I’m not going to name names, and I’m not going to name places but I went to a not so far away place and saw a lot of fish! This past week was Another Busman’s Holiday for this fishing guide.
Fly fishing in Barnstable Harbor is far and away my favorite place to fish. A good thing as that’s where I take my guided fishing trips. Nevertheless, when I have the opportunity to fish other parts of Cape Cod, I take them.
I have a friend with a Freedom Boat Club membership, so we decided to test out some fishing territory on the south side of Cape Cod.
Thursday’s weather was perfect. The southwest wind wasn’t predicted to build until the afternoon so we headed out at 6:30am. As we cruised along, we saw many terns flitting around but none with the urgency that indicates schools of fish. Until… we did…
Creature of Habit
As usual, my fly rod was ready to go with an intermediate line and a chartreuse and white clouser. My fishing partner had other plans with a fly rod rigged with a sinking line and bunker fly. Suffice it say, the sinking line won! I was down 0-3 after 30 minutes of fishing. Not only was I losing in numbers, I was losing in pounds. These were hefty fish!
The fish were covered with sea lice. We were fishing in 20′-30′ of water, so these fish were diving down. Fly rods were bent and it was a lot of work to haul the fish to the surface. As a shallow water fisherman, this experience was definitely unique.
I have learned that angling your fishing rod from side to side is much more powerful than pulling upward. (Try this with a friend on land and you’ll see what I mean.) “Sounding” stripers put up a very different kind of fight and it’s a lot more work.
My friend and captain for the day claimed that every time we found fish, the other boats found us. I’m not sure if that is 100% true, but we were definitely doing a lot of “catching” on fly rods where other boats seemed to be less active.
Before the Wind Picked Up
Cape Cod’s south side can get dicey when the southwest wind picks up and eventually the wind did exactly that. Nevertheless, as we made our way back to the marina we found a large pod of excited stripers and bluefish. As many of you know, I am not a bluefish fan as they destroy tackle and I am afraid of their chompers!
I took a few casts, but after some chomping of my tackle, I stashed the gear and watched my friend tease the mixed bag of blues and stripers to the surface. I love watching the fish chase each other as they slam the fly.
So, Another Busman’s Holiday on the books. As always, lessons learned and memories made!