Striped-bass fishing has gone from looking like it was going to develop earlier than usual to now looking like it will start a little later than usual. We are wondering what is going on. I checked my Cee-Jay logbooks, and by this time, in most years, we are solidly into keeper-size bass.
Last weekend saw an enormous number of bass around. There were huge schools of fish off the cottages at Beach Point, off the Pamet, and from Long Point all the way to the Race rips. The problem was that all these fish were very small. The fish we caught were between 12 and 25 inches, with most being closer to 12.
This is rather perplexing. Water temperatures are optimal, running from the low 50s to even 60 degrees in some spots. We have a fantastic amount of food in the water. Mackerel are virtually everywhere, and they are big and fat. Clouds of sand eels can be seen off Herring Cove, and I have even seen some squid in the lights at night off the town pier. Whale watch captains tell me they’ve never seen as many pogies up on Stellwagen Bank as they have this past week.
Flounder fishing is pretty good off the Pamet and even better by the #1 buoy off Sesuit Harbor. Tautog fishing along the harbor breakwater, using green crabs for bait, has been steadily improving. I’m hearing about big bluefish being caught just to our south in Long Island Sound and Buzzards Bay, so I’m hoping they find their way into Cape Cod Bay soon, especially if the striped bass remain MIA.
Right whales are now officially gone from the bay as they continue their migration north, so the 10-mile-an-hour speed limit has been lifted, and lobstermen can now set their gear and actually maybe make a living.
A sad note: we have lost some legendary captains from our waterfront through the years, but none bigger then Joe “Bones” Basine, who died this past week. Joe passed away unexpectedly in Haiti, a place he went to help out following the massive earthquake there. He loved it so much that he went from visiting part-time to living full-time. But before that he spent decades running whale watch boats in Provincetown. He and I started about the same time, in the early ’80s. His musical talents were as extraordinary as his boatmanship, and he often played guitar and sang on the boat while working for the Portuguese Princess Whale Watch.
Bones was often seen playing with the Jug Band in the old Surf Club, back in the day. Above and beyond that, he was a great guy with a big heart and kind soul. He had just texted me last week to offer his condolences on the passing of my mother, so I was shocked to hear a few days later that he was gone.
He will be missed very much by all whose lives he touched in this town. Somewhere up there, Johnny Woods, Manny Phillips, Jean Frottier, Al and Aaron Avellar, and Bobby Cabral, just to name a few, and now, Joe Bones, are sitting in Heaven’s version of the Old Colony, having one hell of a conversation!
