Our first fly caught Bluefish. These really are fish that pull your string!! Keep your fingers away from their jaw. They are not called "Choppers" for nothing!

Cape Cod. Salt Water Fly.

This was written over the Winter of 2003/2004 and later published in Trout Fisherman. Then with different copy and a different selection of pix, in Sea Angler magazine.
I am revisiting Cape Cod with some friends during the first week in June 2008, staying in Harwich. This time we have a Guide and I am hoping for a double figure fish on fly (or plug if needs be!). I have been tying flies for three weeks and still have six weeks to go...am I looking foreword to it....
If you are reading this in the USA... see you there!!

The beach seemed endless. The path through the sand dunes was liberally marked with labels in little plastic baggies telling us that this was conservation country, "please take your litter home", do not walk in this area because it was home to a rare grass, etc.
There were some things happening here that truthfully was beyond our experience, because apart from washed up bits of wood and the occasional small piece of plastic the beach was as pristine as you could possibly find in a highly populated country… something really good was happening here.

We three were a long way from home. Cape Cod on the Eastern seaboard of the USA to be exact. We had broken our journey home from the Denver Fly Fishing show to find out what fishing for the legendary Striped Bass and the hard biting Bluefish was all about.

Landing at Boston we upgraded our hire car to a bright red Chevrolet Blazer four wheel drive, just in case we had to take to the countryside, you understand! Besides, the original hire car wasn’t big enough to take the rod tubes, bags and bits that we fly fishermen cannot live without.

The drive out of Boston was a nightmare, it seemed everyway we turned the road was dug up, in fact it was just like home. The impression of home was reinforced even more as we drove the highway toward Cape Cod, the names on the signposts and towns we passed were more than familiar to us. Dartmouth, Plymouth (bearing in mind that we all live in Plymouth, UK) and Falmouth. We were actually headed for a motel in Chatham. What a lovely little American town Chatham turned out to be. Its relaxed, courteous style left a lasting impression.

The first evening we found a bar in the main street which served good food with Guinness and Bass on draught, apart from the fishing what more could a visitor from the UK ask !! There we met Michael Doebley who is the “Deputy Director For Government Affairs” for the “Recreational Fishing Alliance”. An alliance of fishing groups banded together under the RFA who act on their behalf with State and National Government, as well as negotiating directly with Commercial Fishermen and their organisations. Something we saw at first hand one morning, when we were welcomed into the office of the local fisherman’s association in Chatham while Mike had a meeting with them.

Mike had driven up from New Jersey to guide us for a day or two and “show and tell” the tackle and tactics which would hopefully produce a “lunker” striped bass. Talking with him, it very quickly became evident that here was a guy who “lived the dream”. His fishing was his lifestyle and his RFA work was not just a job, it was putting his beliefs into action….. with a passion.

First day on the water, Mike took us to a beach well up on the Cape Cod National Seashore where the surf rolled in from the Atlantic big style. The beach shelved steeply just like our storm beaches in deepest Cornwall.

The wind made it virtually impossible to flyfish, although we tried for half an hour. The combination of the wind and sheer speed of the waves made our efforts seem puny somehow, still we did try. Mike watched us with a bemused look and eventually rescued us by showing and demonstrating the plugging rods and lures that most anglers along the beach were using. 11 foot rods capable of throwing the 3 ounce plugs which we could see were tempting the occasional fish. Next time I will be ready for that because it looked like man sized fun!!

An amazing aside was the sheer power of those waves. Wading just to your knees, the strength of the undertow was frightening and you had to make a conscious effort to keep your balance. I believe that had you overbalanced you could have found yourself in serious trouble very quickly.

As dusk fell, Mike had a phone call which would take him away on RFA business for the rest of our trip. So we would have to fend for ourselves over the next few days.

As we walked off the beach at dusk we near tripped over a couple of stripers lying in the sand, one of which was a fish which must have weighed 18 pounds. A brief conversation with the angler concluded that he was bait fishing with what looked like an English style beach caster and that he was fishing the tide up and down which would take all night. He said that with that big surf he fully expected to take another striper of a similar size to his big one……..

First light the next morning we were back to see what the surf was doing, it had moved around a point or two and was now blowing straight onshore. The only option was to go the other side of the Cape so that the wind was at least on our back.

That morning as we loaded the truck two very English anglers came down to talk to us, John Urwin and his pal from the North of England had been on the Cape for a few days and told us of some fly fishing they had enjoyed at a place called Wellfleet up toward Truro. “Park up in the area just over the bridge and walk for a mile or so along the path before turning to cut through the dunes to the beach,” John told us. So that is just what we did.

The beach seemed endless but it was sheltered from the worst of the wind, the sun was hot at ten in the morning, we laid back on the edge of the dunes and chilled out. It was truly dream time.

We had arrived it seemed, a little before low water, the sandbanks were being revealed by the minute as the tide ebbed. Eventually it was a ten minute walk to get to the waters edge and then probably another five minutes to get to knee depth…. I have to say, I was just a little bemused and somewhat dubious, I am used to water just a bit deeper than this !!

We fished till late afternoon, working our way through the fly boxes trying just about every size and colour of Lefties Deceiver and Clouser Minnow which were tweaked and pulled to give them every type of evocative action you could think off. Not even a pull !!

Time for a bottle of Bass, something to eat and a snooze before the top of the tide at dusk. That seemed to make sense, so we waded ashore. As we walked up the beach in our sodden waders, a couple of Ladies spoke to us and instantly we knew that they fished the fly, but “you should have been here yesterday” they said “ the bluefish were running up and down the beach in big shoals, maybe they will be back on the top of the tide”. Food and drink, the snooze was out. We were back in the water half an hour later.

Hours later the Sun had touched the horizon, we clustered up and made the decision. Bob had had what he thought was a pull, but that was it. Ten minutes more and we were off, else the bar would be past serving food time and we would not eat. Disconsolate we waded back toward the beach, each silent with our own thoughts and heavy with disappointment.

A hundred yards from the beach the water exploded, the fish were between us and the shore, this could not be right. Half a minute later three reels were screaming as fish pulled deep into the flyline backing. In the near dark, rods were passed around to avoid knitting a flyline jumper. We went hungry that night, during the next hour we must have each caught and released a dozen fish, nothing big, but stripers and bluefish to five pounds and full of explosive energy, the like of which the fly rod was made for. That explosive hour was one of the highlights of the last half century that I have spent fishing.

The last day of our trip consisted of an hour or two around Chatham to buy memento’s and presents, bag up with food and back to Wellfleet.

We talked again with John Urwin and he had told us that the inside bay made by the sand dunes often produced schooly Stripers to the fly, so we walked, and walked around to the inside edge of Wellfleet Harbour. This was the moment when I came to the conclusion that stockingfoot waders and a pair of wading boots are necessary if you have to walk any distance…..

Just along the shore from us we could see several other fly anglers, as it turned out it was a local guide with a small party of Argentine anglers who were as keen as we were to tick the box alongside stripers on their trophy list.

This was a lovely place to fish with a good depth of water off the small beaches and reed beds. Bob took the best fish before the sun started its decline toward the horizon, so we trudged our way back to yesterday’s location.

With several hours still to go to dusk I waded out with a plugging rod and a big silver surface popper to work in the gaps between the sandbanks. Two bluefish later I was waving and hooping at the others on the beach but to no avail, they were fast asleep.

That evening we did not get the crazy hour that we had enjoyed the evening before, but fish came to the fly quite regularly, nothing big but every one was an experience tinged with sadness that we had to go. Maybe one day we will get back and find one of the “lunkers”. That is something to look forward to.

Thankyou America, that was a treasured time in my life.

Russell Weston. Bsc. Managing Director. Snowbee U.K.

I first met Russell Weston a long time ago when he worked as crewman on Steve Barrett’s charter boat Boa Pescador. So although Snowbee is  primarily a fly fishing company, Russ Weston and I firmly believe in “do what you know” so watch this space for some Sea Angling tackle which will not be cheap, but  will be based on a lot of hard won experience. Made for those who know what they want.

A few years ago we introduced the Deep Blue range of Salt Water fly rods, probably the first UK purpose made range of Salt Water Fly Rods. They have now caught everything from pollack to sailfish and maybe this season(2003), certainly for next season, Snowbee will have some top class salt water tackle, so watch this space.

That was in 2003. This year 2008 see's a sensational new range of Deep Blue Salt Water Fly rods being introduced. We are prototyping them as this is written. I will be taking the 8 weights back to Cape Cod in six weeks time. This will be a bit more than interesting!

We Stayed at the Chatham Motel. 1487 Main Street. Chatham. Massachusetts 02633.

Reservations. 1 800 770 5545.   www.chathammotel.com
 

Snowbee MD Russell Weston plays fly caught Bluefish. High tide at Wellfleet.

Russ was one happy angler.

and back it went!  Not the biggest Bluefish you will ever see, but immensely satisfying so far from home!!

A pair of hospitable American anglers complete with Orvis line trays. They gave us some good advice which later paid off.  Thanks.....

Bob Wellard plays a fish as we start to lose the light.

A lovely Striped Bass caught from the inner waters at Wellfleet. Not big but another little triumph.

Chatham Lighthouse.