about 9:30 and the weather was good with a mild breeze from the SW. The waves were not big but a little nerve wracking since it was only our second time in a kayak.
We made the beach of SI and hiked to the rips by about noon. The rips are nothing short of awesome and they just scream BIG fish. There were a number of boats working the rips and pulling up a lot of schoolies in the 20’s. We soon joined the fun working chartreuse clouser type flies close to the bottom. The schoolies were numerous but the big fish were not to be found. Mike talked to a guy throwing spinning gear and learned that he had been fishing the rip every day while he worked on a piping plover project. He has apparently only managed two keepers of 32” and 40” in all that time. It was a lot of fun to see the place but for big fish we should have stuck to the cribbin where I spotted a lot of large fish working the channel between South and North Monomoy.
On the way back the wind had picked up and the waves had increased to 3 to 5 feet and were fully breaking (not just white caps). On the white knuckle paddle back we spotted very large bass tails above the water near the north end of North Monomoy but wisely decided to not stop and fish for them. About an eighth of a mile off of the Hardings light house I decided to head for shore and walk the rest of the way. As I turned for shore I promptly lost control and went over. I lost my polarized glasses but that was the worst as I pushed the kayak in to shore. One surprising thing to me was that my waders did not interfere with my movement at all while I was in the water. They were a bit of a problem once I was out and I had to drain them before I could move with any kind of ease.
Mike made it back without my swimming technique and then helped me hoof my kayak back to the car. All in all it was a great and adventuresome day with great fishing and not so hot catching.
Scouting info:
The sand was firm around the rip and very wadable to the point where the waves keep you from going further.
The water on the ocean side is much colder than the water from the sound side.
The biting fish were all on the warmer side above the rip.
The fish were on the bottom so a fast sink line and a heavy fly were needed to reach them.
The western side of the island looks like it has wadable flats when the tide is low.
We did not check out the ocean side.
The place is beautiful and looks unbelievably fishy – it just didn’t click for us in terms of the bigger fish.
The two flies that we tried and that worked were a drifted crab and a chartreuse deep sand eel. We also tried some squid flies but to no avail.
Just in case the proposed trip date does not work out we can commit to the 15th, 29th, and 30th, of July and the 5th, 6th, 19th, 20th, 26th, and 27th of August.
We made the beach of SI and hiked to the rips by about noon. The rips are nothing short of awesome and they just scream BIG fish. There were a number of boats working the rips and pulling up a lot of schoolies in the 20’s. We soon joined the fun working chartreuse clouser type flies close to the bottom. The schoolies were numerous but the big fish were not to be found. Mike talked to a guy throwing spinning gear and learned that he had been fishing the rip every day while he worked on a piping plover project. He has apparently only managed two keepers of 32” and 40” in all that time. It was a lot of fun to see the place but for big fish we should have stuck to the cribbin where I spotted a lot of large fish working the channel between South and North Monomoy.
On the way back the wind had picked up and the waves had increased to 3 to 5 feet and were fully breaking (not just white caps). On the white knuckle paddle back we spotted very large bass tails above the water near the north end of North Monomoy but wisely decided to not stop and fish for them. About an eighth of a mile off of the Hardings light house I decided to head for shore and walk the rest of the way. As I turned for shore I promptly lost control and went over. I lost my polarized glasses but that was the worst as I pushed the kayak in to shore. One surprising thing to me was that my waders did not interfere with my movement at all while I was in the water. They were a bit of a problem once I was out and I had to drain them before I could move with any kind of ease.
Mike made it back without my swimming technique and then helped me hoof my kayak back to the car. All in all it was a great and adventuresome day with great fishing and not so hot catching.
Scouting info:
The sand was firm around the rip and very wadable to the point where the waves keep you from going further.
The water on the ocean side is much colder than the water from the sound side.
The biting fish were all on the warmer side above the rip.
The fish were on the bottom so a fast sink line and a heavy fly were needed to reach them.
The western side of the island looks like it has wadable flats when the tide is low.
We did not check out the ocean side.
The place is beautiful and looks unbelievably fishy – it just didn’t click for us in terms of the bigger fish.
The two flies that we tried and that worked were a drifted crab and a chartreuse deep sand eel. We also tried some squid flies but to no avail.
Just in case the proposed trip date does not work out we can commit to the 15th, 29th, and 30th, of July and the 5th, 6th, 19th, 20th, 26th, and 27th of August.