Surfcasting Coast Guard Beach

The wind was howling and the sun sinking towards the horizon, as Lauren and I set off through the dunes, and onto Cape Cod's great backside beach. 

Lauren wanted to take some photos with her new camera, and I wanted to catch a striper along Cape Cod most vast and pristine stretch of shoreline. Having Lauren with me on a surfcasting trip is definitely not a common occurrence! However, she makes for good company.

Yesterday we stepped onto the sand around 5:15PM, just in time to catch the last couple hours of the incoming tide. We had an entire stretch of shoreline all to ourselves...with the exception of a few sea gulls.

Not long into our hike we encountered a tree which had been washed ashore by the mighty Atlantic Ocean. 

Who knows where this tree drifted from! Perhaps it was torn from the coast of Maine during a ferocious winter storm. After all, the ocean is extremely powerful.

The Seals

As we walked along to the south towards Nauset Inlet we watched as waves rolled in from the open Atlantic and crashed onto the sandbars located offshore. Just past the bars was a group of very large seals.

The seals were very curious and would on occasion, gaze straight at us. I hoped that the seals would remain offshore, well out of casting range, because seals will sometimes follow a surfcaster for miles. 

Last year while fishing in Truro I had a pack of 50+ seals follow me up and down the beach for hours.

A few birds were diving into the water among the waves and breakers. This was a great sign because diving birds can mean there are bait fish in the area.

Eventually we reached a spot in between two sandbars a few hundred yards north of the inlet where the water was deeper than usual. I made a cast with my old reliable 6.5 inch white Magic Swimmer and no more than 20 feet from shore my plug got slammed, but somehow I missed the fish!

I looked down into the ocean and saw another 5 or 6 stripers cruising in the shallows. I may have missed that first fish, but I was pumped to know that others were in the area.

Sunset Striper Action

I continued to fish the bars, while Lauren put away her camera gear due to the swirling wind and sand. She is much more responsible with her camera equipment than I am!

The bass were here in the waves but I was having a difficult time convincing them to bite. Small packs of stripers would follow my Magic Swimmer right into shore without committing. Others would casually bump the plug without much vigor.

After a while the tide began to slack off and the fish disappeared. Fortunately the sun would soon be setting, and I felt that might help turn on the bite.

Sure enough around 7:15PM I was retrieving my plug between the same bars as before, when a striper came from out of nowhere to slam my Magic Swimmer a mere 25 feet from shore. For a small fish, this was an awesome hit!