The many miles of shoreline surrounding Cape Cod are perhaps the richest fishing grounds in the world for fly fishers and an ideal place for beginners. The waters are easily accessible, and many places can be reached with standard vehicles or a short walk. Countless estuaries, both large and small, offer many acres of shallow-water flats. There are steep ocean beaches and both sandy and rocky beaches, some with shallow protected shorelines, others with outflows that spill into the open ocean. At the mouth of some estuaries, jetties offer unique fishing possibilities. Anglers can spend a lifetime fishing around Cape Cod and never unlock all of its treasures. Here's a closer look at how to fish a portion of this bountiful water--the estuaries and sheltered waters.
Spring brings blueback herring and alewives into fresh water to spawn. The runs start around mid-March in some locations, but the major events begin in April, and end by early May to mid-June when the adults leave the spawning areas. The cycles of bait movement vary, and local guides and fly shops can tell you the best times in their location. When these big baits arrive, large striped bass are not far behind.
One famous location along the west side of the Cape Cod Canal is the "herring run" near Herring Run Motel and a motorist's rest area. It attracts hundreds of anglers in search of trophy bass. Because of the crowds, fly fishing there is difficult, if not dangerous, but it is a good barometer for determining when the run is in progress.
Ryder Cove in Pleasant Bay, Herring River in West Harwich on Cape Cod, Lake Tashmoo on Martha's Vineyard, and Hiter Creek on Nantucket are several locations that hold runs of spawning bait in spring.
Start by checking smaller waters that have runs of spawning fish. Look at the bases of dams, the fish ladders, the ponds where the bait spawn, and the mouths of the estuaries. Once you find a location with food, keep watching for fish activity. In small areas there might be only a few days with hot fishing, but the chances for a heavyweight fish are great. Rising to high tide is a good time to start looking for feeding fish. As the tide ebbs, the fish generally leave for deeper water to avoid being trapped in low water.
Watch the schools of baitfish as they move. When they are pushed by gamefish, they rush around violently on the surface. On calm days when sounds can travel great distances, you can hear the whoosh of big fish feeding on baitfish.
Approach these large fish quietly, either with a boat or by walking the banks. If you are in a boat, cut the motor at least several hundred yards from the fishing area and push-pole or paddle quietly into position. Pip Winslow of the Orvis Company stays 20 to 30 feet back from the water's edge when he wades the marsh bank, making several casts before moving up to the water and walking as lightly as possible. He fishes a large weedless fly with a clear sinking-tip fly line and works the fly right to the bank.
When the big baits are in shallow areas, fishing from the shore is more productive; in larger sections of water a boat can help to cover more ground. A good compromise is to park the boat and wade or walk the banks in small backwaters. A canoe can provide access to many fishing locations, and it allows a silent approach. But there are many locations that offer ideal fishing without the use of a boat.
The mouths of these locations can be good when the bait leave their spawning areas to return to the sea. They flow out with the tide, and the gamefish lie in wait. Some locations have fish just as the tide begins to fill. Look for a creek that is still emptying as the tide rises. The gamefish can smell the bait and will either hold at the mouth or move to where the bait is. To be successful in these locations, you must spend time learning how the bait moves, where it holds, and when it leaves.
|
Since the adult baitfish are large (9 to 12 inches long), you should use big flies. Some locations can be frustrating because there is so much bait and the bait is too large to match with a fly. Getting close to the fish, using the right rod, fly line, and fly are the key. Big meaty flies are the solution to matching the big baits; the Slab Fly (see the "Slab Side and the Snake" feature by Lou Tabory in the Fly Archive), a heavily dressed Deceiver, or Enrico Puglisi's Bunker Fly are patterns that work. Puglisi's Bunker made with Sea Fiber is the easiest big pattern to cast. Poppers and big surface flies are sometimes effective in calm water. A disoriented baitfish swims in circles, leaving a wake on the surface.
In the fall, when the juvenile baitfish become active in the estuary or leave sheltered waters and move into open areas, the fishing can be hot. Some ecosystems hold not only young baitfish but also juvenile Atlantic herring and menhaden. These species spawn in open water, and their young enter the estuary as larvae, then develop in the system.
Fall is the best time for fly rodders, because the baitfish are small young-of-the-year, ranging from three to six inches long. Look for three-foot diameter pods of these baitfish in sheltered water. In some locations the baitfish form large schools before leaving the sheltered water.
Gamefish work the pods of bait, attacking in groups. Sometimes they are easy to take, hitting anything that lands in the water. If the fish are difficult to take, work the fly below or alongside the school. Herring-type baits and sand eels hold in tightly packed schools for protection. A fly worked through dense baitfish becomes just one of many, with little chance of being hit. Fishing below or alongside the school puts the fly where gamefish can single it out. Gamefish feeding on thick schools of baitfish work as a team to disrupt the tight school. Crippled baitfish or ones that become separated from the school are easy targets. Make your fly look crippled and keep it separated from the main bait school to help fish see it. This technique may be the only way to take fish feeding on thick schools of sand eels.
The sand eel (American sand lance) is perhaps the most important baitfish for fly rodders. The pencil-thin baitfish grow to eight inches long and at times form large dense schools. This is just one way sand eels protect themselves; the other is burrowing into the sand to hide or rest. As darkness falls, they wiggle into the sand, holding until morning, when they pop out and mass together. Their size and shape allows fly tiers to match them easily using 3- to 5-inch flies. Thin Deceivers, Snake Flies, Eric's Sand Eels, and Goddard's Sand Eels are good imitations.
Sand eels thrive throughout Northeast coastal waters, from inside estuaries to deep waters. They are an important food source for all size fish, and big stripers devour them eagerly. Look for them along the mouths and outlets of estuaries as well as along sandy beaches and inside the estuaries and over rocky bottoms. They only burrow in sand, especially the soft, cross-shifting sands, along the mouths of inlets.
I use thin attractor flies in and around estuaries, because there are always large numbers of sand eels as well as shiners holding there. Shiners--spearing or Atlantic silversides--are ideal food sources to match. They have a fuller body than a sand eel and range from two to six inches long. Deceivers, Surf Candy, Snake Flies, or Rhody Flat-wings tied with a wide body can also imitate shiners.
Shiners hold along beaches, in pockets and back eddies near moving water, and over flats inside sheltered water. Thick schools sometimes congregate along jetties and at the mouths of estuaries, but often shiners are spread out along a shoreline, not packed tightly like sand eels. The shiners float suspended in loose formation, providing gamefish with easy targets. Since most shiners live only one year, they are smaller in spring and increase in size as the year progresses.
Fish sand eel and shiner patterns similarly, unless the baits are in tightly packed schools; then fish the fly below or to the side of the heavy concentrations. Both baits move quickly in a darting manner, so you should give the fly a pulsating action, with 6- to 12-inch pulls with your retrieving hand. Let the fly glide, hold for a short time, then move again. In fast currents, let the fly flow with the tide, giving a pulsating action, but not retrieving it.
Making the fly flow, swing, then turn upcurrent just below a drop-off can be very effective. It looks like a baitfish caught in the tide and trying to reach the safety of an eddy. In slow, calm water, try fishing a buoyant fly that creates a wake. Shiners moving along the surface make a disturbance, and in calm water this subtle sound attracts gamefish.
Log In