Rock Harbor Fishing Report
By: Capt. Hap Farrell
30 May 2007
Memorial Day Weekend left Its' Memories
The weather was good for a change. Usually we have rain and wind on the first real long weekend of the season. This one was good and so
was the fishing. We had warm days all week before and this brought up the water temperature. This, in turn got the stripers active. Granted more small fish moved in but there was lots of action and enough were legal to keep everyone happy.
Large numbers of small bass with some small keepers mixed in
have moved up on top of Billingsgate Shoals. From the grass patches on the east end of the shoals to the Wreck Buoy, down near the west end, you could see pods of working birds on fish. The whole shoals were full of sand eels. Just off the edge on the south side were more schools of fish some of which were decent in size. The main area was still on Stoney
Bar and just off the Eastham shore out in 15 to 18 feet of water. The channel that lead into Welfleet Harbor between the #3 and #5 cans also held some legal size bass. You just had to work through the small ones.
The main lure system that worked the best was the reliable
umbrella rig on 150 feet of wire. Many of the charter captains don't like to use them, including myself, but if it works we use it. It is not unheard of
to have 2 or 3 fish on one rig, sometimes even more. Mostly we get small fish using this tackle but it gives you plenty of action and can land that big fish everyone is looking for. The hootchie, which had been working very well, seems to attract bigger fish. Put it in combination with a swimming plug and you have a deadly system. Unfortunately, you don't have quite the action you get with the umbrella rig, most of which will be undersized stripers.
The first bluefish in the charter fleet was caught on Saturday, the 26th, aboard the Luau, operated by John Shakliks. He was using
hootchies up near the #5 can more towards the Eastham side of the channel when a stern rod went off. The fish fought a little different than
the stripers he had been hooking up on. When it came in he immediately put it out on the radio that he had landed a nice 10 pound bluefish. Rumor
had it that a few bluefish had been caught by shore fishermen in the South Sunken Meadow area. I guess they were true.
What will happen next week? I think you'll see a little less action inside the #3 and #5 cans as far as the stripers are concerned. With this little cold front coming through the bluefish won't be too active yet. They need warmer water before they get really active. I think the place to look
is west of the old Target Ship and the south edge of Billingsgate Shoals. There will be a lot of schools of small stripers with the bigger fish mixed
in. It's the deeper water west of the ship that I think will hold small bunches of the 34 to 40 inch bass. Jigging or an umbrella rig on a 200
foot wire rod should do the trick. This time of the season there seems to
be a fair amount of moving as far as the stripers are concerned. As the water warms up they keep setting into new areas. Given a little more time they will be on the top of the shoals and then on the north edge.
This last week I had a party put together by Maggie Hasbouch. She wanted to try her hand at sportfishing and brought her friends to help. Before the end of the days all were saying they'd be sore the next morning. They had a workout landing their limit in stripers. The almighty hootchie did the trick. On Monday, Mark Werner and his two sons and a girlfriend had a taste of Cape Cod Bays fishing. They had no trouble getting the 4 fish they wanted to take home. They threw back a fair
number they could have kept. One important thing happened. Becka, the girlfriend, seemed to be along for the ride. By the end of the trip she was obviously the most excited one of the bunch. It seems we created a
fishing fanatic in Becka.
If you'd like to get in on some of this good spring fishing give me a call: Home - 508-255-6211 or the boat: 508-240-8267.
