Riptide Charters

6/1 Cape Cod Bay Fly/Lite Tackle Report
Today I had long time sports Mike, Donna and Greg. This crew does allot of shore fishing with flies and very lite gear. The constraints of the gear and locations they fish limits the number and size of fish they get on a regular basis, so I always like to get them on good bites of fish. The thing about this group is we either bail the fish like no tomorrow or we can't find a freaking scup to save our lives.

We got an early launch out of Sandwich, I was the first trailer in the lot which was a surprise on a Sunday. We ran east looking for the masses of fish that have been all over the surface. The conditions were poor as we ran over. 2-3' seas, fog and low light was making finding the fish a real chore. There were no birds for the radar to find, visibility was only a few hundred yards so just being in the area wasn't good enough.

We got in the area but things were looking thin so I began to search. I began to wonder if this would be another skunk trip for me and the B's. This was supposed to be a slam dunk and now I can't find anything. As we fumbled around the area the fog got worse only making my issues worse at the same time. Finally I saw a nice pod of fish on the surface without a bird in sight. We eased into the mass of fish and the crwe began to toss plugs and flies into the boiling mass of fish. NOTHING! Over and over we set up and tossed strikes right into the middle of the masses of fish. Each time NOTHING! I began to dig through the tackle bag while Mike dug through the fly box. Lure after lure, fly after fly got snubbed over and over.

Finally Greg came tight on a Fin S shad that he had tossed into the fish 100 times already without a look. We hadn't found "the" lure, but at least we found something they would eat. This went on for about an hour. The frustration was palpable. The fish were eating, but they were rolling and gulping like trout. We tried worm flies, crab flies you name it we tossed it. They were on a micro bait that kind of looked like Pnuts or Small silversides. When the fish are gulp feeding they just don't want to eat lures.


Eventually the tide turned and the fish became a little more co-operative. We began a fairly steady pick of fish. They were still picky but at least they were eating. Mike began landing them on the fly consistantly, Greg started to put on a clinic with the Fin S. HE managed a nice 31" fish that came home for the grill and this 37" fish that was released to fight another day.



Finally it was coming up on lunch time and it was only a half day trip so we headed for home. The final tally was between three and four dozen fish. Greg likley did about half of them himself. He just had the hot hand today. The lure of choice if you had to pick one was the Olive and Silver Fin S shad on a jighead. Flies landed their share, but no pattern really shined. The water was 20-40' deep and most of the fish were taken on or near the surface. It was foggy all morning and when the tide turned to an outgoing around 0930 things got sunny and the fish began to eat.

Overall a humbling start that ended up finishing strong. The crew was O'fer up to this point of the season. Now they have a good number of fish under their belt and hopefully that trend will continue for the rest of the summer.

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Good Luck,

Capt. Terry Nugent
Riptide Charters
www.riptidecharters.com

Justmako

Nice fish

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vrc-rods

Sounds like a great time to me. Nice pics

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VRC- Handcrafted Fishing Rods
www.vrcrods.com