Feeding Frenzy | Cape Cod Fisheries and Baitfish | Secondary Foods | Sight Fishing

Feeding Frenzy

With my wife Barb running the boat, we eased up onto the shallow bar and let the strong current carry us to the feeding fish. She cut the motor as I dropped the anchor, letting out line so we could silently approach the fish. Once the anchor caught, I kept feeding line until we had fish swimming around the boat. It was like being in an aquarium. The fish--mixed bass and bluefish--were sipping three- to four-inch-long sand eels like trout taking nymphs. The backbay waters of this Nantucket feeding ground were crystal clear and we could watch the fish follow and take the food.

Using sinking lines, we cast our flies onto the bar, letting them flow with the current and drop into the deeper water. The fish were selective because there was so much food available.

With the number of fish feeding we should have taken a fish on every cast, but this was not the case. We tried precise imitations and attractor patterns and were successful with both, but we worked hard for our fish. Getting the fly to flow with the tide was more important than the pattern, as long as the fly had a slim profile. Surface poppers brought only an occasional strike, even though there were plenty of feeding fish.

Watching the fish feed was fascinating. They would cruise, or hold just below the drop-off, taking the bait as it moved with the current. The more aggressive ones would glide up onto the flat, take several baitfish, then drop back into the deeper water. Bluefish often strike at their food, cutting it with their sharp teeth, but this day the fish seemed to inhale the baits whole. A stomach analysis of a dinner-bluefish later proved this to be true; the three- to four-inch sand eels were all intact.

The clear, sandy-bottomed waters of Cape Cod and the surrounding islands offer a tropical-like fishing experience. There are hundreds of miles of shoreline. Martha's Vineyard alone hosts thousands of anglers during its fall derby. I have covered just one section of this fascinating fishing location. The rest is open for you to explore.

LOU TABORY, author of Inshore Fly Fishing, lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

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