The Cape

As I mentioned in the bio, Cape Cod was one of the places I had spent time fishing during the past year. I ventured to the Cape with a friend of mine, David Bixby, who was kind enough to let us stay in his summer cottage and enlighten me about his love of fly fishing for striped bass. Here is what Dave writes:

"Striped Bass can be found from the Chesapeake all the way to the coast of Maine. And anywhere there are striped bass they can be caught on a fly.

You can fish the estuaries, beaches, outlets, and the open ocean. You can wade, or fish from canoes, kayaks, or all sorts of ocean worthy craft. Although fly fishing for bass can be productive throughout the shores of Cape Cod and surrounding seas, my experience, and what I take the most pleasure from, is wade fishing the estuaries, harbors, beaches, and flats concentrated in the Chatham/Orleans area of Cape Cod. I fish these areas because they are close to my house, and because I catch fish."

Dave continues to say "I have caught bass on flies up to 40+ inches. These are not uncommon sized bass for the spin/surf cast crowd. They are NOT common for your typical fly rod guy. The typical fly caught bass that I'm familiar with will range from 20-23 inches or so. These are strong fish and a lot of fun in a fly rod. As your skill and understanding of bass develops, you can target bigger and more challenging fish. I have spent a good deal of this summer successfully sight fishing the Monomoy and other flats for fish averaging 30-40 inches. Bass can be most effectively be caught with a variety of line systems, but the most versatile is probably the intermediate line. That is what I fish 90 % of the time. Keep it simple on the leader too. Almost any leader from 5-9 feet with tippets commonly ranging from 12-16 pound test will work for you. Finally, go to a reputable fly shop and buy a dozen stripper flies to get started."

Another point that Dave made includes that when one is fishing for bass, you can expect to attract blue fish. Par for the course, as they say. One might ask where to find the bass so he explains, "The problem is that bass move around, and their interest in chasing bait varies according to many complex variables: tides, moons, bait supplies, and on and on. The point is that the places people might send you to fish can be productively fly waters, but they won't always be. You need to be flexible and open minded because bass don't always follow the
rules. Watch the water column for fish, watch the birds, watch for fleeing bait fish, swirls, etc. One more point, get a map of the Cape that shows the town landings. These are usually free public access sites and many provide access to good bass water."

"I fish the Nauset Marsh, Pleasant Bay, South Beach, and Monomoy. The bass arrive in late April and leave sometime in October. I like to blind fish these waters and I can almost always find fish to catch somewhere throughout this season including the so-called dog days of late July and August. When conditions are right (i.e. not too windy, sunny, the right tides), I hit the flats. Flats are basically any shallow and wadable water from 1 foot to roughly 3 feet deep that bass cruise in search of food. You can take the $10 shuttle to Monomoy where there are litteraly miles of flats, walk the edges of the beaches, or find your own flats. I explore with my kayak and when I likely site, I anchor my boat and get out and wade. Flats fishing is sight fishing and for me presents the ultimate fly fishing experience."