Megan and I had the good fortune of winning a raffle through the Massachusetts Women’s Fly fishing Association while at this year’s fly fishing show. We never win anything so we were pretty psyched when we were told that we had won a guided striped bass fishing trip on Cape Cod with Captain Avery Revere of saltyflycapecod.com. Avery and I emailed a bunch throughout the winter planning out our trip, we finally settled on the second Friday in June, hoping for some great flats fishing in and around Barnstable Harbor, unfortunately the weather didn’t think too much of our carefully laid plans, and Friday dawned to a steady rain. Avery called an audible and we opted to fish the high tide in the early afternoon, hoping to get some clearing weather, and some steadier fishing, and lucky for us the plan worked to perfection.I’ve been stripping flies for stripers for years now, but for some reason, every time I took Megan the fish were no where to be found. Megan began referring to stripers as “the mythical fish”, so I was really hoping our time with Avery would change Megan’s mind, and show her that stripers actually do exist. It was raining and blowing pretty good when we met Avery in Barnstable Harbor, but we were all prepped for poor weather so we were pretty comfortable. Avery has an awesome fly fishing set up on her Jones Brother’s center console which is configured with fore and aft casting platforms, recessed cleats, and plenty of room to move around. The fishing starts minutes from the dock in Barnstable but our first spot was fairly exposed with the wind still blowing pretty good, so we headed further out onto the flats, which at high tide were under about seven feet of water. Megan was using a light tackle spinning rod with a white sluggo due to the wind, and within minutes of arriving on the flats she had a fish on. Megan wasn’t able to finish the deal with the first one but it was good to see fish following our offerings sometimes right back to the boat. With a few more lost fish we moved further down the flat. Visibility was tough with no sun out but we followed feeding birds in the fog and managed to stay above fish most of the time, so the action was steady but we hadn’t landed anything yet.Finally, the sun broke out and we were able to start sighting fish. All of a sudden Avery yelled, “get ready, here they come” and just off our port bow a large school of stripers were heading straight for us. The action was intense with hundreds of fish around us, of course it’s really tough to keep your cool during these times, and I was cursing, casting, cursing, casting and finally hooked into a nice fish which instantly put himself onto the reel….game on, or so I thought. I fought the fish for a minute or two and then all of a sudden he was gone and I was livid. At the same moment Megan was about to take my picture, and Avery said, “better not take that picture now” clearly you could see the steam coming out of my ears! Seconds later Megan hooked up and caught her first striper, a nice fat 24 incher, they actually do exist. I was starting to grind a bit because we were running out of daylight, the wind was picking back up, and I was still without a fish. Megan was already starting to trash talk my lack of fish! Visibility was still good into the water and we got above a good size ball of baitfish with stripers all around them. I quickly got a small schoolie which prompted Avery to crack up because I took my small fish so seriously…hey after loosing two fish already that day I needed to get one to the boat! Luckily the bite was still on and I was able to tie into a better fish which allowed me to be taken a bit more seriously by Avery and Megan. Those two fish ended an excellent four hours on the water with plenty of action, though not too many landed. Thanks to Captain Avery for a great time on the water, we plan on getting out with her again and wade the flats on a low tide…can’t wait. Thanks for reading.
Congratulations! See Megan, stripers are not “the mythical fish.” Once again, this fish tale points out that its very rare that the fish and mother nature abide by our plans. I can totally relate to you talking to Avery throughout the winter about where you will fish, flies that will be used, what tides will be great for what spots and so on and so forth … Then, as is the case almost all the time, something throws a monkey wrench in “the master plan.” 30 mph winds, perhaps 5″ of rain in 1 day, boat breaks down, pea soup fog, etc. etc.. But, if we let those things like that stop the fishing .. well, we would never fish – because its very rare when everything is “perfect.” It never is. And, I think, that is what makes fly fishing fun and adventurous. It is a constant game of trying to “get it done” even though all the cards seem to be stacked against you. It’s always an exercise in disspointments, frustratations, being at the mercy of the elements and brief moments of opportunity. And, success and the fun of it all is often often much different in heinseight than it is in the planning stages. Great work!
Good read nice to see that you got out there in between the clouds. It is very difficult to keep your knees from knocking when there are fish busting everywhere. It is wild wo think that all you have to do is get your fly into the mix but when thre is chaos going on around you it can be no easy task. Thanks for sharing.
it is all too common to plan to fish the saltwater one way and be forced to adjust to changing conditions. sounds like you guys adjusted and had a great day, nice.