Joe O’Clair is a Cape Cod Saltie who makes his own flies. His Flycatcher brand flies are sold in select shops — real things of beauty.
So the other night he’s whipping casts on Bass River, not far from Highbank Bridge. He admits he had “a few misses,” and then hooked into a nice 30-inch bass. He took a few pictures and released the fish.
O’Clair says he was testing out some new prototypes, seeing what he might release for next year’s eager customer base — O’Clair’s flies are much in demand from the cognoscenti. So he releases the keeper and starts to cast again when “something big and black flew past my head and hit the fly. It hit the water with a big splash.”
He had no idea what it was. He thought maybe a bat. Turns out it was a drone.
“Some kid over in Wilbur Park was flying a drone and he flew it under the bridge to avoid the power lines.”
Joe managed to pluck it out of midair, like one of those long-tongued frogs snapping a fly.
Joe’s been fishing for more decades than I’ve been alive. He’s seen all kinds of fish and caught most of them. The drone was a first.
So while I want some of that piped-in crowd noise while I work, it’s time to ask…
What’s Going On?
Any parent’s greatest fear is harm coming to their child. So imagine the terror of a bad diagnosis — suddenly your world shifts to a waking nightmare of endless appointments, treatments, doctor visits and hospital stays.
Into the breach steps Dream Day on Cape Cod. They are the beneficiary of the proceeds from the Cape Cod Bay Bass & Bluefish tournament, scheduled (against considerable odds) for this weekend out of Northside Marina in Dennis. Money raised goes to Nan-Ke-Rafe, a camp within a camp at Nickerson State Park in Brewster, where families of very sick children can get away for a week and do camp things, not hospital things. It’s a fun event with fun people, and although the awards dinner had to be canceled this year because of the pandemic, they will still hand out trophies.
It was at this tournament a few years back that I saw the biggest striped bass of my life. To fish the tournament or donate, call 508-385-8662.
1. Buzzards Bay/Cape Cod Canal. The canal is either red hot, nothing special or not as good as a week ago, depending on who you talk to. Most agree that fish are biting early mornings on things like Magic Swimmers and mackerel lookalikes. West end generally fishing better. Topwater plugs first thing in the morning have been effective, as have chunked mackerel. One commercial clammer was heading out and saw keeper-sized bass breaking in the east end but no anglers were there to take advantage. Sad, in a way. But that’s the nature of fishing — you just never know. There wasn’t much in Buzzards Bay this week that I heard about.
2. Islands. False albacore. Does that species excite you? The good news is that they are back. A Vineyard charter guy hooked one earlier this week. When aggressive albies move it, they generally chase away the skittish bonito that we’ve been enjoying now for several weeks. But albies have a dedicated subculture who fish them religiously. Guys soaking live eels at night have taken some bass up to 35 pounds. Plenty of 3- and 4-pound blues from the beaches and in the harbors. And one guy hooked a jack crevalle, a fish more likely to be seen in Margaritaville at the Menemsha jetties. On Nantucket they’ve got bonito at the Bonito Bar as well as Great Point. Bass at night and blues most everyplace.
3. Cape southside beaches and estuaries. Still a steady pick of scup and northern kingfish at Dowses, which was the scene of a classic bluefish blitz on Tuesday night — surface blowing up, birds working, the full deal. Schoolie bass in the harbors. Still some of those brown sharks at night from southside beaches, but more reports this week of dogfish crashing the party. Mike at Riverview recommends “upping” the bait when this happens; in other words, if the bait and the hook you use are twice as big, you can discourage the smaller mouthed dogfish and let the bigger browns take the bait.
4. Nantucket Sound. Danny at the Goose Hummock ran south to fish for fluke and black seabass, and they motored right up on a school of feeding blues. Unable to resist, he tossed an offering in and was immediately bitten off and thought, that’s it! That’s enough lost tackle for one day and kept going. They eventually did well on fluke, but had some trouble from dogfish. Seabass are deep and elusive. Jim at Eastman’s called the fluke fishing “terrible.” Good action on bass out towards Monomoy, where linesiders to about 30 pounds have been hooked this week. Good amounts of blues at the tire reef; in fact, schools of them pretty much everywhere from Bass River to Monomoy.
5. The Great Backside Beach. Blackbeard’s reports good action off the backside. Bass have been chasing pogies “right up onto the beach” as well as decent amounts of blues mixed in.
6. Cape Cod Bay. Bass from South Sunken Meadow up to Race Point. Amy from Sports Port was kayaking Barnstable Harbor with a friend and got into big schools of bass, but they were all exactly the same size at 20 inches. One guy said the bay is “lit up” this week. Others reported running into schools of bass from Corporation to Sandy Neck. Tons of mackerel around. Billingsgate reported fishy. Scattered reports of bonito in the Bay, too.
Freshwater. One tackle shop owner summed it up for me thusly: “Small bass. Rubber worms. Shady banks.”
Offshore. Just a banner year, one of the best on memory for offshore fishing. The shorter run to The Dump will still give you a good shot at school-sized yellowfin and mahi mahi. The longer trip to the canyons will yield bigger fish and larger fuel bills. But these fish! White marlin, longfin tuna, some big eyes. A cornucopia! And those open ocean sunrises are wonderful.
Finally, Mass DMF proposed on Monday to increase commercial bass fishing days from the current two to four and finally seven days a week as the season rolls on. They say with the quota only about one-quarter full (27.7% at press time) that they want more days for commercial guys to have access to the stock. This makes no sense to me. It’s like saying there’s a shortage of fish, so let’s go kill more fish! Strange days, indeed.
Catch em up!
Information for this column was assembled from a variety of liars, exaggerators, mis-informants, ne’erdo-wells and roustabouts. In other words, from fishermen.
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