Today was absolutely awesome
I think I have logged in 45 minutes of snooze time over the past 48 hours. Surprisingly I have never felt so energetic. I think it may have something to do with fishing in a completely new area. Right now it is 2:50AM Sunday morning and I am still good to go. Funny how just the slightest chance of catching a fish keeps us fishing addicts alert.
I woke up this morning at 4:45AM, a full 1.5 hours after the bachelor party cooled down. I'm not a huge fan of burning the candle on both ends but I had no choice this weekend. I am wicked glad I sucked it up and crawled out of bed just before sunrise.
I met up with Phil Alberston, president of the Nantucket Anglers Club at 5:15AM. I was able to connect with Phil because of the fishing blog, which is awesome. It just goes to show that having a strong network of anglers is again, without a doubt, the most important factor to fishing success.
Phil was nice enough to chauffeur me around the entire island. I have never fished Nantucket (although I have always wanted to) so it was great having some local knowledge on my side. Not to mention that hitching a ride in Phil's F-150 really beat huffing it on my rental bike!
So after a somewhat groggy start on my behalf we made our way to our fist destination. I'll dive into more detail about this incredible spot in the members' report, but I will say that I was really shocked by the standing waves located right on shore. Put another way this area featured huge standing waves within just a few feet of the shoreline.
There were humungous seals prowling the coast, and an enormous fog bank rolling in from the east. I was fortunately able to snap a few quick photos before we were completely socked in by f0g.
Phil was a great guide and once he realized things were not happening at the first spot it was then time to move on.
The next area we tried out was right up my alley-a nice little estuary with a lot of potential.
As soon as we arrived we saw two beautiful white tail deer hanging out across the channel. From what I learned the white tail deer population on Nantucket is booming. With no natural predators the deer, and rabbits, are thriving on the island.
The area Phil showed me was really nice to say the least. Although we failed to raise a fish I would not doubt that this area can produce at dusk during late summer and early fall. For all I know it may be fishing well today! We just hit the right spot at not the right time which is of course, A-OK in my book.
Phil took me around the entire island today. One of the coolest areas was a point that jutted right out into the open Atlantic. This was striped bass fishing at its wildest. Horseshoe crabs pelted the sandy spit as well as mung-the dreaded weed of surf casters up and down the Cape Cod coast.
Unfortunately once you encounter mung the fishing gets that much tougher.
At around 9AM the fog rolled in big time and we decided to make another move around the island. At this point I had lost track of my current location. The heavy fog didn't help. Luckily Phil brought us right into another picturesque fishing hot spot.
I enthusiastically cast my pencil popper into the surf wile simultaneously admiring the erosion ridden cliffs behind me. Long and harsh winters had eaten away at the southern Nantucket coastline. This area really does display nature at in its rawest form.
Phil and I put in one hell of an effort this morning. We fished 8 or so different locations scattered around the island. If you are interested in learning more I will delve deeper into the areas and techniques used in the members extended report.
If the bass were in thick we would have done some damage today. It just goes to show that you never know what you'll encounter until you actually get out of bed and give it shot. We may not have caught a huge bass today, but I learned just how important establishing good contacts is in the world of striped bass fishing.
Thanks to you guys and your emails and forum posts, we have all been able to zone in on the best and most recent bite which is really awesome. I plan on doing the same one day after I log in a little bit more time on Nantucket.
In the mean time I owe a huge thank you to Phil Alberston for showing me around the island. I'm looking forward to coming back and giving bonito and false albies a good shot. At the least I hope to surf cast the Nantucket coastline again for bass and blues.
For more information on fishing Nantucket for big bass click here.
Hopefully you have had a productive Memorial Day weekend. If not, there is always next weekend! There are plenty of fish around Cape Cod, so if you put your time in you will most certainly be rewarded.
Tight lines and take care,
Ryan
