You may recall last September when I delivered a full day fly fishing seminar to the Cape Cod Flyrodders Club in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Before and after my seminar, friend Bob Lewis took me on the water and I caught my first ever false albacore on the fly. The fishing and seminar went so well Bob suggested a quick return to teach another seminar. Well, we talked this winter and Bob suggested we do it when the striped bass were running.
I don’t procrastinate. I’m here again and my seminar is Thursday. I arrived this afternoon in order to get on the water five days in a row with Bob and some of the other guys in the club. Today I fished with Vin Foti.
Vinny founded the Cape Cod Flyrodders a number of years ago. I met Vinny for the first time a few years back at the Marlboro Fly Fishing Show. We hit it off and he told me about the great fly fishing here on Cape Cod and told me to visit anytime. Well, today’s our first of two days on the water this week.
I got a ride down here with Mom and Granny. Its great to get Mom out of NH for a few days and she and Granny will goof around and have a good time. I said goodbye to them at 2 PM after a delicious fish & chips at the Sesuit Harbor Café in South Dennis. Vinny arrived and off we went.
Vinny had been out earlier in the day from South Dennis. He was excited because they saw hundreds and hundreds of stripers on the Brewster flats. Normally when we talk flats fishing we expect bonefish and permit but here when conditions are perfect you find stripers on the flats on the bay side of Cape Cod.
The only drawback to Vinny’s experience this morning is that he was one of several Flyrodder boats with all these stripers swimming around yet only two fish were caught. The popular fish had absolute lockjaw and from what Vinny tells me, this isn’t uncommon. Vinny couldn’t wait to show me the phenomenon and I couldn’t wait to see it. But also the pressure was on to catch one.
Our day was mostly sunny and warm. I wore a light shirt as we exited the South Dennis harbor and headed east. Soon we were on the flat and there they were, hundreds of stripers swimming in a thick line across the flat.
My first impression was holly crap! “So many stripers. All I need to do is get my fly on them!” But then reality hit and to me it looked like a bunch of fish traveling rather than feeding. Nonetheless Vinny got me in position and I got some good casts.
We hit a few of these striper schools on the flat. While most payed no attention to my fly as I striped it through them, there finally was one. About the third school we found had a feisty schoolie striper that couldn’t resist the Sand Eel pattern Vinny fixed me up with. Bam!
That catch was lucky. While most fish could care less that a delicious fly was in their sight, this one couldn’t resist. Funny thing however, I pulled another small striper from the next school. Then that was it.
Tides play a huge factor in striped bass fishing at Cape Cod. Soon it was almost low tide and the flats were far too shallow to fish and the stripers retreated to the deep. Vinny ran us out to Billings Gate where we found schoolie stripers busting the surface like mad.
I landed at least ten more of the stripers ranging from 20” to 25”. By striper standards they aren’t big but as far as fly fishing goes, they were superb. Not only are these great looking fish when you get them to hand but they are scrappy fighters as well.
Vinny fished me till about 6 PM when the light was too dull for spotting fish and our stomachs were craving food. We met up with another club member at an off the track seafood place and I knocked back some fried shrimp.
Its been an excellent day. A special thanks goes out to Vinny for generously looking after me. I’ll fish with him again on Wednesday. As for tomorrow, I head with Bob and another friend, Rick Wilsterman.