False albacore have been arriving off of Cape Cod. They are the perfect antidote to the summer doldrums — which I had a bad case of.
Read More >>False Albacore: The End of the Summer Doldrums?
Tag Archives: Cape Cod
Beautiful Aerial Shots of Striped Bass Schools
One of the reasons I love fishing is that it takes you to beautiful places in search of beautiful things. If you’ve ever held a tuna, or a salmon, or a trout, or any number of other fish, you know that these can be beautiful creatures.
New photos from aerial photographer Wayne Davis help make this point. Flying over Cape Cod bay recently, he spotted huge schools of striped bass. So numerous are the stripers, that they remind me of the sight of a large flock of starlings against the sky. They’re awesome, in the true sense of that word.
One of the things I love about these photos is how they elevate bass. In my opinion, striped bass often do not rise to the top of the list of “beautiful” fish. Their stripes are geometric, their color palette more limited, more two-toned, than many of their hard-tailed saltwater companions. This doesn’t diminish my admiration for them, or my love of chasing them. I just don’t think of them as stunning in the same way as opalescence of a false albacore. These photos make a different case.
Book Review: Salt: Coastal and Flats Fishing Photography
Salt: Coastal and Flats Fishing Photography by Andy Anderson, a new coffee table book exclusively about saltwater fishing, captures the beauty of these places. Published by Rizzoli, who specializes in high-end coffee table books like this, the book is the nicest I’ve seen on the subject.
Read More >>Photos: False Albacore off Cape Cod
Last week, I had the pleasure of fly fishing for false albacore ofd Cape Cod with two good friends, Eoin and Bob. We hired Tom Rapone, a long-standing fishing guide cum lawyer who, this fall, experienced a relapse into guiding — and to our great benefit. Tom is one of the finest guides I’ve ever fished with, and is a great guy to boot. While I understand the lure of the law, I do hope he continued to experience relapses for years to come.
Read More >>Chasing Birds, Striped Bass on Cape Cod
First, there were birds. And then, there were stripers. Lots of stripers. With the sun rising, we set out from a small harbor through a narrow channel with our guide. Safe from the harbor, we brought the boat onto plane and motored into Cape Cod Bay. The air was cold, the wind calm, and the boats sparse. It looked like a good day. But the recent news wasn’t great. Fish had been sparse. The Vineyard side wasn’t producing. Striper population levels have been down in recent years. If you followed the logic of the conversation, it was going to be a beautiful day for a skunking. And then we saw birds, and fish.
Read More >>Video: River Herring
River herring, due to their size, are not a sport fish. But striped bass, like so many other predatory fish, feast on herring. Though of greater stature, herring, like menhaden, are the sometimes unrecognized bedrock of the food system. Their dominance is limited to the krill, small crustaceans and small fish on which they feed. Mostly, they provide are the feed to seals, whales, cod, stripers, blues and other migratory species. That’s why it’s a concern that the National Marine Fisheries Council has listed them as a “species of concern.” As their ocean and inland spawning habitat has gradually been eroded over decades, their numbers have plummeted. So they go, so go many fish above them.
Read More >>Cheeky Reels Schoolie Tournament: Registration & Dates
A few days ago, I got the below in the my inbox: an invitation to the Cheeky, the Boston-based reel manufacturer, for their annual Cape Cod schoolie tournament. I’ve yet to attend, but judging from the video, this is guaranteed to be a fun time, with decent prizes. Plus, the guys behind the company, Peter and Ted, are good guys. Go if you can — but don’t wait to enter. Space will fill up quickly!
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