The Summer Season Starts...
By: Capt. Hap Farrell
Well, it is officially summer now. Schools are letting out, the vacationers are starting to arrive and the fish are waiting to be caught. So, those of you who are waiting to catch them you are in luck. Seriously, the bluefish have arrived in strength on the south shore of the Cape and are working their way into the Bay. The lead schools have already arrive and are settling in. The striped bass are a little reluctant to make room for them but they realize they will have to.
The bass are still in the New Ground area and during the flood tide can be very active. Just look for working birds and work into them slowly. One thing we, as charter captains, see every season are the chargers. Those skiffs that see working birds and go full bore to them and start casting into them. What they don't realize in doing this they put down more schools getting there and spook the school they are trying to get to. Working up to them slowly and into a position either up wind or up tide from them and then drifting into them will give the angler much more time with an active school. More often than not the school of fish is only up for a short time anyway.
Some of the other active areas are the south edge of Billingsgate Shoals, during the dropping tide, the deep water on the east end of the shoals out to 50 feet, and in by the #3 and #5 cans by Billingsgate Island itself. Remember, you can only see the Island at low water. P-town is very active, especially in by the Bath House on an incoming tide.
A quick note. The Blessing of the Fleet at Rock Harbor last Saturday went better than expected. There were a good number of people in attendance and many boats in the fleet were blessed. Next year should be even better.
There are more and more bluefish showing up mixed in with the stripers. During the middle of last week the New Grounds was quite active with a number of schools of bass working the surface. There were a few bluefish mixed in. I ended up landing at least two to three each day. I expect they will show up in on Stony Bar any day now.
Things are going to start settling in in the next week and all the regular areas will start to get active. Just a little warmer and more sun and I think we will have a good season. The deep water off billingsgate Shoals should be the area to fish for next week. I think that whole area will explode with both bass and bluefish.
I had the Facinnelli family out last Tuesday. They are from Tampa, Florida. Jim, the father, is an avid fisherman and has his own boat down there. Well, we showed how good the fishing is up here. His whole family did well landing 8 nice stripers and one good size bluefish. His son, Dominick, out did everyone by landing more fish than all of them. Not bad for a nine year young man.
For further information: www.capecodbaycharters.com
E-mail - capthap@capecodbaycharters.com Phone - 508-240-8267
