Cape Cod week 43 2011

Last year a kind Linekurv.dk user from USA wrote that if I ever wanted to fish striped bass on Cape Cod he would be glad to help. As I have wanted to fly fish for stripers for many years I wrote back that I would very much like to try that and so this year Thomas and I went to Cape Cod for a week. Scott (the kind man) told us that we were a bit late but as the flight tickets were bought we would come anyway.

We rented this 4WD Kia which in our world is a quite big car but many times it actually looked small parked next to the standard 4WD here in the States.

The first place we visited together with Scott I got this hook-up….

soon after I cold land this striper on the beach

and present it before the release. I think that Scott was more relieved  than we were after this catch because due to the late season he was afraid that we wouldn´t catch anything at all on our trip.

Later there was a small blitz outside Scott and he got this mackerel which was his first ever on a fly rod.

In the evening we also got a couple of very small pollacks which was nice as the stripers feed on those.

Scott and his friends Dick and Bruce really helped us a lot as they both fished with us and gave us tips on where to fish and when to do it. As the tidal difference was up to 12 feet the fishing is very tide depending and therefore local help is crucial. Besides the help they were all very nice people as almost all fellow fly fishers are and they also supplied us with some very nice flies (flat wings) which we now try to duplicate here in Denmark. We fished in very different environments as we fished in estuaries, rivers, sand beaches, sand bars, canals, jetties etc.

One day we came to some sea gulls that dived and we could see that there fish chasing in the shallow water as well. Here Thomas started to hook this fish.

Which he also landed. As you can see the fish are nice but not that big, they are what the locals call schoolies but still good fun especially when you’re on your first trip for stripers.

The action was pretty intense and several times we were both hooked up simultaneously.

Here I got the biggest fish on our trip a fish around the 26 inches mark but it has to be 28 inches to be a keeper.

We fished early in the mornings and during the day and late in the evening. Due to the tide many times each trip was only a few hours but this gives a lot of variations.

This morning Scott got a schoolie as well.

I can´t remember the name of these ancient creatures but you found them on all beaches.

On one of the trips I got two bluefish. They were not big ones but I was surprised that they did not bite the line as I have heard that they normally do that when you do not fish with a wire leader. Thomas lost one due to this.

If you wade out at low tide you shall remember to come back in time. This time we were a bit late and Scott had to swim while Thomas and I just made it with only a bit of water in our waders.

When you are on a fishing holiday you fish in weather that no normal person would leave the house in. we did that one evening with heavy rain and more or less a storm.  This is one of the fish we got that evening and we thought that we really deserved those fish.

At the hotel we every night had a beer with the fly tying and the talk of the day to come and we tried different american micro brewed stuff. Some were quite disappointing but these two which Thomas grabbed because of their fish motives were actually very much to be recommended. Later we checked on ratebeer.com and found that we were not the only ones that found them very good.

Despite the fog in Frankfurt that delayed us 24 hours and the storm that prevented us from going in kayaks and that we never got a keeper we had a terrific trip. We got fish on every trip we made except one morning trip when two duck hunters had taken our hot spot and some times we got more than just one or two (up to 8 fish). We met some new fishing friends and tried some interesting fishing and had a wonderful dinner at Scott and Grace´s place so as the Terminator says: ” I will be back”.

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Tange Sø 13/11 2011

A 3 hour trip to Tange Sø fishing for pike on my own. Almost no wind and sunny when I started it was a nice trip. But as clouds came it really got cold. The water is contrary to earlier years very clear but there was not much action.

After a couple of hours fishing a pike took the fly.

 

this 3 pound pike was all for me today but nice afternoon at the lake despite tho cold weather