At this point last year, miles of migrating micro and schoolie-sized striped bass had invaded the rivers, estuaries and ocean fronts of Buzzards and Cape Cod Bays. This year? Not so much. But I just need to keep telling myself this, as I pour over blue-colored water temperature maps and reports reading “not here yet:” […]
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No two days spent fishing are ever the same. This is especially true when dealing with trout, for one reason or another. But it’s what keeps us coming back, time and time and frustrating time again. Last week, we had a day that finally felt like Spring. I was thinking that the stocked trout might […]
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I’m going to gush for a second. This time of year–this exact moment in the fishing season–is so cool. I just finished reading my fishing reports and scouring the online forums for any recent reports of outings, and I’m sitting here on my couch smiling. Honestly. There’s just such optimism in our little fishing sphere […]
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In the beginning, there are rivers. These rivers, winding up from the sea into estuary grass and wooded shoreline, mark the hesitant start to our striper season. But it can’t just be any river. No, successful anglers (or, ‘sharpies’) hold these undisclosed grottos close to the waders. The secret of pre-migration striper fishing is well-kept […]
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The Mal de Mer had been in the water for three weeks, nearly alone in the harbor against the breakwater, joining the lobster boats and other commercial fishing vessels in a sea of otherwise empty moorings. Early May had been unseasonably cold and stormy and the few fishing trips we had taken had ended up […]
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March has been a lion all month. And she doesn’t look to be making her transformation to lamb anytime soon, if we’re going by what the weather folks have to say. There’s not been much fishing to be had recently. Holdover fishing–for both stripers and trout–has been slow. The weather, rain, snow, sleet, gale, power […]
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In this podcast, Capt. Dave Bitters (owner and operator of Baymen Guide Services) and I sit down to chat about fishing Plymouth and Cape Cod Bay, the romance of fly fishing, and becoming one with the outdoors. Listen to this podcast if you want to learn what it means to catch fish in Cape Cod […]
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I went out Monday in search of the “other” holdovers that exist within our geographical fishing sphere–the kind that eat bugs and hooks dressed up to look like bugs (if tied correctly on a size 18 hook). Yes, I’m talking about holdover trout. We consider holdover trout the fish that survive between trout stockings. It’s not […]
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Something strange happens around the new moon in June. The waters off Cape Cod, already full of migrating and year-of-young life, explode in a cacophony of energy. The bay becomes crowded. It’s a time of year in which you’d do almost anything to get just a few hours out on that new summer ocean. Alarms […]
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With whispers coming through the proverbial fishing grapevines that the stocking trucks had begun their semiannual pilgrimage to the various kettle ponds on and off the Cape, I immediately began concocting plans to make my way down to one of these ponds with the fly rod, even if it meant breaking through a thin layer […]
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