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Well my recent trip to Massachusetts was primarily a family holiday however I did manage 2 ½ days fly fishing on Nantucket and Cape Cod for Striped Bass.
Apart from the waders and occasional rainwear you could almost imagine you were fishing Caribbean flats. Well almost!
Had most success on Nantucket where we were poling the flats one just under 10 and one of 13lb 4oz on 12lb tippet. Great fun especially as, apart from the first 1 ½ hours when light conditions were poor, it was all sight fishing.
I guess though I saw more big fish on North Monomoy, off Chatham on Cape Cod fish of 20lb plus. But for the two days I fished there it was always foggy an unfortunate but fairly regular characteristic of the Cape making classic sight fishing difficult. Most of the time, I was either blind casting or casting at flashes and surface swirls. Although we always targeted the big fish on the making tide we suffered from poor visibility and most of the shots came when the fish were no more than 30 away. As such they ended up edgy rather than spooky. And in knee deep water with a strong current you needed to lead them by 20 with the heavily weighted crab patterns. I only had a couple of half-hearted follows from the biggies. Still all good fun, and I learned a lot.
With the frustration of the big fish I did discuss bait fishing opportunities with the guide. He said that hed had great success using sea worms but, surprisingly, had never tried free-lined crabs something Ive used with great success for Permit in Florida. I think though there were just no obvious sources of crabs, unless he was going to catch them himself.
Just some further observations.
Guided fishing is never going to be cheap - it cost me 250$US a day wade fishing and 425$US to hire the skiff. But, given limited time, you need to balance likely success against the 'DIY' option.
That said lots of Americans do surf cast from the beaches and headlands with great success for Striped Bass, Bluefish (watch the teeth) and Flounders.
Whilst the Reel Time FORUM is primarily devoted to fly fishing its very active membership will readily offer advice, especially to us Brits, on where best to fish if you find yourself along that North Eastern seaboard.
Kindest regards
Dave
Sportfishing Club of the British Isles
Apart from the waders and occasional rainwear you could almost imagine you were fishing Caribbean flats. Well almost!
Had most success on Nantucket where we were poling the flats one just under 10 and one of 13lb 4oz on 12lb tippet. Great fun especially as, apart from the first 1 ½ hours when light conditions were poor, it was all sight fishing.
I guess though I saw more big fish on North Monomoy, off Chatham on Cape Cod fish of 20lb plus. But for the two days I fished there it was always foggy an unfortunate but fairly regular characteristic of the Cape making classic sight fishing difficult. Most of the time, I was either blind casting or casting at flashes and surface swirls. Although we always targeted the big fish on the making tide we suffered from poor visibility and most of the shots came when the fish were no more than 30 away. As such they ended up edgy rather than spooky. And in knee deep water with a strong current you needed to lead them by 20 with the heavily weighted crab patterns. I only had a couple of half-hearted follows from the biggies. Still all good fun, and I learned a lot.
With the frustration of the big fish I did discuss bait fishing opportunities with the guide. He said that hed had great success using sea worms but, surprisingly, had never tried free-lined crabs something Ive used with great success for Permit in Florida. I think though there were just no obvious sources of crabs, unless he was going to catch them himself.
Just some further observations.
Guided fishing is never going to be cheap - it cost me 250$US a day wade fishing and 425$US to hire the skiff. But, given limited time, you need to balance likely success against the 'DIY' option.
That said lots of Americans do surf cast from the beaches and headlands with great success for Striped Bass, Bluefish (watch the teeth) and Flounders.
Whilst the Reel Time FORUM is primarily devoted to fly fishing its very active membership will readily offer advice, especially to us Brits, on where best to fish if you find yourself along that North Eastern seaboard.
Kindest regards
Dave
Sportfishing Club of the British Isles
