seals wtf...

[Flaptail]

Ahh Stiffy, Monomoy in the ol days. Makes me want to friggin' cry. I don't think anyone here (or if there is there are only a very few) knew what we had there. 5 to 7 each night all 30 lbs or better, no mung no seals and no people. Just bait and bass. 'Member Memorial Day weekends there? First time there first cast 38lbs. We had the last of the good times there didn't we? I am glad I got to experience it before it all crashed and burned. One night in July 78', four boats, 8 guys and in the morning 37 bass all 30 pounds or better lined up in front of us before pushing off for Morris Island and Old Harbor Fish Market or me with 14 all between 38 and 42 pounds.

I tell you if we had had Sluggos back then and the knowledge and gear we have now there would be a statue in the Rotary in Chatham to us in Bronze standing on a pile of bronze bass.

Remember in 1979 getting Gibbs and Al Gag's first Needlefish from #^&#^&#^&#^& and taking them to Monomoy? The Gag's Chartreuse one was a killer. I think Danny Morin still has a couple. I broke off all mine.

The night my 30 pounder was cut in half by the shark while I was wading and two fish over 30 at the same time. One on a RedGill and the other on the plug. Don't know how I landed them both. Or you and Wayne in Ski's boat and the "incident". And waking up half covered with sand in your mouth and cold and stiff or sleeping beneath my overturned skiff while it spit snow in early November and still catching bass then.

That was the best SURFCASTING THERE EVER WAS.

[Flaptail]

And most importantly your 1100 pounds in one night.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Flaptail]

And Davey, we are the only ones left on the Cape here from that group and Big Ed now down on Rhody who knew it like we knew it.

Sometimes on the beach at night when fishing alone I feel like the sole survivor of a shipwreck, the last one standing, the last one still searching for something we may never see again. I see #^&#^&#^&#^& and Wayne in the shadows, WATCHING. Cuckee and Cuckee II, bobby Rudzinski, Ski, Dennis ORielly, Danny, Iggy and the others, I can hear them laughing and joking as they run to the washline to haul another up the shingle. Gawd I miss those times.

[Flaptail]

It's my 51st birthday today, will I ever see anything like that again?

[tattoobob]

Wow Flap I think stiffy hit a nerve, ahhh the good old days

[Tagger]

Originally Posted by Flaptail

It's my 51st birthday today, will I ever see anything like that again?

Happy Birthday Flap you old bastadge .. hows that love and lost thing go .. I'm jealous ,,wish I was there,,Numbskull ever make it there ? ...Like Eric Burden said,,, " Its a tough world to get a break in ,,all the good things have been taken "..

[Mike P]

Happy Birthday Steve, you young whippersnapper.

Today I feel every one of my 53 years

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Tagger

...Like Eric Burden said,,, " Its a tough world to get a break in ,,all the good things have been taken "..

Not ALL the good things Eddie,
look at all the good friends we have on this site.

Flap, Happy B Day, you young punk, you may very well see it again.

May not be the way it happened then, but in a different way that will be

just as sweet. That's my wish for ya anyway.

[gone fishin]

Damn I do remember those nights. Running Nauset to Morris and all alone. If the beach got too rough or the blow was in the wrong direction, running to the backside and catching large and plenty. Getting to the market before anyone else to get the right price. Hoping to beat the rest before the price bottomed out. I do think I am getting OLD.

The seals are heavier than ever. Bring back the bounty!

[Back Beach]

Originally Posted by Flaptail

It's my 51st birthday today, will I ever see anything like that again?

Flap,

What about sept/oct 2001, 2002, 2003 on the back, just to mention a few?Where were you? Maybe not the isolated monomoy fishing with the tin boats like you mentioned, but just as many fish, if not more many nights. Same size fish, if not bigger many nights. Lots of guys that were there in the 70's say it was better in the 90's and early 2000's at times. Real fishermen, not lackeys, said this and mentioned outside of 77,78, and fall of 81, the fishing has been much better in the latter days, meaning now. The outer cape has unquestionably fallen apart since 2003, and I can sympathize with you there. When you mention all the 70's stuff you make it sound like nothing has happened out there since 1978, and it just isn't the case. No question you have some good memories like everyone else, but you constantly lament the fishing now compared to then, and its only been a couple years since it went sour. I think it will come back at some point, just can't say when, but it will. Hang in there, dude.

[Flaptail]

Originally Posted by Back Beach

Flap,

What about sept/oct 2001, 2002, 2003 on the back, just to mention a few?Where were you? Maybe not the isolated monomoy fishing with the tin boats like you mentioned, but just as many fish, if not more many nights. Same size fish, if not bigger many nights. Lots of guys that were there in the 70's say it was better in the 90's and early 2000's at times. Real fishermen, not lackeys, said this and mentioned outside of 77,78, and fall of 81, the fishing has been much better in the latter days, meaning now. The outer cape has unquestionably fallen apart since 2003, and I can sympathize with you there. When you mention all the 70's stuff you make it sound like nothing has happened out there since 1978, and it just isn't the case. No question you have some good memories like everyone else, but you constantly lament the fishing now compared to then, and its only been a couple years since it went sour. I think it will come back at some point, just can't say when, but it will. Hang in there, dude.

I went back to the beach full time so to say in 2001. For 11 years before then I fished strictly ( let's just say I was brainwashed into a cult) with a flyrod. Momonoy. Barnstable and the Elizabeth Islands were my haunts ( I averaged 33 plus days a year stalking the flats of Monomoy alone) After all that time the biggest fish I landed was 32 pounds on the flats or anywhere with the flyrod. Stifftip would call me and say he was catching on eel or plugging on the outer beach and I would cower in horror at the thought of such a barbarian way to take fish. I recovered my senses. In the fall of 2000 I went to the beach (Balstons to be exact) with a nine foot spinning rod with dusted off Penn 650ss and a plastic box with a dozen old rebels and such in it. I walked north to a point and rounded it to see before me a bowl in between two bar edges. I felt clumsy as I had not done that in a long time. With the box of plugs shoved down between my waders and my chest I snapped on a blue 7 inch Rebel. I caught fish for 3 hours, several in the 30 pound class and many in the 20 pound range. I didn't pick up a flyrod for almost three years after that night.

I recall the 70's and early 80's because they were the times I had the most fun, it was all new and exciting. One of the best periods of my life. The friends I had who are now gone for the most part. Places like Monomoy were wide open, no one ever borthered you if you landed there and not many people did land there to fish.

Yeah, maybe the 90' and early in this new century had good fishing, maybe as good as then, but the restrictions were being enforced on beach travel, the seals were beginning to be spoken of more and more and the big hits were beginning to be subtly noticed as being fewer and fewer. The best night I had in the last 30 years was in September 2003. It started at 7:30 at night at Hatches with a 31 pounder first cast on a BASSMASTER needlefish and ended , with fish still being caught, in exhaustion at 8:30 the next morning. Stifftip will tell you of LaFleur and I calling him on his cell phone and leaving messages with only the sound of our drags screaming as he fished a fishless Squibnocket Beach on the Vineyard. He had been with me every night that week as the fishing built and built but he had made a promise to go to MV to a friend for a night and he knew what was going to happen. The seals are the number one problem, no doubt in my mind. There will be no prolonged old days again until that problem is solved.

[Slingah]

I am lucky to have had the many great nites on the back from 99-03.........to me it felt like magic...just as you Flap and others have described the good old days.....nothing much else like it. I met a older surf caster one spring morning at the Pilgrim Springs Motel. in 03..he and his buddy were sitting outside chewing the fat and started talking to me....he contently listenened to me tell my enthusiastic fish tales of the past 4 - 5 years since I had discovered the back beaches. He told me of days driving the beaches from Nauset to P-town and of big fish nites...it was a great conversation. I said to him that I will never be able to have what you did back then, but to me these are going to be my good old days. He looked at his friend and said here is a smart man.......little did I know then that possibly could have been the end of an other era. I wish I knew then who the older gentlman was...even though he had introduced himself I had never heard the name before......I have since......it was Tony C.........

[Tagger]

Originally Posted by Flaptail

I went back to the beach full time so to say in 2001. For 11 years before then I fished strictly ( let's just say I was brainwashed into a cult) with a flyrod.

Stan Kuzia told me your the best he's seen with a fly rod .