The Last Hurrah...
Capt. Hap Farrell
This is the last report of the season. However, the season is far from over. Billingsgate Shoals is coming alive. This last Sunday, after the storm moved through the night before, the shoals more than supplied both bass and bluefish for those out fishing. There were plenty of bluefish with a good spattering of bass mixed in. Jigging, the umbrella rig, hootchies, and trolling plugs worked very well. I would say that over the next three weeks of so this area will produce a lot of fish. Maybe well into October.
The bluefishing in Cape Cod Bay should get really good this month and into October. The herring and other small fry are coming out of the estuaries and shallow water for their trip south. The bluefish will feed hard on these bait fish. What has been working best for me is the hootchies on either mono or braid. When trolling you must have the lure out 200 to 250 feet for it to work the best and a speed of 5 to 6 knots. If your looking for areas to cast to these fish go up along the Eastham shore or up by the path in close to shore, 8 to 15 feet. It looks like this fall the bluefishing will be very good.
The striped bass, the fish that everyone seems to want to catch, are on Billingsgate Shoals. There are still some big stripers down by Barnstable Harbor, but they are just a little harder to find and not as many. There are some big fish down that way. P-town is producing a fair amount of stripers now but you have to get through the bluefish. Jigging or the tube and worm work well in that location. Billingsgate Shoals is now becoming the main area to look for these majestic fish. Especially since we had that hard northwest wind. This wind can put the fish up on the shoals. We had that wind this last Monday and it did push the stripers onto the shoals. Lets hope they stay there for a while.
Those of you who live in the towns from Brewster to Truro and have Comcast and want to watch how the fishing was this summer can do so by watching channel 17. I have a little fishing show that plays on Tuesdays at 8:00 pm., Wednesdays at 10:00 am., and on Saturdays at 2:30. It has some educational material to help improve your fishing but it's mainly for entertainment. It shows how and where we fished from the beginning of the season until I pull the boat. I hope you enjoy it.
This last week I took a good friend on mine out to do two things. First to fill an order for a good amount of bluefish, then to video various methods of fishing. Anne MacDonald, who lives and works in the western part of the state, has a number of friends who love bluefish. She also loves to use really light tackle. So, we killed two birds with one stone. We filled her order for the bluefish and kept a nice dinner size striper for herself. Anne is probably one of the best anglers I've had on the boat. She used to be a fill in mate back in the early 80's and loves to fish. When she's down I try and get her out for the day.
If you'd like to get in on the late season fishing call me at 508-240-8267. So, have a good winter and I'll be back next season.
