Cape Cod Stripers

[backbeach]

Right on Jed! If they did get as large, I'd be reccomending 11 and 12 wts. As much as I hate to admit it, a 15lb bluefish will pull a 15lb striper inside out!!! In the early season most blues will be thinner, but by fall alot of them are so fat they look like school tuna. Having said that, two of the biggest ones I've seen were caught in June at Race Point; 18-20 lbs. They were lying on the beach with needlefish plugs hanging out of their mouths because the angler didn't dare to unhook them- he just unclippped the 24' wire 60lb leaders from the line til they "calmed down"... Which leads me to a 2nd point about blues; bring a set of 8" needlenose pliers and unhook them with those if you value your fingers.... take care, Jim

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"Knowledge is knowing, wisdom is understanding"

[dudley]

Late May, early June, big chopper blues fin along in almost a daisy chain on the surface along the south cape.
They won't always take, but when they do....
Right place, right time, big fun

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Friends don't let friends drive gas hogs

[Jed]

Made a mistake this weekend. I fished the one morning I had in Provincetown Harbor. Zilch for action. No birds, no fish, beautiful day for a paddle, though that was not my goal.

When I was done I took a ride to Herring Cove. Saw a line of working birds about 400 yds off shore. If I had gone there first I would have probably seen some action Next time!

jed

[eponymous]

I fished Phat Kids haunt this Sunday. North River. Pretty similar results to Jed.

I started at slack and paddled upstream from the bridge. One follow but it saw the Yak and scrammed before it ate Ray's fly. Then I took the outgoing tide back past the bridge and chased a pod of birds towards the mouth of the ocean. Darn birds meant nothing. Dissappeared when I got there with nothing underneath. What took me 10 mins with the tide took me 1 hour of hard paddling to get back. Just before I got to the ramp wouldn't you know a crappy little schoolie took my trolling fly. Took me another 10 mins to get back upstream to the ramp.

Luckily I checked the Bridge Street area by foot and took two more schoolies before heading home. Not all was lost. Still a nice day on the water and Scituate is a beautiful town.

e

[Jed]

Checking a few other web sites it seems like the Stripers are back, but not yet fully turned on.

Now that I've said that I hope the Stripers make a liar out of me.

jed

[backbeach]

Eponomous, When is slack tide there compared to Boston tide. I was fishing the Indian Head before I got hurt and someone told me its 3.5 hours after Boston. I could only guess a couple of hours to the Union St Bridge, or was it the 3A bridge at Mary's where you launched? The lower end of the river really moves, I'm surprized you could make headway against it, you must've been cranking bigtime on the paddle.

[josko]

Kyle, the area from Barnstable to Provincetown ('Inside' or west side of lower cape) has been fishing very well this week with plenty of 15-30 lb fish. 'Outside' (Provincetown to Chatham) and Southside (Nantucket sound) have been rather quiet, although I hear (unconfirmed) reports of a nice push of fresh fish around Monomoy yesterday and today. East side of Buzzards Bay has also been very quiet.
We're due for a major Nor'easter tomorrow through Friday that will likely redistribute the fish quite a bit, though.

Where on the cape are you planning on fishing?

[dudley]

I've been reading about the big push of large fish with great anticipation.
Sarting sunday, I'll be camped at Nickerson and fishing morning, noon and night for a week.
We fish dozens of spots from Chatham to Truro, but lately spend most of our time either fishing from the kayaks in Pleasant Bay or fishing the surf on the outside.
Fishing the heavy surf has gotten more and more addictive over the years.
This year I'm looking forward to more flats fishing and from the sound of current reports, spending more time on the bay side.

[eponymous]

bb sorry for the late reply.

I was flat out struggling to move against that current. I am not in the kind of shape I was in when I was younger but I am a determined SOB. It took incredible mental focus to keep going.

e

[josko]

Cape fishing is at its' best right now. There seem to be large bass and bluefish just about wherever you look. The primary bait is squid, which means there are more fish at the rips than close in to shore.