Mariager Fjord, 22/10 – 2016

A pontoon boat trip with 2 x Henrik from Bombayfly. We started in the dark and fished until noon where we stopped as the wind and rain drained us for energy. I excelled in catching nothing  while Henrik got three trouts. No photo as he was very discreet. The other Henrik fished with a sinking 3 line in 3 feet of water and that payed off as he got a flounder 🙂

 

The flounder was the basis for a small thai inspired fish soup in the evening – very delicious, thanks for that Henrik

 

Cape Cod week 33 – 2016

The team for Cape Cod this year was exactly the same as last year and included Thomas, Caspar, Peter and Carsten. This time we came in September which is new to us. The new time of year gave opportunities af fishing for false albacore known as albies but we were a bit concerned for the striper fishing as the summer had been quite hot and long so the water temperature was high.

 

The first day Casper and I went out with a guide Dave. We primarily looked for albies and Caspar got one and that was one of his goals for the trip, so from dy one he had been succesful. We arrived late in the evening and we met with Dave 6 AM next day and I must admit I had not finely tuned my gear from start and therefore I missed some good opportunities with albies at the surface. It was Saturday and there were many boats on the water. Another time I would definitely go for a day outside the weekend.

 

Later in the afternoon we did some fishing towards the rocks of an island and had some interesting fishing here. I got a nice striper though not a keeper. Dave with his characteristic beard in the back – I will recommend him if you want a guide trip, he was knowledgable and keen to give us a good trip.

 

In the evening we met with the other guys that had been fishing the bay side and had very good fishing. Caspar and I also had good fishing and this first day I got two keepers around 29 inches and then I had fulfilled one of my goals.

 

This day and the day after we got a lot of fish. We got between 30 and 50 stripers each. Most were smaller fish but also several like this that were not keepers but almost. This raise the hopes for next years fishing. Peter got app. 50 fish the first day including two keepers and he had two goals: to try to catch many fish and to get a keeper so he was also content from day one.

 

Caspar excelled with a new species on fly on our trip to the Cape, a fluke or a flounder.

 

The second day we fished in the dark at Brewsters flat and found a spot where the fish at least at that time had a very good average size. Here Thomas presents a keeper.

 

Monday the weather forecast was not that good and some went shopping but Peter and I wanted to fish. We fished at Mill Creek and we got a few smaller fish but we saw a lot of surface activity but out of reach. At times the weather prediction was very precise as it rained a LOT. We had the empty our stripping baskets every 3 minutes.

 

On e morning Thomas and I fished Chatham bay. We heard something we have never heard before. It sounded like there was a speed boat race going on constantly. It turned out to be seals howling. All the dark areas on the sand bars are big grey seals. We could see several hundreds of seals and often they come very close and I must admit that I do not have much confidence in the fishing if I have several seals within casting distance.

One day Caspar and I tried some new spots on the ocean side near the canal. I had to stop fishing as a school og small bluefish literally took my fly all the time and Caspar added yet another species to our list. I can not remember the name but here it is.

 

 

As always we see some wildlife despite that Cape Cod is thickly settled. This year I saw many wild turkeys, chipmunks, squirrels, coyotes, a skunk in our garden, osprey and a big variety of birds and then a lot of seals.

 

This year we had one day kayaking to the sand bars. There were too many clouds so we did not get many opportunities for sight fishing. The day before would have been much better but we had some problems renting the kayaks so we had to wadefish. And during this wadefishing we saw many fish at the surface at very shallow water so we got our bit of sight fishing. Now Thomas and I have bought a kayak so next year we hopefully will be able to use that a lot.

To sum things up we had very nice weather, we caught a lot of fish though the pace went down from the first frantic days, we got five keepers and many almost keepers, we had some sight fishing and we found a new favourite breakfast place (Hangar B at Chatham airport). We also visited The Corner store several times for panini and burritos so we all look forward to next time.