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Fishing the Cape: Eastham to Provincetown

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by Jerry Vovcsko

There aren't many places on the Cape (or anywhere else for that matter) where an angler can choose where to fish from seventeen and a half miles of open beach, striped bass territory. But the stretch of sand between South Wellfleet and Peaked Hill Bars just off North Truro is definitely one of them. Where most fishing reports point to the good places to fish, it would be a challenge to find a location along this stretch of sand that wasn't worth wetting a line.

The beaches comprising the National Seashore run nearly the full length of the eastern shore of Cape Cod. John F. Kennedy and Tip O' Neil were major figures in the fight to save this area from developers back in the sixties. During striped bass season these beaches play host to some of the finest fishing to be found anywhere on the east coast. Used to be in the days following the end of World war II you'd see all manner of vehicle lurching along, tires squirming under half the usual air pressure: jeeps, model A's, woody station wagons, delivery vans…you name it and chances are you'd see one parked near a dune or running the beach somewhere between Chatham and Provincetown, waiting for a slug of big bass to come cruising through.

Now, though, the boys from the National Parks Service keep close tabs on those few areas left where a fisherman can run his four wheel drive down to the water. Nowadays you need a sticker, so all kinds of forms need filling out and the beach sticker fee continues to climb year by year. But the fish are still around and if you don't mind hiking you can still get to some of those good spots.

My own favorite is Head of Meadow beach in Truro. You'll see the sign on route 6 as you head north after leaving Orleans. Turn right toward the Atlantic (standard directions for every beach from Orleans to P'town.) and follow the winding road to the parking lot at the very end. By day the beach is pretty well covered with sunbathers and swimmers. But real early in the morning, say the couple hours just before dawn, or around dusk, just after the sun's settled behind the dunes, not only can you be assured of commandeering a parking spot no more than thirty yards from the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, you can often do very well on big stripers or jumbo bluefish because that's when the feed turns on. If you've managed to lay hands on some fresh herring the odds spike sharply in your favor that you'll tie into a passing Large, and if by some miracle you've come up with a couple of live herring, you almost can't miss. Later, as spring turns to summer and there are no more herring to be had, savvy locals go to working live eels with nearly as good success.

Local anglers who fish this stretch have scouted it thoroughly and continue to do so during the season. They're keeping track of sandbars that show up at low tide, also sloughs and holes that make good ambush locations for lurking stripers. Again, these are big waters along here and big fish are taken every year. Legendary plug builder, the late Bob Pond, developed the Atom and reverse Atom and put them to good use in the surf on these beaches. Nocturnal specialists still fish those hoary old creations as well as live eels and jig-and-plastic combos in the nine to twelve-inch size range. A few Old School types fit eelskins over wooden plugs and fish those deadly rigs with great success. It's not easy to rig an eelskin for use in the surf, but for those who become skilled at skinning the critters and learning the sloooow retrieve, their rewards are impressive indeed.
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Here, too, plug casters like to break out their stock of oversized lures: Rebels and YoZuris and Gibbs swimmers and poppers. Some folks like to throw bucktail jigs tipped with plastic, say, a nine inch SlugGo…takes a bit off their casting distance but the bass do seem to like that combo. It was along here back in the sixties that Frank Daignault and his brood took to adding Red Gill teasers on their lines about eighteen inches or so up from the plug and, lordy, did they ever put some bass on the beach.

Further north brings us into the vicinity of Peaked Hill Bars, a place where at night a superstitious angler can commune with the ghostly spirits of the crews that manned the sailing vessels which foundered on the Bars during a noreaster. The crew would take to the rigging and hope for rescue but vessels trapped on a lee shore during the nineteenth century rarely delivered survivors to the beaches and many a poor soul drowned on these bars. The currents provide fine structure for bass but anybody fishing from a small boat should be ready to run for the harbor when tide runs against winds from the east; Peaked Hill is no place to get careless.
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Twenty minutes further up route six we come to Provincetown and all I can say about that is if you're bored, make it a point to drive down Commercial Street to the center of town, park near the harbor and grab a spot on one of the benches. Kick back with a cup of coffee and watch the world go by. That the residents here may pass by wearing a bright-red, full-length lobster suit or a costume made from tampon holders collected at the beach might take some getting used to.
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And that the streets are likely filled with same sex couples strolling along window shopping…well, yeah, sure doesn't look like Kansas, eh, Toto?

When you've seen enough, head west on Commercial and follow the signs toward race Point. You'll hit another parking lot out there and if you walk northerly from the lot you'll likely see a row of surf rods planted in sand spikes with their owners nearby gamming over a thermos of coffee or other libation. The talk will have mostly to do with matters of wind and tide. Should a brisk southwest wind be churning it up at the point there's a good chance the fishing will be brisk as well. By the way, one beach condition you'll want to be alert to is the presence of "mung", a local term which means the beach is likely too clogged with wind-driven seaweed to allow for decent fishing. Easterly winds on the Atlantic side bring the stuff in and the southwest breeze sometimes does the same over on Cape Cod Bay.

Follow the beach around westerly and you'll eventually come to Herring Cove. It's a bit of a walk but only a five minute drive and the cove fronts on Cape Cod Bay. Often when the fishing's slow on the ocean side things really pick up here on the Bay side. Some folks launch car-topped skiffs from the beach and fish the drop-off on a falling tide, doing very well for themselves tossing plugs, metal slabs and plastic & jig combos. There's also a good chance that anglers will sooner or later luck out with a blitz of mixed bass and blues, usually around dusk when bait fish get trapped against the beach in the cove. That's when everybody gets lucky and takes home the makings for the weekend grill activities. Provincetown Harbor offers decent bottom fishing and available flounder, scup, sea bass and tautog add up to the fixings for a delicious bouillabaisse.

The drive back down route 6 passes by the Pamet River and that's kayak heaven for folks who enjoy exploring the marshy backwaters and brackish environs for striped bass. Those who do a lot of freshwater fishing for pickerel and pike should thrive here as the river turns into a labyrinth of weedy islands and winding channels where bass and blues like to hide out and dine on baitfish passing in the current.
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The ability to cast plug or jig close to the weed beds is a real plus and even though smaller size bass typically hang out here, there are plenty of large fish taken throughout the season, often during the night time hours by folks fishing with live eels or the imitation versions.

Wellfleet's a little further south down and Chequessett Beach is worth a look once the sunbathers and swimmers have departed. South of the Chequessett spit of land is the famed Billingsgate Shoal and that's a place that anglers fishing from boats need to pay attention to as it's perhaps one of the finest locations in Cape waters to ply the tube and worm technique. Troll that rig slowly from a skiff with a small horsepower engine and an angler stands a good chance of taking a fine thirty pound bass before the day is over.

We're just a couple of weeks away from the arrival of the real striper migration and the next blog in our series of Fishing the Cape should just about wind things up and give first-time visitors some idea of where to go to get started fishing here on Cape Cod. We still have Brewster, Barnstable and Sandwich to take a look at but that, plus a quick take on the Cape Cod Canal, should wrap things up pretty well. Hope it helps and if there are questions remaining drop a comment and I'll try to answer best I can.
 
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