Rock Harbor Fishing Report
By: Capt. Hap Farrell
The Deep Water
Every season we find that one certain area produces the most fish on day by day average. This season it's the deep water off the north edge of Billingsgate Shoals. In years past it has been Billingsgate Shoals itself, but not this year. Day after day we steam out to the deep water from 45 feet out to 60 feet, set out our umbrella rigs and start looking for the schools of bass and bluefish, mainly the stripers. Some days we find a number of these big schools and do fairly well. Other, it can be a little hard to find the bass. The bluefish are another story. They seem to be in this area in abundance.
Billingsgate Shoals, an area we have come to see as the center piece of Cape Cod Bay. It has been an area where season after season we look to find those big elusive stripers that our customers are always looking for. For some reason the fish, that is the striped bass, have not congregated on the shoals as they have in other years. There is plenty of bait, sand eels, on the shoals. The sea clammers have not destroyed all the grass yet. We can't figure out why the schools of big fish have not shown up there so far. One thing we have not had is a hard northwest wind. That is until Tuesday afternoon. It cooled down the water and pushed the fish up onto the shoals. There are a lot of small bass mixed in with some bluefish, but the big bass are definitely on the shoals. For how long, time will tell.
When I started chartering during the summer of 1980 the main area we fished was out in the deep water. All that was there were schools after school of bluefish. Once in a great while someone would hook up on a striper. After a number of years the management of the stripers started which has brought us to what we have today. This could be a reoccurrence of a cycle. Except this time, because of the management of the striped bass, we will have a better start to another surge in the bass population. It may take a while, but the big numbers of fish and the resurgence of schools of big bass may be back. It could also be that the movement of the stripers this season took them elsewhere and they could be back any day now. Mother Nature can be a fickled lady.
What to do and where to go? Fishing is just that, fishing. Right now, your best bet for any stripers is working the deep water off Billingsgate Shoals. Go out to 50 feet of water, set out an umbrella rig on 200 feet of wire and work the area. If you have a 450 foot jigging wire set up try that. Before doing any of these I'd check the shoals. Jig along the north edge and up on the shoals for a bit. Maybe, just maybe the fish have moved up on the shoals. As far as the bluefish you can fish along the Eastham shore during high water and do well. Also, you can troll hootchies from just outside Great Island up past the Path from 12 out to 25 feet of water and also do well. You can do both if you fish your umbrella rig in the deep water.
This last week Capt. Andy Napolitano, operator of the charter boat "Hobo", had a group of anglers out on a half day trip booked through the Rock Harbor Charter Service (508-255-9757). This was what is called a split trip The Painters, the Dias' and Mr. DeCook. They all landed a number of big bluefish and a few stripers that were just under the legal limit. Capt. Napolitano did keep them busy by finding a large number of bluefish. I had Tom White and his family out. We did get one just legal bass in the deep water a long with a number of bluefish. I went to a secret spot of my near the #3 can and found two more bass, one 29 inches and the other just 30 inches.
If you'd like to get in on some good August fishing give me a call at: 508-240-8267.
stunmai@copper.net
www.capecodbaycahrters.com
