Why is fishing on the Race so bad?

[Karl F]

"October 5, 2006

Biding our time until the Big Feed
By MOLLY BENJAMIN
Things are better than last week, encouraging even. But I won't tell you to drop everything and get to the beach. Not yet, though every single true Cape Codder is waiting, and hoping, for the Big Feed to start happening.

I mean, what does Dame Nature need to do? Run a ''Pogies! Half-Price!'' sale?

Bait is abundant. Food, baby, food, and our migratory gamefish know they'll need to bulk up before beginning their 1,000-mile swim to points south.

(You see, they are far too impatient to put up with all the nonsense at airports these days. So they hoof it - well, fin it - instead. It's true, it's true.)

Water temperatures remain extraordinarily warm. This is October, ya know, and it's 61, 62 degrees? Unheard of. This probably links right up with why they aren't grouping up and feeding inshore like teenagers - yet."


This pic shows what is all over my beach ..
another week or so.. me thinks, is when the fish might move inshore

[tattoobob]

the water at Block Island last week was so warm it was kinda like bath water.

[Tagger]

Iron Curtain of Seals,,, I think your seal problem is affecting my fishing up here...

[Flaptail]

Originally Posted by Karl F

"October 5, 2006

Biding our time until the Big Feed
By MOLLY BENJAMIN
Things are better than last week, encouraging even. But I won't tell you to drop everything and get to the beach. Not yet, though every single true Cape Codder is waiting, and hoping, for the Big Feed to start happening.

I mean, what does Dame Nature need to do? Run a ''Pogies! Half-Price!'' sale?

Bait is abundant. Food, baby, food, and our migratory gamefish know they'll need to bulk up before beginning their 1,000-mile swim to points south.

(You see, they are far too impatient to put up with all the nonsense at airports these days. So they hoof it - well, fin it - instead. It's true, it's true.)

Water temperatures remain extraordinarily warm. This is October, ya know, and it's 61, 62 degrees? Unheard of. This probably links right up with why they aren't grouping up and feeding inshore like teenagers - yet."


This pic shows what is all over my beach ..
another week or so.. me thinks, is when the fish might move inshore

That's what we had for bait just north of you when the fishing was good few days back.

[Blitzseeker]

Preface: I have fished Race Pt./Back Beach/Coast Guard regularly for the past 13 years.

I fish the Outer Cape hard for about a week every year around end of Sept/early October. I just returned. This is clearly, by a long shot, the worst year of fishing from the beach over that stretch. Last year was the second worst.

On the other hand, we are only a couple of years removed from the best fishing over that stretch, which in my mind was 2002 and 2003.

My ovservations, many of which are repetitive of those already stated:

1) Seals. I never saw a seal at the Race until 2002 when I saw one, one time over the course of a week's fishing trip in the fall. In 2003 a guy I fished with had a nice bass taken off the end of his line by a seal. It was such a novelty we told everyone about it....thought it was such a great story. This year if you fish the Traps at first light or sunset it is a coin flip as to whether you can get a hooked fish to shore past the seal herd.....assuming you hook up at all. Both last year and this year there have been plenty of fish in the area, just 100-200 yards offshore and not coming into the beach as in the past. Boats have been killing them out there, but the beach is a desert. My best guess is that if I'm a big bass or a school of blues and I start swimming towards the beach and run into 6-8 500 lb seals, I turn around and head back out past the sand bar.

2) Mung. Last year and this year were two of the worst mung years ever. Three or four days ago the entire beach was munged up all the way from Coast Guard around the corner at the lighthouse to Hatches. I have NEVER seen heavy mung at the lighthouse and Hatches before, no matter how bad it got on the back beach or even at the Traps. Fishable water has been cut in half the past two years compared to many prior years, although there were some bad mung years in the late '90s as well. You can use a few tricks and take some nice fish out of the mung, but it takes a lot of time and effort and cuts into your overall yield quite a bit compared to clear water fishing.

3) Bait. There was no bait this year on the shore. None. Last year was a little better, but most of the bait was in the heavy mung on the back beach.

4) Water temps. This year was the warmest I can remember. Not sure if this contributes to the mung problem, or the bait issue, but my guess is that it does. I'm no crazy enviromentalist but you can't help but wonder a little bit about the global warming thing.

We salvaged the trip this year by getting some decent numbers of fish (not much size) on the last couple of days by going to some "off the beaten track" spots. Nobody I heard of was catching anything significant from shore. I fish with two guys who have fished out there, a lot, since the mid-1970s. They catch striped bass in thier sleep. Best fish between them this trip was a 20 lber, which is a freaking joke for them this time of year out there.

If it's bad again next year with the seals then I think I'll be convinced it will never recover until they are gone or reduced. I'm going to see how the fishing/seals look over the spring/summer next year, and if fishing has not improved we'll be picking a new location for fall fishing in 2007.

[fishpoopoo]

you weren't graced by the presence of #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&?

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by Karl F

"...our migratory gamefish know they'll need to bulk up before beginning their 1,000-mile swim to points south."

Hmmm, I didn't know stripers wintered off Jacksonville, Molly At least, not until they get to be blue-hairs

[piemma]

Wonder why the water is so warm on the Cape? This morning in upper Narragansett Bay I was reading 62 degrees. Same temp you guys are reporting on the outer beaches and I'm 25 miles from open water. This temp was in Warwick Cove but I'm also seeing it around Prudence Island.

[BigFish]

The water is extra warm on the Cape for the same reason your built in pool might be warm with 20 5 year olds swimming in it....seals gotta goo poopy and pee pee!

[piemma]

Good point Larry. I doubt that's the reason. I'm betting the Gulf Stream has moved closer to the cape shore and these are warm eddys breaking off.

[piemma]

Interesting thing is that as late as 2000 I don't remember seeing tons of seals.....

[tattoobob]

they are all moving down from Chatham to get food there are so many seals in Chatham that there is no food for them and they are moving south next we will see them heading to BI & long Island sound

[PoPin Plug]

seals

[Karl F]

Originally Posted by Mike P

Hmmm, I didn't know stripers wintered off Jacksonville, Molly At least, not until they get to be blue-hairs

Missed that one Mike .. one always needs to keep an eye open for such things, when reading Molly's column