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Fly Fishing Cape Cod & the Islands for Saltwater & Freshwater Gamefish

 Striped Bass

 Bluefish

 Charters

Bones & Albies

 Fly info and flies

Flyfishing with a guide from a charter boat may be your best bet for catching striped bass, bonito, bluefish or albies while you are on the Cape, but you can also go out on your own and try to catch fish with a bit of luck, and the time to look around. The right flies and tackle and some preparation will go far toward enabling you as a do-it-yourself. You can find much of the information you need right here. But if do-it-yourself isn't working out or you like the advantages of a charter, here is my charter information.

Charters on Pleasant Bay, Monomoy flats and rips, Nantucket Sound or the Atlantic.

( Interested in setting an IGFA record in '03? (Click here)

Below are the opening sentences of informative pages about the topics titled in Bold. Click on "more" to see the whole page. A page of published articles is at Articles.

Saltwater Flyfishing the Cape & Islands usually means an 8/9 weight rod, intermediate sinking line, an 8 lb. leader and clousers or deceivers. It's that simple. With that combination of tackle and . . . (more)
Saltwater Flyfishing the Islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket offers plenty of shoreline opportunites as well as jumping off points for charter boats for white marlin, tunas and sharks. The islands . . . (more)
Flyfishing while wading or casting from shore is the most popular approach around the Cape & Islands. Stripers are usually "bottom" fish, seeking the depths for cover but they can be found within casting distance . . (more)

Saltwater Flyfishing Charters are often booked starting in February of the year. You can find charter guides from Falmouth to P'town guiding from shore and boat, by the hour, half day or full. Rates vary . . . (more)

Flyfishing striped bass. Stripers are found everywhere across the Cape & Islands in good numbers from April to November. Some fish overwinter but the influx of schoolies in the spring signals the beginning of the best fishing of the year. Early success depends on . . . (more)

Flyfishing for bluefish. Blues are the bullies of saltwater (and as such are fit prey for the athletes, bluefin tuna!) Recently, the blues of '92 ( a big bluefish year) have reached 15 pounds or more and are hard fighting adversaries on fly tackle. Finding these fish and using . . . (more)


Flyfishing bonito and little tunny or false albacore is some of the most challenging and rewarding fly fishing the Cape has to offer. These small tunas are less numerous (though huge feeding frenzies do occur) and far fussier than stripers and blues. Successful fishing often requires . . . (more)

Flyfishing Cape Cod on your own means spending time reading and researching so that when you arrive all that is left is following your plan and making the casts. Finding concentrations of stripers, blues or tunas accessible from shore (for most) or from boat but in unfamiliar waters . . .(more)


Saltwater Flies. Here are some pictures and patterns for fashioning your own and also some sources of locally tied flies accessible through local and internet retail. Clousers are king among local striper flies . . . (more)

Flyfishing from a power boat provides greater access but still requires the ability to navigate unfamiliar waters safely and then find the fish. . . (more)

IGFA records are, of course, the hardest to set. The International Game Fish Association has records for all tackle and records by line class (2 lb., 4 lb., or tippet stength, etc) for each species and for men, women and juniors. Sometimes it's possible to better one of these line class records when the conditions are right. As the IGFA Representative for Cape Cod, I stay ahead of the current demands and openings for records.

I believe that in 2003 the conditions will be right to set new striper and bluefish records locally. I'm currently setting up tackle to directly challenge more than a dozen of these records. Of course, any such endeavor is bound to include near misses. I expect such and am planning a long term effort throughout the season. In the end, I believe I, and those fishing with me stand a good chance of setting two or three new records this year. Most of this success will be due to diligence and not luck. The favorable conditions necessary for setting records exist already. That makes catching a record a reasonable expectation.
If you're a fly fisher with an interest in achieving a world record (contact me, by email) and we'll discuss the possibilities and the requirements of a record try.
Serious inquiries only, please. I'm not suggesting that only wealthy fishermen, women (who have more open categories to choose from), or younsters, should be willing to spend weeks on the water. Or that that is necessary. Quite the contrary. I believe that any one day charter might set a record. What I'm saying is that this is all or nothing fishing. If we finally boat a fish on light line, after a number of tries, it will likely stand close to a record, but in going for this quality we may sacrifice the experience of easily boating quantities of fish. Let me know your thoughts.
I wish you another great season. I expect no less.

 IGFA

 Basics

 Islands

 Charters

 Stripers

 Bluefish

 Tuna(s)

 Solo

 Tackle

 Flies

 Boating

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Flyfishing Cape Cod freshwater ponds and rivers for Bass, Trout and fun. 2003
The Cape is strongly influenced by two environmental factors. First, the maritime climate is more similar to that of Northern Georgia than mainland Massachusetts just thirty miles west. And second, that means a longer growing season for freshwater fishes . . . (more)

 

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