Where Has The Season Gone??

[Flaptail]

[QUOTE=Back Beach;612921]You can keep the cape as far as I'm concerned.

Anyone who thinks of the cape in terms of just the outer beach doesn't really know what the Cape has to offer. To be that centered on only that stretch of sand will and does severely limit your potenetial for productive fishing.
Yes, the outer beaches were the places where legends were made, in my time back it was in the late 70's and early 80's, others it was the 90's but there are a 100 or more other places that have great bass fishing around the hook.
As I have said before, I look at the Cape as not a collection of towns but as one big one, It's an island actually, manmade maybe but is is surrounded on all the axises of the compass by saltwater.
The bay shores, the canal, the outer beaches and the southside shores all have good fishing at one time or another.
I beleive that the only way to really appreciate what there is still to offer is to live here year round and it took many many years to learn all of what it has secreted away.

I know of several casters who had a hell of a morning yesterday with bass up to 25lbs on an outer beach, two that have been making a trek of an hour by foot to be rewarded night after night of fish on needles to 20lbs plus and this has been going on for a month or so now, regardless of moon, weather or tide over pure sand.
The great back beaches have had thier good times and bad times in cycles, yeah there is mung, there's been mung for decades. Yeah the seals suck, but I have seen fish in large schools feeding alongshore while packs of seals swim along just outside.

The birds, well, thats the biggest problem but with the two federal witches now being transfered, things could get a bit better.

I have done better this year on Cape than in the last several years but it's by knowing where and when to go to get the most out of the particular time of the season and what to avoid and changing my one way of thinking to open up areas that before I wouldn't give a second thought too as I was headed for the outer beach.

If you can afford to live here, can afford a relaible 4x4 and a small skiff and don't mind being mobile and have no problem taking a little ride you can catch all the fish you want.

the cape still has it, you just have to know where to look. You can call all your sources to find out whats hot and whats not but if they themselves have thier sights only on one section of this archipelego, they are robbing themselves as well of many opportunities.

Some people say the place has gone to hell because they only fish what they know (take a canal rat to the beach and vice a versa 90% of either type will be lost as to what to do).

Youc annot let that kind of thing happen if you want to catch fish these days, learn all of the disciplines you can, you'll never go fishless.

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by Flaptail

Anyone who thinks of the cape in terms of just the outer beach doesn't really know what the Cape has to offer.

You can keep the outer cape beaches. As for the “other” fishing, you can find fish all over the cape if you have the time, close proximity of residence, and the right equipment, no doubt.
I don't go much beyond the canal bridges anymore because I can catch plenty of quality fish right in the canal and in other areas that are closer to home than the cape.
The allure of traveling the extra distance to Chatham and beyond was the possibility of taking numerous large fish, and perhaps a lifetime fish. That possibility has been diminished in recent years. Will it return is anyone's guess. I've become more proficient in places closer to where I live, so I will likely never return to the outer cape unless it’s for an extended vacation. One nighters to Truro are a thing of the past for me, but I used to do them regularly.