Rock Harbor Fishing Report
By: Capt. Hap Farrell
The Bluefish Show Up
They are finally here. It took a while but the bluefish have arrived in mass. This last Friday they came with the tide, moving along the south edge and into the Sunken Meadow area. They ate everything in their path. This means the squid are gone for a bit and so are the stripers that were in around the #5 can and the Screen Range. The Screen Range is an area where we used to light up the drive-in screen up with a tree to get the location. The tree has since been cut down so it's harder to locate. Basically, it is between the #3 and #5 cans but on the Eastham side of the channel leading to Welfleet. It is up on the flats if you look at a chart. Anyway, the bass have moved out of this area. It is good to see the bluefish arrive. This fish is one of the hardest fighting fish found in this area and it gives an angler a run for his money.
The stripers have moved to new areas. Some are on the south edge of Billingsgate Shoals and up on top of the shoals. The balance of the fish are in the deep water, 40 to 60 feet, from off Great Island down to the southwest to the #1 can. At times the bass are up by the Square, closer to Welfleet, and other times you find them down to the southwest closer to the #1 can. You sort to have to flip a coin on where to start. You know, there is some guess work in this fishing game. The more the experience, the better the guess.
So far the most productive lure system used by the charter fleet is the umbrella rig. In the last few days it's been used off the Brewster Flats where there is mainly undersized stripers. Up between the #3 and #5 cans it has produced a number of bluefish and some keepers which were just over the 28 inch limit. Where this system has done its best is on the north edge of the shoals and out in the deep water. So far there has not been much activity on top of Billingsgate Shoals yet. However, this is a good place to start looking for the bigger bass and jigging would be the best method to use.
The main spot to look for the larger bass for this coming week is the north edge and the deep water. The tides will be getting smaller as the week goes on so the currents created by the tides will not move the fish much. The best time will be a few hours either side of high water. It seems as the tide drops the bass will move out into the Bay and are harder to find. As the tide comes in, they will concentrate back in the deep water off the north edge. One of these days they will work up on top of Billingsgate Shoals and we can use different methods like jigging and the tube & worm. There are all the bluefish you want in on Sunken Meadow and they are big ones, really big ones. Most anything will work in there.
This last week I had some relatives of Chris and Emily Ewen out on a half day trip. Chris nephew, Connor, was going to have his first experience sportfishing from a good sized boat and he was a little nervous. We first set out by the #3 can using first the umbrella rig which netted us one small keeper and some bluefish. Then we put out some lighter gear, 12 lb. test line, and landed some good sized bluefish. At that point Connor had landed his first fish but it was not going to be his last. We got the word that some big stripers were in the deep water off the north edge. Once we got there Connor show off his newly learned talent and landede a nice 36 in bass. Not bad for a young man of seven years of age.
If you'd like to get in on some of this good early July fishing give me a call at; Cell: 508-240-8267 or Home: 508-255-6211.
www.capecodbaycharters.com
