My wife and I went to Cape Cod this past Memorial Day weekend....Sunday
through Tuesday.
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We stayed in Chatham, MA. It has been months since I have hit the surf.
I currently live in Westchester County in NY and recently had two feeble
attempts at surfcasting... one in the Hudson and one in the Western Long
Island Sound. Neither is quite the same as slinging lures on an open ocean
beach. I needed this opportunity really bad, and thankfully my wife
understands.
Not long after our arrival on Sunday we hit the inlet to rustle up some
stripers. I was surprised to meet a rather busy gathering so early in the
season. Lots of boat traffic and fisherman. Conditions were calm and
clear with some bright sun. I fished a four hour segment that straddled
the high tide. Threw artificials during the outing. Deadly dicks, storm
shads, Kastmasters, 6" sluggos, and some crankbaits. No stripers for
me...but I did land about half dozen pogies(menhaden). Some were pretty
big...about a pound or so. There were two guys close by who were
chumming and chunking pogie heads. I kept them in business with the
stream of pogies I was catching and depositing into their bait bucket.
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I only witnessed two stripers caught in the whole of the four hours...and it
happened to be the gentlemen chunking the pogie heads. They kept one
fish about 30". Good for them...they seemed like some nice guys.
I started to get bored and side tracked on the local wild life.
traffic video:
The horseshoe crabs were out in force. Littering the beaches in their
spring orgy. I even managed to hook one on a sluggo.
Monday... we relaxed all morning an had coffee on the shores of White
Pond. The wind had pick up considerably. Around Noon we hit the harbor
for an hour to see if I could lock horns with a species that has eluded
me....fluke(summer flounder). I had spent the last two years targeting
Halibut in southern California, and I have been curious if the same
techniques can be applied to its eastern cousin.
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After about twenty minutes.......
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah!
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the release vid:
Not a monster...and undersized, but I was pretty stoked.
After we grabbed Lunch we hit south beach to continue the quest for
stripers. About four years ago at about the same time of year I had
landed 21 stripers in a day on this beach. The wind was up and the beach
was deserted.
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It is rare to find this beach deserted, but the wind was blowing the sand so
hard it was like being in a sand blaster. My wife had to bundle up to hide
from the sand melee.
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the wind toppled these over:
The outing was pretty uneventful although I did see some stripers. I had
some schoolies follow in my lure to the beach, and on two occasions I had
spied legal length stripers shadowing schools of bait. In one of the
schools, the stripers were feeding directly on bait fish that were of about
finger length. The other school was a school of big pogies and the stripers
appeared to be cleaning up after the seals that were assaulting the chunky
critters. The wind made both casting and presentation difficult...so we left
after high tide peaked. I only managed one fat pogie.
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Previous to our departure to the Cape...I reviewed the tide table and
noticed that sunrise occurred at the same time as high tide on Tuesday
morning. To add to the positive energy...a storm front moved in and it
would be cloudy/stormy all morning. I got up at four and was on the beach
by four thirty...and it paid off.
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first blood was on a tattoo metal lip swimmer.
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The fish seemed to be boiling around my lures consistently. I must have
missed about a half dozen strikes...the the bite shut off and a thunder
shower rolled in with lighting striking less than a mile away.
The tide peaked then started to turn. I decided to try a 9" sluggo as
rigged in the demo by Steve Mckenna.
Thank you Mr. Mckenna!
![]()
Third cast... all **** breaks loose and a striper hauls through the skinny
water grabs the sluggo and goes airborne. I think it hit the sluggo so hard
that the sluggo vaporized. I was left with only hooks from the rig...thats it.
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the release vid:
Later I caught another on a 6" sluggo.
![]()
![]()
the release vid:
Later in the day the storm moved out and it was perfect weather for
hanging out. We went to Nauset Light.
![]()
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cool hand fluke...
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through Tuesday.
We stayed in Chatham, MA. It has been months since I have hit the surf.
I currently live in Westchester County in NY and recently had two feeble
attempts at surfcasting... one in the Hudson and one in the Western Long
Island Sound. Neither is quite the same as slinging lures on an open ocean
beach. I needed this opportunity really bad, and thankfully my wife
understands.
Not long after our arrival on Sunday we hit the inlet to rustle up some
stripers. I was surprised to meet a rather busy gathering so early in the
season. Lots of boat traffic and fisherman. Conditions were calm and
clear with some bright sun. I fished a four hour segment that straddled
the high tide. Threw artificials during the outing. Deadly dicks, storm
shads, Kastmasters, 6" sluggos, and some crankbaits. No stripers for
me...but I did land about half dozen pogies(menhaden). Some were pretty
big...about a pound or so. There were two guys close by who were
chumming and chunking pogie heads. I kept them in business with the
stream of pogies I was catching and depositing into their bait bucket.
I only witnessed two stripers caught in the whole of the four hours...and it
happened to be the gentlemen chunking the pogie heads. They kept one
fish about 30". Good for them...they seemed like some nice guys.
I started to get bored and side tracked on the local wild life.
traffic video:
The horseshoe crabs were out in force. Littering the beaches in their
spring orgy. I even managed to hook one on a sluggo.
Monday... we relaxed all morning an had coffee on the shores of White
Pond. The wind had pick up considerably. Around Noon we hit the harbor
for an hour to see if I could lock horns with a species that has eluded
me....fluke(summer flounder). I had spent the last two years targeting
Halibut in southern California, and I have been curious if the same
techniques can be applied to its eastern cousin.
After about twenty minutes.......
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaah!
the release vid:
Not a monster...and undersized, but I was pretty stoked.
After we grabbed Lunch we hit south beach to continue the quest for
stripers. About four years ago at about the same time of year I had
landed 21 stripers in a day on this beach. The wind was up and the beach
was deserted.
It is rare to find this beach deserted, but the wind was blowing the sand so
hard it was like being in a sand blaster. My wife had to bundle up to hide
from the sand melee.
the wind toppled these over:
The outing was pretty uneventful although I did see some stripers. I had
some schoolies follow in my lure to the beach, and on two occasions I had
spied legal length stripers shadowing schools of bait. In one of the
schools, the stripers were feeding directly on bait fish that were of about
finger length. The other school was a school of big pogies and the stripers
appeared to be cleaning up after the seals that were assaulting the chunky
critters. The wind made both casting and presentation difficult...so we left
after high tide peaked. I only managed one fat pogie.
Previous to our departure to the Cape...I reviewed the tide table and
noticed that sunrise occurred at the same time as high tide on Tuesday
morning. To add to the positive energy...a storm front moved in and it
would be cloudy/stormy all morning. I got up at four and was on the beach
by four thirty...and it paid off.
first blood was on a tattoo metal lip swimmer.
The fish seemed to be boiling around my lures consistently. I must have
missed about a half dozen strikes...the the bite shut off and a thunder
shower rolled in with lighting striking less than a mile away.
The tide peaked then started to turn. I decided to try a 9" sluggo as
rigged in the demo by Steve Mckenna.
Thank you Mr. Mckenna!
Third cast... all **** breaks loose and a striper hauls through the skinny
water grabs the sluggo and goes airborne. I think it hit the sluggo so hard
that the sluggo vaporized. I was left with only hooks from the rig...thats it.
the release vid:
Later I caught another on a 6" sluggo.
the release vid:
Later in the day the storm moved out and it was perfect weather for
hanging out. We went to Nauset Light.
cool hand fluke...
