Friends don’t nickname me “Monsoon Currier” for nothing. While I may not always bring a deluge of rain, I attract all types of bad weather. Apparently this week its strong north wind. Each of my first two days fishing here on Cape Cod with pal Rick Wilsterman, the wind blew a steady 20 mph with gusts to 30. Today was a steady 25 mph wind with gusts out of control. It was not a good day to go fishing.
But Rick and I are stubborn. We found the false albacore yesterday and weren’t about to sit around Ricks and think about them. We grabbed our 9-weights and headed back to the cut near Chatham, MA. Sadly, when we arrived they weren’t there. However, Rick had a plan B.
Plan B was to navigate through the Chatham channel and reach the leeward side of the Monomoy Flats – a long peninsula like shoot of land that hiding behind would give us some wind protection. We had a time frame to deal with. The channel gets to shallow during low tide to navigate through. Basically we had four hours to travel, fish for a while then get back.
Ricks plan was awesome. We zipped through the channel then headed south and as he thought, we were well protected. We couldn’t find any bird action so we blind fished some rips and beach. Just the fact that the wind wasn’t singing through my ears made it nice despite no fish.
A Cessna plane passed overhead and Rick mentioned they might be looking for great white sharks. Rick and his wife flew last week and spotted five of the big sharks and he went on to say we were pretty close to where they saw them. That perked me up and I started scanning the ocean like I was on a flat looking for permit.
We fished a little more then decided our pursuit for fish here was useless. Rick suggested we head back and hope the albies had arrived where we caught them yesterday. I was good with that but asked if we could drive slowly and try to find a shark. Rick smiled and said, “Great idea, but I must tell you, in all my years on the Cape I’ve only seen one from my boat. The view from the plane is a lot different”.
I agreed but stood high in the bow and held tight and scanned the beach. Maybe it’s because I grew up with the movie jaws – but I was very excited. There were seals on the beach and a few casually swimming along the edge. No doubt sharks were on their mind but it didn’t seem as though they were too worried now. As we passed the seals I swore I saw a shadow running deep. Rick stopped and we circled back. The shadow I saw was gone. “It must have been weeds”, I said.
When we returned to the windy cut where we caught the albies yesterday we were delighted to see them back and feeding in full force. Navigating the boat was more insane than yesterday but somehow Rick not only dealt with the swirling gusts but managed to get his blue and white Clouser in the water. Then he hooked up!
I took the wheel of his boat so he could do battle. Keeping the boat straight in the gale wind was a nightmare. How Rick managed to launch a cast and drive is unbelievable. His fish gave him a great fight then he tailed the emerald green and blue albie and I shot off a few pics. The pic shows the fish nicely but doesn’t show how crazy the wind was.
The false albacore madness lasted about an hour and after Rick released his I managed to catch two more. Then, as fast as the bite began, the fish and birds disappeared. We hit it just right. Just in time to catch a few then get off the water at a decent hour.
Rick and I have had three great days fishing but early tomorrow he and his wife fly to a wedding. The plan is, I’ll get up early also and Rick will drop me off with another friend, Bob Lewis, at 5:45 AM. Then I’ll fish with Bob. Bob is the first guy I ever fished with on Cape Cod. And he’s also the guy that put together my first few speaking tours on the Cape years ago. After fishing tomorrow I speak to the Cape Cod Trout Unlimited then Thursday deliver a full day of seminars for Cape Cod Fly Rodders.
I’m fishing, speaking and traveling like pre-Covid times and loving it. Stay tuned for more from Cape Cod!
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