Hearing on Race Point Beach Closures

[BigFish]

I think I am pretty much done paying to "NOT" go out on the Race fishing! I understand when Flaptail says we need to continue on paying for the permits and making our presence felt.....but the fishing down there is not worth the price of admission nevermind the plovers and the seals and the mung!!! I do think the seals are the reason the fishing is suffering but it is compounded by the other issues I mention and its just not worth the trip there anymore! I got ocean 20 minutes from my house and the fishing is a boatload better than at Race Point! I got out there 2 times this season for $150.00 and not that it was my fault....the dang birds had it closed until the week before Labor Day and when I did try to hoof it out there say from HOM.....there were so many seals it was ridiculous!!! I usually have better fishing on the backside beaches anyway so there is where I will go!

[Flaptail]

Originally Posted by BigFish

I think I am pretty much done paying to "NOT" go out on the Race fishing! I understand when Flaptail says we need to continue on paying for the permits and making our presence felt.....but the fishing down there is not worth the price of admission nevermind the plovers and the seals and the mung!!! I do think the seals are the reason the fishing is suffering but it is compounded by the other issues I mention and its just not worth the trip there anymore! I got ocean 20 minutes from my house and the fishing is a boatload better than at Race Point! I got out there 2 times this season for $150.00 and not that it was my fault....the dang birds had it closed until the week before Labor Day and when I did try to hoof it out there say from HOM.....there were so many seals it was ridiculous!!! I usually have better fishing on the backside beaches anyway so there is where I will go!

This is exactly what the NPS and conserv groups are hoping will happen. That being said and the season being over I can now share some of the intel I was privy to on the bass and their not coming to the beach this year. Everyone bemoaned the lack of bait on the beach this year and last. True enough there wa no bait on the Race point beaches and south. Also true was the number of seals on the beach adding to the woes of fishermen when a small number of bass did show. What 99% of the beach fishermen were not privy to was that from Long Point to Wood End and out around the Race south to Longnook a phenomena took place that I have seen at Monomoy in years past. The sand eels, for reasons only known to God and themselves form up on the surface in a tightly packed group forming a living ribbon that often stretches for miles. Picture a tube if you will not much more than several yards wide for hundreds of yards to a mile or more long. All season from Mid May to October they formed this line from 30 to sometimes 200 feet of water depth along the surface. The charter guys knew it. Especially a few who post here and on the other "flyfishing site" based out of Wellfleet. Look at the pictures posted by #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&, see the little yellow/red needlefish. Know where those fish were taken week after week in CC Bay? This behavior is thought to be spawning related, I have no idea. They do it and no one knows why really. The bass were there, just offshore, there was no real lack of bait just that when sandeels display this beahvior the beach goes dry. It is rare they do this for more than a year or two but they have been known to go four years before dispersing back to the sand and surf.

The fishing will back for beach bound casters, maybe this year, but it will be back. Lastly if you really know how to fish the beach you understand that nothing is ever to be taken for granted. I cannot tell you how many nights this past season I sat quietly and watched a lot of trucks hit the beach before dark and by ten or eleven I was all alone. Come the wee hours when the fish would finally show it was me and whoever was with me as far as we could see. And remember that ceratin beaches fish better at certain tides and sometimes for just a short period and if you cannot take the time to figure it out than you will never be successful. And lastly as echoed to me this past Saturday by one of the best coomercial bass fisherman to ever run the Cape sands since Arnold Laine, "there is just so much to know that you will never learn it all in one lifetime." But without being constantly at it you are doomed to failure.

Larry, you know I love you brother but two trips cannot judge a season. The more people who stop getting permits he more the ebach will be closed to our access. Just think how good a season it would have been if we had access to Wood End this year? No real reason for it to be closed. Who will fight for it if we give up?

[l.i.fish.in.vt]

i for one will keep buying the permit.no matter how bad the fishing is.to those that say there was no bait the last two years they obiviously didn't spend much time on the beach.two years ago there was a steady stream of peanuts along the RP beaches.this year not as many but sand eelwere about 50 yards out.in august there were schools of bass cruising around under the kayak most days, they just wouldn't hit anything.if you don't mind catching bluefish i would say fishing was pretty good. don't think there was a day were i didn't catch at least one but most days it was between 10 and 30.

[Rappin Mikey]

I'll keep getting the permit. Have met to many good people and new friends to stop. Yeah, the fishing wasn't as good, the seals sucked, and I had to do more walking then years past, but I still managed to find fish on a pretty consistant basis from shore. So what the heck!

[BigFish]

If I know me....I will get one anyway because I will feel naked without it!

[Back Beach]

Personally, I don't have the time, energy, or interest to fish there any more for reasons already enumerated(primarily time, though). As far as there being no fish there, that's b.s. That area is highly cyclical with regard to the surf fishing.Someone said 2007 could be the year and I agree. It may not be the year, either. When the surf was bad, we used boats and always found big numbers of fish out there.Why they don't eat the beach is beyond me, but if you keep at the place, you will get your rewards. When? I don't know.
The pressure to close the place down has been constant since the late 70's, its nothing new, either.The antis seem to be winning the war though, unfortunately.The guys who show up at these meetings to preserve our access deserve much credit.They are the primary reason we have any access at all right now, little as it is.I would guess with time the deep pockets will win out.Not sure if a little sticker revenue will change people's minds.I forget the breakdown, but the sticker revenues offset only a portion of the operating expenses. Its cheaper to shut everything down than keep it open, last time I checked. That's what we are up against. 3000? or so permits times $165=$495,000. Don't know the expenses, but they would have to be more than 1 million.Either way the place probably runs at a loss.Someone chime in if you have the actuals and correct me if I'm way off.

[Karl F]

Not trying to recreate the mess we had up there a few years ago, but, sticker sales are important, lack of sales to those in charge = lack of interest.
A clear example of this, in my town, this year, they saw a drop in the # of permits for Nauset Beach, and a drop the year prior... they are already factoring running the town without the revenue from the sticker sales, diminishing it to 0 income , projected out over the next 3-5 fiscal years, and some of the bean counters that run this town, are already saying what a savings it would be to the town to not have it, personel, (pay and bennies etc.) equipment, ( depreciation and maintenence etc.), etc. ... they even talk of it like it would be a Good Thing!.. I am sure the Park Service bean counters would look at a diminished sticker income the same way.
Buying a sticker, while it doesn't have the same bang for the buck it once did, is still a way, of telling those in charge, to Keep It Open!