Unique Bait Fish at Race Pt

[Backbeach Jake]

My Fish book calls them "Saury". The first one I ever saw was barfed up by a big blur. The next one was chased out of the surf 2AM at the Race. I saw it at my feet and thought that someone had lost their knife. I picked it up and jumped when it wiggled. Common according to the book.

[MAC]

Originally Posted by Backbeach Jake

I picked it up and jumped when it wiggled

[Water Treater]

I've seen these baitfish in Cape Cod Bay, mid-way between my homeport of Green Harbor (Marshfield) and Race Point at Provincetown. I don't think they're Balao, but rather a first cousin (Atlantic Saury). The fish I've seen jump completely out of the water (go airborne) and seem to want to jump into my small boat. (My Casco Bay Hampton skiff has less than 24 inches of freeboard aft of amidships)

These baitfish are very nervous creatures (ideal candidates for low dose Valium) and are usually pursued by tuna, not slower moving striped bass or bluefish. Are you sure the baitfish you saw near Race Point were being chased by blues/bass?

Every year I purchase a recreational tuna permit because I troll at P-Town for stripers/blues using (modified) cedar plugs, one of the best lures to mimic these slender baitfish. So far, I've been lucky. No accidental tuna hookups.

Bill

[fishonnelsons]

I wasn't at the beach when it happened. but I asked the guy who brought 2 of them into Nelson's and he was sure it was blues going after them. I wondered if they were school tuna, as last year we had a few schools actually cruise the beaches here and to the untrained eye one could confuse a blitz of large blues versus small tuna.

Either way, interesting that they came in this close and we told folks to just pick one up, hook it and throw it back in the mess.

[Karl F]

I showed this pic to a sharpie in Orleans and he said, "Oh.. Half-Beaks! Cool! Pick 'em up, hook 'em, and throw them, bass love them"..(like what you said to the guy that brought them in, "bait" )

OK.. what's a Half-Beak?

[Flaptail]

Originally Posted by Karl F

I showed this pic to a sharpie in Orleans and he said, "Oh.. Half-Beaks! Cool! Pick 'em up, hook 'em, and throw them, bass love them"..(like what you said to the guy that brought them in, "bait" )

OK.. what's a Half-Beak?

Loreena Bobbitts husband was a half-beak for a while but they fixed him, I think they may have even added a section.

[Karl F]

Saury for any confusion, not trying to make this into a Ballyhoo, or trying to come off as Half Beak-ed.. but I think after doing some googling this AM, that dem Dar fish are all related to the Atlantic Needlefish somehow, and each other, just like native Wellfleetians
If they is Bobbitt's, they won't cast well, as half will fly off somewhere ya don't want it to.....