Cape Cod 2011
The 13th Annual Patricelli Cape Cod Invitational 2011 started on June 7th with our arrival at BOS. In the airport we met up with Steve Schullery of Kalamazoo, MI. I have corresponded with Steve online for about 5 years. We had actually met once, for lunch, in Islamorada, FL when our travels overlapped. Steve had never caught a striper or been on Cape Cod before. To say he was stoked and excited would be an understatement. The initial four of us headed for the Cape.
We had 5 days of shore fishing on our own, then the usual 5 days with guides on the agenda. The first day we fished two spots. I caught the only fish but it was a keeper and made a perfect dinner for four. The second day we were given, by Capt. Bill Cooling, information that gave us shore access to one of his secret spots in Pleasant Bay. Steve caught his first striper, then we all piled in on the spot and caught almost 30 between us, some pushing keeper size.
By friday our group had swelled to 7. 5 of us took a special Rip Ryder "ferry" trip to the southern tip of South Monomoy to fish the current rip there. The attraction equal to the fishing was that we would meet and fish with Mike Oliver, a Brit with whom I had been corresponding on the Stripers Online (SOL) board but had never met, and 4 of his cohort striper-crazed-brits. The video of that trip is presented. Luckily the weather cooperated as a "Plan B" extraction involved a 6 mile hike over soft sand. The high point of the day was getting a telephone message from Steve, who had stayed back fearing the possible walk, stating he hoped another striper dinner was OK because he had connected with two keepers in Pleasant Bay.
Over the weekend we mined Pleasant Bay for more fish and the rest of the 12 man group arrived for 5 days of fishing with the guides. Coincident, the 90 degree weather shifted to a strong North wind and daytime highs in the low 50's. Uh Oh!
Monday through friday with the guides was the most bizarre and unpredictable fishing we have ever experienced on the Cape. The weather made the fish movement guessing game all the more limited. Some spots fished great, even tucked into the only lee water available, others sucked eggs. Monday, Bill Logan and I took an 8 hour pounding, wet, boat ride on the side of the Cape of MY choosing, watched some whales bubble-feeding....and never took our rods out of the racks. Had I chosen Plan A, we would have been into fish. The next day, trying to send to the favored spots the victims of the previous days poor fishing, fortunes would reverse. So it went, feast or famine. That is fishing.
What IS different this year is that I never took a single photograph. Instead I wore a GoPro video camera on a chest mount just under my chin. Interesting perspective! Talk about getting behind the rod, walking in my shoes, seeing the action through my eyes. You be the judge.
The 5 10 minute videos are of the Rip Ryder trip to Monomoy Point and rip, Capt. Jeff Smith off Provincetown and the Race for blitzing schools of stripers and blues on top, Capt. Will Raye sight fishing Brewster flat (in SUNSHINE!), Capt. Bill Cooling in his Beavertail skiff in Pleasant Bay, and Capt. Joe LeClair in Buzzards Bay. After that will follow the photographs.
And yes, that is a 1968 Fenwick, fiberglass, FF109 9 wt., goes by the name Excalibur. Show some respect!