June 9, 2012 - Cape Poge, MA Report
Well, we are back from wind swept Cape Poge. We've come to expect the wind when we are out on the eastern end of Chappaquiddick, but this was just insane. First couple of days it was a hard south/southeast wind, then it switched to a hard north/northeast wind thanks to that monster open ocean storm that churned off the NE coast for like 4 days. And lets not forget the massive astronomical tides, which were only compounded by the high winds. This year we saw water in places we've never seen it before. Low tide was like high tide and you really had to watch yourself when driving out on Cape Poge, or you very easily could have been stranded for quite a while if you were not paying attention. Also, it looks like as a result of the weather and high tides, most if not all the piping plover nests were washed away on the spit of sand that wraps around from the chimneys to the windmill house to the gut out on Poge. That is according to what the Trustees said. We also saw a few dead seagull chicks. Lets just say it was pretty bad out there.
Anyway, so how was the fishing you ask? Pretty good despite all the issues Mother Nature threw at us. First of all the blues were literally all around Poge. Both on the inside and the outside. We had them in the lee, as well as in the teeth of the wind. They were out pretty far most of the time, so you had to huck metal or top water as far as you could, but they were there almost every cast. However, every once in a while, they would move in tight.
The bass were around as well. We found some really nice ones - biggest went 36" on the fly. We had them blitzing bait on top for hours one day. Completely jumping out of the water, feeding on sand eels. And it is no surprise that small/sparse clousers were once again the hot fly. The night bite never really took off for us this year. This was most likely due to the fact that it was pretty dangerous being along the ocean during the low-light hours, with the intense weather and all. So we pretty much hit it hard during the day. Also, this year the flats never took off for us. Again, this was due to the wind situation, and the lack of sun.
Yea, it is cliché, but every year up there on Poge is different. And that was definitely the case this year. |