middleground 5/26

Fished middleground yesterday morning for about an hour and a half of the west tide, some of slack and an hour and a half of the east tide. Fish were there, but not showing themselves, and I thought it was fairly spotty for the time of year. The heavy weed content and east wind probably didn't help.

First dozen casts went unanswered, and then I began getting strikes on a slow, intermettent retrieve. First strike hammered the fly so hard it split the loop knot of my tippet in two right at the hook eye--I have only had that happen to a loop knot after having taken a bunch of fish so that I assumed friction had worn down the strength of the tippet. This was the first strike of the day and has me calling into question using such a knot for heavy current fishing.

Anyhow, the fish were pretty fiesty but only large schoolie sized, all in the 25-29" range and fairly slender--no bloated bellies full of squid, sandeels, or herring. No blues. Large herring patterns seemed to work the best. Water was 57 degrees...

Lots of boats out there. The 26' Regulator seems to have gotten quite popular--I counted 4 at one point in a half mile strech of water.

Poked around Woods Hole a little as the tide turned. One decent fish that gave my friend a nice fight on 9 wt. in the heavy current. I see the ospreys are still nesting in that first green channel marker on the rocks as you enter from the Bay.

Nice to get down to the Cape after missing out on the Spring Clave, but was hoping for a slightly more summer like than spring day.