Fishing with Irene

With Irene bearing down on Cape Cod, it's doubtful that any fishing will take place later this evening through Sunday.  It's tough timing for a potential category one hurricane, because there are some nice bass, bluefish and tuna kicking around right now inside Cape Cod Bay.

If you were able to get out yesterday before the storm, then kudos to you for taking advantage of some excellent boating weather.  Friday was the epitome of the "calm before the storm" with light winds, clear skies, glass calm seas, and some nice bass later in the evening.

Needless to say the rest of this weekend and the first part of this coming week will probably be a wash as far as surfcasting and boating is concerned.  You know things are going to get dicey when NOAA's marine forecast map is colored deep purple-which indicates a hurricane watch.

Winds for the rest of this morning and early afternoon are predicted to be light out of the south.  Yet seas are expected to increase later this evening, with gusts of 45 knots expected after midnight. 

Seas are expected to reach 8 feet by Sunday inside Cape Cod Bay.  Waves of that magnitude on the Bay do not happen often, and are surely a sight to be seen-from a distance of course.

Could Irene stir things up in the Bay, setting the stage for some epic post-hurricane fishing?

We'll just have to wait and see what happens!

The Pre-Hurricane Bite

Reports have been filtering in about giant bluefin tuna sightings from bass anglers fishing Cape Cod Bay.  One highly skilled angler landed an 800 pound giant tuna last week fishing solo.  If you've ever had an inkling to try for giant bluefin tuna, then now through November is the time to do it.  Huge tuna come surprisingly close to the Sandy Neck coastline each fall. 

Last season we had a giant tuna surface thirty feet off our bow in 70 feet of water off Sandy Neck.  The fish was easily five to six feet in length and 500 pounds at a minimum.  A few weeks prior to that sighting we hooked up a few miles north of the Cape Cod Canal, and subsequently lost the giant tuna after a scorching run that stripped over 100 yards from a Penn International 130. 

With the amount of bluefish (tuna candy) swimming off Barnstable, it's reasonable to assume that there are at least a few giants residing deep inside the Bay.  

The bass bite close to home has been steadily improving.  Scorton Ledge has had bass during the morning and middle of the day on occasion.  The Ledge is always worth at least a quick check at this time of the season.  Slow trolling a red tube and worm on three to four colors of lead core line is one of the most popular ways to catch these fish.

We picked up a 27 pounder off the Ledge last night just after sunset.  The bass were by no means stacked up, however it seems as if the Ledge is becoming more reliable as the days go by.  If you make a couple passes, there's a good chance Scorton will cough up at least one fish to the persistent angler-before moving on to more productive areas.

More and more stripers have been venturing in closer to the Sandwich and Sandy Neck shoreline.  About 20-40 feet of water has held piles of bass in the 15-40 pound range rather consistently. 

Again last night we encountered a few schools of bass that numbered well over 100 fish per school.  We first found the bass in 30 feet off Sandy Neck  Fortunately we were able to stick with the fish as they moved out into the 40 foot range.  As is the norm this year we lost track of the bass for about an hour, before finding them again in 58 feet.

Live eels and trolling dead eels proved to be the ticket last night to taking multiple bass in the 25-30 pound range.

Over the past few weeks the stripers have had a tendency to hold shallow before the sun sets, and then slowly truck offshore once it gets dark.  After sunrise the bass will often be found in shallow again, sometimes in less than 25 feet of water.

They can be fickle creatures when they choose to be.

Post-Hurricane Action

Undoubtedly a few anglers will take the doomsday approach and claim that Irene will kill the fishing in the Bay for the next week.  They could be correct, however I think the fish will return to their normal haunts once things settle down.

September is knocking at our front door, which means more big bass should filter into the Bay.  Big tuna should begin making their presence known in the Bay during September as well. 

Keep your eyes peeled for bus-sized splashes the next time you are on the water.

Last night we found striped bass closer to the Fingers than we had during the previous couple of weeks.  Hopefully as September approaches, the entire Sandy Neck coastline will light up, as it did during 2010.

As for now the best we can do is cross our fingers, pull our boats, and get our dinghies off the beach.  The bite may very well be nonexistent for the next few days, however I think the fishing will come back stronger than before the storm by the end of this week.

Tight lines and catch 'em up!