Ryan Collins

After much trial and tribulation I was finally able to catch my first "keeper" striper on the fly rod. It was a terrific experience!

This coming week I hope to catch a serious striper on the fly. I know a few spots where quality 25+ pound fish are stacking up close to shore.

The rest of this post will recap my latest experience fly fishing for striped bass on Cape Cod, as well as update you on what I am finding right now, and what I hope to find this weekend.

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My First Keeper On "The Goose" Fly Rod

Before tropical storm Hermine rolled through the region, I spent a morning chasing birds and busting bass from my 21ft Hydra Sport. On this particular trip I was fishing my friend and MFCC member Shane Uriot (pictured below).

Both Shane and I caught some beauties early on with spin gear, but then it dawned on me that this was the perfect opportunity to use the fly rod. Bass were busting within fly casting range, and some were keeper-size.

As if I had done this before, my fly got taken down on my very first cast towards the feeding frenzy. I could not believe it. The bass was taking decent line from the Sage reel and put one hell of a bend in the Sage rod which the Goose Hummock crew set me up with. 

Could this be my first keeper on the fly?

The striper fought so much more than I accustomed to. Fly gear is definitely a challenge. Despite an awesome battle this particular bass was just a schoolie! I could not believe it.

Eventually the peanut bunker and the bass moved out into deeper water. All sorts of birds and terns were working over the feed. I positioned the boat and allowed the wind to slide us into the fish. 

Again on one of my first casts a bass came hurdling from out of the dark cold water and slurped down my orange fly. I made a quick strip set and was on with another hard pulling striper!

This one was definitely a keeper!

The fish taped out around 29 inches. Definitely not a monster but surely the largest striper I have ever caught on the fly rod. 

Over the past 36 hours I have been receiving reports of much larger striped bass in shallow spots throughout Buzzard's Bay. Larger albies have aIso been moving in, and I plan on targeting these fish on the fly this week.

Please follow me on SnapChat this weekend (username: fishingcapecod) for live updates.

Peanut Bunker Are Moving Along The Coast

I have been spotting schools of peanut bunker while fishing inshore areas from our 12ft tin boat. Over this past weekend my friend Jason spotted a 200 yard school moving along the coastline.

I filmed the video above in a marina located on Upper Cape Cod. This particular school of bunker had 2 inch fish all the way up to 7 inch fish all swimming together. 

However there are adult bunker around too. I even heard a story of big bluefish pushing adult pogies up onto the shore​ about 72 hours ago on a beach in Cape Cod Bay. Apparently the beach was littered with pogie heads and the seagulls had a feast!

In Buzzard's Bay I have been told there are some estuaries stacked with adult bunker. I have not yet seen these adult pogies but I plan on exploring several harbors in BBay this coming week.