Fishing took a bit of a nosedive this past week. Striped bass really thinned out between Race Point and Peaked Hill Bar, and although some moved down toward Head of the Meadow and Coast Guard Beach it wasn’t a big school of fish. Bluefish are still mostly missing in action. They showed up big all the way down in the bay by Barnstable and on the south end of Billingsgate Shoals but that was only for one day and then they did their disappearing act again.
We had tuna in the bay for a few days, but that seems to have quieted down again. Pogies are everywhere on our side of the bay, though, and that usually means tuna and bluefish will follow.
We are having weird fluctuations in water temperatures this summer. Normally, a protracted wind out of the north or northeast will usher in colder waters for a day or two until we get back to our usual south and southwest winds. But this summer we are seeing some colder water temperatures without the hard north winds and even some cooler temperatures on days with south winds. The backside ocean temperatures have stayed between the mid 50s and low 60s for over a week; some days, we’re seeing pockets of water in the high 40s. The bay in our neck of the woods has not seen the 70-degree mark in a few weeks and is stuck in the low to mid 60s. If you’ve tried to take a swim lately you know what I’m talking about.
Cape Cod sits between two major currents, one being the Gulf Stream and the other the Labrador, and if the Gulf Stream wiggles a little to the east, which it will do at times, it allows the Labrador current to usher in some of its colder water.
Mola molas have suddenly shown up, and I’m seeing more storm petrels and shearwaters close to the shoreline lately, too, which indicates something has shifted as late summer opens the way to fall.
Those humpback whales are still very much camped out feeding away just off Peaked Hill Bar. One of them has broken away from the pod and has been seen very close to the beach by the Race Point Ranger Station open-mouth feeding for a good part of the day. It has been there for a few days and would be an easy observation even without binoculars if you are on that beach.
The fin whales that come in to the Race Point area every summer have been notably absent so far, but there is a single minke whale I see on every fishing trip around the Race rips. It has been there most of the summer. I’ve also seen more white-sided dolphins in our area than I typically see in a season.
The theme here is this: ocean patterns can and do change constantly, sometimes for reasons we know and other times for reasons we really don’t. But in a way, that’s the beauty of it all. No matter how many years — or decades — you spend on the ocean, you still never know for sure what you are going to see when you leave land and head out offshore.
