Wow, time flies when summer is in full swing!

I had a busman's holiday this past weekend. MWFF's Jen Hall invited me to fish with she and Captain Rich Armstrong of Fishstix charters in Boston. It was great to be the client for a change, in fact as client I broke all of the rules and found myself "livelining pogies" on my fly rod. Actually, I was casting my fly rod and hooking pogies accidently and then watching as the blues and some large bass tore away at the pogies. It was really quite fascinating. However, it was my trusty Slug-go friend that hooked that nice fish you see me holding here in this picture. But enough about me...

I have pictures and stories from the past month, but I simply haven't had a moment to keep up on my fishing report. Busy with many things, and (literally) looking for fish would be one of those things. August was a tough month for stripers. Very late in the month the blues finally showed up and ate lots of flies and lures. However, betweeen tropical storm watches and generally windy weather, the fishing has been overall quite slow.

THAT IS ABOUT TO CHANGE. Last week I went albie fishing with the local St. Croix rep. He hooked some albies, and then some blues. It was a fun day on the southside, not my home waters but certainly a nice place to visit. Rumor has it that there are bluefin near, nearby, but check out John McMurray article in the most recent issue of Fly Fishing in Saltwaters magazine before you get too hasty about tuna fishing. I make no claims to being a tuna guide, but I do love to follow them and watch their magnificence. Here's the link to John's article: http://www.flyfishinsalt.com/species/conservation/the-bluefin-dilemma-1000064910.html

Anyway, judging by the terns, the bunker, and the albies, it's safe to say that the fall migration is in full swing which (hopefully) means the big fish are back.

If you don't hear from me for a while, that's a good sign that I'm off fishing again.

Family Charter 101

So, the customer calls and says "we're a family, two kids aged 6 and 9" the guide responds "no problem, kids are fun to fish with" however, the guide thinks "ok, I'm gonna spend a lotta time untangling lines, ducking flying hooks and if I'm really lucky, the kids will be able to cast far enuf to catch a fish". Well yesterday's charter included untangling and ducking (as most charters do) but it also included two of the sweetest and funniest kids I've ever met. We'll call them S & R (need to protect their identities as I was recently enlightened to the high level of internet child stalking that exists). S & R were ready for fishing, in fact, I felt like they merely tolerated the boat ride as the tedious means to the goal of fishing. It's the dog days of August, no wind, outgoing tide and as always, I'm hoping that the fish feel like being cooperative. I take us to "the spot", everybody is still in the practicing their casts stage of the morning, when R says "I see a feather, maybe that's a sign". We laugh, feather -ha, you need to see the whole bird... when ka-pow, R is hooked up to a nice size striper. Who knew that feathers floating on the water were "a sign". Next we drove around on the bar hoping to find fish balls but only found a lot of skates and pods of sand eels. I succombed to my "follow the leader" fallback position and headed back to where I could see my "friends" casting over one of the "no fish" zones. We call them "no fish" zones because they are where many of the "tourists" fish and who wants to be seen in the tourist zone. Well, one of my fishing mentors was in the "no fish" zone, so I followed. We got some strikes and follows but no hook-ups. Nevertheless, this boat ride was the beginning of the 10, 9, 8... blast-off method of travel where 6 year old S would position himself in a ball underneath the "seat" next to the trash bucket and enjoy the wind-free, low center of gravity comfort of a very cramped space. I guess that S was a bit like a dog that feels safe in its crate. We spent the rest of morning following signs such as feathers, horseshoe crabs, cleaning up the harbor of another errant piece of re-bar (a vestige of the up harbor aqua-culture grants) and when the tide finally changed we found a nice pod of mostly stripers with a few blues mixed in where we completed the "family slam" with every family member catching at least one fish all by themselves. It was a great day, especially when I overheard S asking his mother as they walked away from the ramp, couldn't they please go fishing with the "lady fishing guide" tomorrow as well.

PS: There was a "family" guide trip lesson learned which is no orange-potato chips on the boat. They really do leave quite a mess, sticky and stainy.

PPS: Note to Michael -you see now that the "mommy" fish really aren't around right now. At least I'm finding the juniors. Some say wait til next year and those juniors may become "mommies". We'll see.

PPS: Note to Jay, there were no bikini clad any-bodies on the whale boat that day at the ramp, you were hallucinating. Thanks for all your help!

Sum Sum Summer Time

So the it's mid-summer and it's mid-summer fishing. Middle of the day and the fish don't eat, unless off course it's cloudy or something. Yesterday the fish were hungry for flies, today while fishing with my nephew and his friend, the fish were loving the Hogies. The fish seem to be between 24-26". I don't know where the Mommy fish are hiding.

Timing is everything. This summer it's been good and not so good. It was good when my client hooked a 36" striper just at the moment that I was telling friends on another boat that they should come fish next to me as there were "big fish here" when BAM a big fish hit the lure as if I'd staged the whole thing.

It wasn't so good yesterday. I was on stage for the local whale watchers when, for reasons that are way too complicated to explain, I managed to drop my boat off the back of the trailer on to the ramp. It was awful, not only because it's tough on the boat, but why did it have to happen in front of a boat full of tourists? I can hear the announcer now "yes, that boat on the pavement belongs to local fishing guide Captain Ms. Salty Fly"... The boat suffered only a little damage, as for me, I'm still recovering.

So today we traveled far only to find the first bluefish of the season. It was a flat calm morning and seemed like a good day to test out some of the farther reaches of the neighborhood. I saw the charter fleet trolling back and forth dragging their wire rigs and headed inshore looking for "grass patches". A couple of breaking fish alerted me and quickly my fishing companion and I were hooked up to some mid-sized bass. It seemed like the traveling was well worth it until the flies and lures started to disappear. Bluefish, Cape Cod Bay's sign of mid-season. The goodnews, the fish drought has mellowed. The bad news, these fish have teeth and not only pose a danger to my fingers, they can go thru tackle like you wouldn't believe. The lure companies refer to bluefish as their business partners. For me, all those tired, rusty flies that served their purpose this past spring and early summer, are re-vitalized and given a second chance. That's the news for today.

It's been a while since I've gotten to my fishing report blog, in part as I just spent a week "off the grid". About a mile and a half (as the crow flies) from my house is an old fishing colony populated with small houses, most of which feature no running water or electricity. The world out there is about sand, birds, fish and (of course) good eating! Traditionally this is a week when I wake with the sun, fish most of the day and fill in the other time slots with eating. This year was a bit different with less time devoted to fishing and more time to the socialization part of eating. Nevertheless, there was good time on the water.

I Love My Backyard!

I could of just used my camera and it would have been as good as catching fish. 1-3 feet of water, even skinnier in some places, flat calm and good light. Oh, and TAILS! Just flopping around as the fish nuzzled the sand. We got out of the boat and stalked the fish like they were bonefish, in fact, it was like we were bonefishing only there so many more stripers than I have ever seen bonefish. Tailing, swimming around. Several times while I was wading, I looked next to me only to see hefty stripers swimming along beside me. But I was focused on the tailing fish. I tried different patterns, although it was clear that sand eels were the primary bait for most of these critters, but tailing fish signaled crabs, so I tied on one of the permit flies that I take to the tropics with me every year, and then move them to my striper fly collection, just in case. Well today was "just in case" POW, one cast with the crab fly and I was hooked up to a nice fish. Yes, the fish were largely in the "schoolies" category, still most of them were between 23-27". Fun on a fly rod, and plus they were swimming next to me as I caught them. My client, a local guy with a huge grin, commented that people travel a long way for this kind of fishing.

CFR One Fly Tournament

Saturday, this lovely spring weather showed us once again its windy and rainy side. Because this type of weather is potentially quite fishy contestants in yesterday's CFR(Casting For Recovery)-Wareham One Fly Tournament began the day quite optimistically. Sadly, the wind made for some tricky casting situations and the fish were busy doing something other than showing interest in any of the three flies which tournament contestants were offering to them. I believe that only two fish were actually caught by the 25-30 contestants who fished from 8am - 4pm. There were two fish lost to pre-mature releases, and one of the kayak fishermen was rumored to have caught 2 fish, but there was some question as to whether or not he was in fact fishing within boundaries dictated by the tournament organizers. The tournament was won by a 21" striper caught by an IWFF member from NY Sam (I don't know Sam's last name) who deligently cast her spey rod from the beach not only through the lunch hour but also at least 1/2 hour past the 4pm finish of the tournament. MWFF was well represented at the contest by president Jan, vice president Candy, Brenda (CFR -Wareham leader and tournament organizer), CFR volunteers: Linda, Cindy, Jane, Evelyn, Karen and contestants: Katya and me. Honestly, I may have some of the contestants and the volunteers mixed up, I hope I didn't forget anyone (sorry if I did) and I don't know all of the last names, but anyway, there were a bunch of us there and I think I can speak for all of us and say that despite the weather and the not-so-great fishing we all had a good time. Lunch was delicious and whomever makes that amazing cole slaw, let's add that to the "recipes" section of MWFF. "Cook the Catch" may not the mantra of many of us catch and releasers, but we've all gotta eat and that cole slaw was dee-lish!


Thanks to all of you that help to make CFR the amazing organization that it is! For those of you who are not familiar with CFR, visit their website at http://www.castingforrecovery.org/


Sorry about the lack of pictures, but I forgot my camera.


Oh, and Hi again to the women that I ran into early Saturday morning at Barnstable General Store who were not part of the CFR event, but were off to do some fishing on their own aboard their sweet center console "Bird's Nest".

This one's for you Jen!

The fish on the top is a 44" fish caught on a Hogy lure, the 30" fish on the bottom was caught on a clouser. Not a lot of fish to the boat, but quality fish! "Torpedo strip" is a great spring fishing spot. The weather was on our side and the season is in full swing!

Waves, rain & wind... it's spring in the northeast!

So I'm just back from a 4 day boat trip to New York City. I was there to participate in a benefit "live release" fishing tournament, Fishermen's Conservation Association's (http://www.joinfca.org/) "Manhattan Cup". We departed Old Lyme, CT on Wednesday under clear skies, unfortunately, due to scheduling constraints of the boat's owner, we had no extra time to fish on the way to NYC. I spent the next two night and days bobbing up and down at Chelsea Piers (West 23rd St.) as the commuter ferry traffic kept the seas alive. Friday was Manhattan Cup day and the rain started just as 35 fishing craft made their way down the Hudson River to participate in a bluefish festival. Bluefish, bluefish, bluefish and rain, rain, rain. That about sums up the Manhattan Cup for me, that and another schedule dictated non-fishing boat ride back up Long Island Sound to Old Lyme.

So Sunday, I find myself on local waters -at last. Stripers abound, but they just aren't too hungry. I'm not sure if it was the tide, the moon, or perhaps even the weather, but the stripers were following, almost sniffing the fly and not really taking. In fact, the few that I hooked up seemed to grab the fly only after I had let the fly drop into the water to sink for a several seconds. Seems that as soon as I started to my retrieve, "fish on". Unfortunately, by 2:00, the wind was howling, the fish were very quiet so I stashed my rods and headed home only to discover that the 4-wheel drive system in truck still doesn't work properly and this is after 2 trips (already) to the Ford dealer. Thankfully, my charter was able to re-schedule for Wednesday, and we can sit out the predicted 20-35 mph winds of the next 24+ hours.

It's that time of year again.

Spring is in the air...

Several times a week late in the afternoon, I walk my dog nearby one of my favorite early spring fishing spots. All winter long, I watch the ducks hanging out around the harbor. As spring develops, I notice that the ducks disappear and the seagulls start to show up. About this time I start to wonder when the first striped bass will arrive. Today seemed like a good day to take some casts. After about 20 minutes of casting, I decided that it was still too early and that the fish were not yet here. "One more cast", really "one more cast" I thought to myself as I took "one more cast". BOOM, fish on! Not a small fish either... first fish of the season was a 30+ inch "keeper". Can't wait for tomorrow.

... and the fish are back!

Spring rears its welcome head here on Cape Cod

It’s March 2nd, and although there are piles of snow around the northeast, and it’s cold out; the sun sets later, rises earlier, and the sprouts of the daffodils and the primrose are showing themselves. That is a sentence with a lot of punctuation…
Why bother to talk about spring, after all, aren’t we supposed to be living in the moment? Sure, OK, I can try to do that, but I’ve just unpacked from a weeklong bonefishing trip in the Bahamas. The trip was sponsored by Concord Outfitters, and on board from Mass Women Fly Fishers were Melissa Winstanley, Jen Hall, Erica Wheeler and me. It was a great trip with some bonefish, barracuda & lemon sharks. There was the biggest bonefish ever seen (was it really a bonefish?), a gigantic barracuda (or was it a bonefish?), shark attacks (kinda sorta), spooky fish, frolicking fish, popular guides, less popular guides, Melissa’s Flat (formerly Big Flat), leaky boats, skinny boats, broken push poles, self guided poling methods devised, and a big ring around the moon that has yet to be explained. But that was then.
Back here on the Cape, I enjoy seeing the signs of late winter and very early spring because it is these signs that foretell that the stripers might be heading this way again soon!

By the way, the beautiful flies in the picture are tied by Leslie Wrixon. This is a collection of her flies which she assembled specifically for Bahamas bonefish. Leslie's flies are available for sale individually or packaged for specific destinations. You can contact Leslie thru MWFF or thru me.