The 2010 Season, What Will it Bring?
By: Capt. Hap Farrell
This has been some winter so far. A lot of things going on and it's been hard to keep track of it. For those who enjoy fishing the waters Cape Cod Bay this winter can't end soon enough. What will we find when the herring have made their way up here? What will the mackerel bring with them when they show up. Will the sand eels have a nervous summer? If we have a season like last season the herring will come in quickly without much problem. The mackerel will only have to worry about the tuna fish and the sand eels will have an easy summer, except up by P-town.
For a while last season we had a good charge of striped bass west of the area of the old Target Ship all the way west to the border of Brewster and Dennis. Most of these fish were undersize but there were a lot of them. Later, these small fish settled in on the north edge of Billingsgate Shoals. Normally, Billingsgate Shoals would hold a good number of big stripers for the summer season. Last season this was not the case. It was P-town. Everything was in P-town. It seemed every striper in the Bay went there and it was a zoo to fish.
The blue fishing was pretty good thoughtout the summer. The first part of the season there were a good number of these fish in along the Eastham shore as well as the deep water off the shoals and up by the Path and up towards P-town. The second half of the season the deep water off the shoals and along the Welfleet and Truro shore was good. I figure this won't be much different this season as far the bluefish are concerned.
What of the stripers? This is some what of the a quagmire to figure out. My guess, and it's a guess, would be that the bass will settle in on the north edge of Billingsgate Shoals. Mainly in the deep water, 40 feet and deeper. If there is any kind of northerly or northwesterly wind it will drive them up onto the shoals and that will be a good thing. The small fish will be in the same place for the first part of this coming season and then move on. P-town will still be good at times, just not as crazy. It will be the shoal this season.
The reason for this guess is the amount of sand eels that were in the deep water off the shoals last season. This same thing happened outside Barnstable Harbor and the next season the schools of bigger stripers gathered off of there for better than a month. Two summers ago there were large schools of sand eel and other types of bait off P-town and last year the fish were in off the Bath house in large numbers all season. It's the north edge of the shoals turn to host these fish. That's what I'm hoping anyway.
I've been writing reports and articles in a few web sites like this one, which is one of the better ones by the way, for a while now. I also write a small weekly report in the Cape Codder, a local newspaper for the Lower Cape area. The one thing I've noticed is that they are not as timely as I'd like. So, I'm making changes in my web site, www.capecodbaycharters.com, so I can post timely reports on what exactly is happening in Cape Cod Bay. They will be short in nature and right to the point, giving areas, what lures seem to be working the best, and such like that. It should be up and running in a week or two. Until the fishing starts I'll put occasional short statements on what to do to get ready.
If you have a Facebook account type in one of these pages: Stunmai II Charter Fishing, Stunmai II Sportfishing Service, or Sportfishing, Rock Harbor, Cape Cod. This will show you something of what I do fishing in the Bay. There are videos on each site. I've have videos up on YouTube also. Just type in the search box Stunmai II and they will come up. What I'm hoping is that those who come to the Cape and want to fish the Bay will use my information to good use and of course those who are coming to go fishing will look me up to take them. That is what I do.
www.capecodbaycharters.com
stunmai@copper.net
