I hopped on an airplane yesterday and arrived on Cape Cod last night. I should be packing up my life in Victor but all these fun little things like Alaska last month, Czech the last few weeks and now this trip were planned well in advance before knowing I’d be moving. The main reason of this trip is to teach a beach seminar to Cape Cod Fly Rodders and deliver “The Worlds Best Trout Destinations” to the Cape Cod TU Club. And of course, also some serious fishing days starting with today with my friend Rick Wilsterman.
The wind has screwed us. It’s been gorgeous on the Cape right up until yesterday. Last night a 20 mph north wind began with gusts to 30. Nothing new in my world. We took our time this morning and headed out around 11 AM – decked in full rain suits in order to take on the big waves.
I’ll keep it short. Fishing was a struggle. When the wind is strong not only is it hard to launch a cast but line management can be a nightmare. It was. But Rick and I did the best we could. Of course the boat gets blown off the spots all day as well. You can’t change the weather so you take it with a smile.
In addition to trying to catch fish there was a neat thing to think about. Rick and his wife Sarah took a local Cessna flight a few days ago to see great white sharks. There are a ton of them around and on their trip they saw 8! All between 8 and 15 feet long right where we were fishing. As the boat knocked me around trying to cast I made sure not to fall overboard. Honestly, there’s enough seals around that a lousy tasting “Currier” would probably go unnoticed.
As I scanned the sea in hopes of spotting my first great white shark, I took in the scenery. Cape Cod is a beautiful place. What’s interesting is I grew up on the coast here in Massachusetts. I was in the north and our families’ stomping grounds was Plum Island. We hardly ever came to the Cape. While Plum Island is great I believe we were missing out by not mixing it up with trips down here.
As for fishing, the day wasn’t lost. In fact, the “Currier” persistence paid dividends. At the end of the day I left false albacore mode and went with a 300-grain sinking Sonar and small but heavy chartreuse Clouser. I got particularly serious as we drifted across this 6 foot deep flat. The moving sand, strong current and waves made the sea look alive and I knew something was down there. I ended up catching two windowpane flounders (Scophthalmus aquosus) which is a new species for me. Cool! I wasn’t expecting this to happen today.
At the end of the day we returned to Ricks boat mooring and saw some small fish busting bait. We were deep in a protected bay here in Chatham. The full moon was rising and it finally had calmed down. I thought we were calling it but Rick told me to make a cast. I tossed a pink popper and got attacked immediately. We went on to catch two schoolie stripers each.
Never give up as I like to say. We turned a questionable weather day into a very successful day of fishing. Unfortunately the wind strengthens tomorrow and it could cause worse havoc. But for now, its baseball, beer and dinner. In that order!
0 Comments