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Monomoy area on foot...
After a smokin' Monomoy area last weekend this weekend seemed a little off. There were some fish around, I saw half a dozen in the dim early morning light and pea soup fog, but they were far from being on any kind of rampage and the fog was so thick I would strip all the way to the nail knot before realizing where my fly was. In other words, sight fishing was a pipedream. Maybe three days of pea soup fog in the area had something to do with the slowdown. Bait was very scarce as well, what we saw in the SE region would qualify as fry (larvae even), with a few exceptions when a tern would pluck a fair sized sand eel. The water was cold as far in the bowl as we went, although we didn't go way up.
On the positive side, Chuck did hook a 12 pound blue and Dave Williams kicked things off quickly with a "just-under" striper on his 5th cast; Jim Doogue had a fish from both sides of South Beach, etc - but the overall consensus was that it was pretty dead this weekend so we cut our losses and some took the shuttle back as early as 10am.
Sat PM -
After some chores back at the cottage I met up with a couple of former co-workers to sight cast on the Brewster Flats. We found them within 15 minutes and set up on a drift that went two or three miles (maybe more) and saw fish grubbing sand eels the whole time with very few moments of idle time before seeing another pod. I got two in this years legal size but all were chunky and the best fight came from a sub-legal that ran like a banshee over and over at high speed.
Hit the outside again this morning (damn I wish I hit the bayside flats Fred!) and got bit off by a large blue on the backside and landed one nice fat sub-legal in Chatham and that was it. The tide didn't move until after 11am and although it looked real fishy some left before the current picked up to attend to duties and the last stragglers left by noon.
Overall assessment (from what I could gather) -
Monomoy area slow Sat AM (may have picked up on the afternoon flood), water cold, micro bait, pea soup and no sight fishing in the am to be had
Bayside PM flood - smokin'
Sunday - Chatham slow, water cold, micro bait
(From Fred's report I wish I hit the bayside shoreline)
After a smokin' Monomoy area last weekend this weekend seemed a little off. There were some fish around, I saw half a dozen in the dim early morning light and pea soup fog, but they were far from being on any kind of rampage and the fog was so thick I would strip all the way to the nail knot before realizing where my fly was. In other words, sight fishing was a pipedream. Maybe three days of pea soup fog in the area had something to do with the slowdown. Bait was very scarce as well, what we saw in the SE region would qualify as fry (larvae even), with a few exceptions when a tern would pluck a fair sized sand eel. The water was cold as far in the bowl as we went, although we didn't go way up.
On the positive side, Chuck did hook a 12 pound blue and Dave Williams kicked things off quickly with a "just-under" striper on his 5th cast; Jim Doogue had a fish from both sides of South Beach, etc - but the overall consensus was that it was pretty dead this weekend so we cut our losses and some took the shuttle back as early as 10am.
Sat PM -
After some chores back at the cottage I met up with a couple of former co-workers to sight cast on the Brewster Flats. We found them within 15 minutes and set up on a drift that went two or three miles (maybe more) and saw fish grubbing sand eels the whole time with very few moments of idle time before seeing another pod. I got two in this years legal size but all were chunky and the best fight came from a sub-legal that ran like a banshee over and over at high speed.
Hit the outside again this morning (damn I wish I hit the bayside flats Fred!) and got bit off by a large blue on the backside and landed one nice fat sub-legal in Chatham and that was it. The tide didn't move until after 11am and although it looked real fishy some left before the current picked up to attend to duties and the last stragglers left by noon.
Overall assessment (from what I could gather) -
Monomoy area slow Sat AM (may have picked up on the afternoon flood), water cold, micro bait, pea soup and no sight fishing in the am to be had
Bayside PM flood - smokin'
Sunday - Chatham slow, water cold, micro bait
(From Fred's report I wish I hit the bayside shoreline)