The striped bass have been biting well all day long, defying the usual ways of these fish. They’ll normally hunker down and not eat much when the water gets too warm for them, except maybe during the night. But lately, even with water temperatures now hovering in the low to middle 70s, they’ve been feeding aggressively most of the day or at least through one complete tide, particularly the flood tide. It’s a perplexing but welcome new pattern.
Plenty of bass are being caught in the slot size and that means lots of people are taking one home and having a fresh fish dinner this week.
Meanwhile, although bluefish made a brief showing in the south end of the bay by the target ship, which lies about three and a half nautical miles off Eastham, they continue to be no-shows up here in our neck of the woods.
A few more bonito have been showing up this week, mixed in with the bass.
We’re seeing lots of fluke around, but we haven’t caught a keeper-size fluke this year, with most in the 12-to-14-inch range. At least there’s no lack of them. Maybe next season we will get a fluke run that includes more fish that are keepers — for fluke, that’s 17½ inches.
Whale watchers had great opportunities to see these magnificent animals this week, even from the beach. Fin whales showed up in the Race, off Herring Cove, and even off Long Point. Add to that a humpback whale at Race Point and off Wood End and it was solid week for beachgoers with binoculars.
As I write this, Hurricane Erin is becoming a formidable storm. It alarmed weather watchers as it intensified rapidly between Friday and Saturday especially. Both the European and American forecasting models have it possibly grazing Cape Cod.
Watching hurricanes move this way is very troubling, as our harbor is the farthest thing from being a harbor of safe refuge, at least for all but the boats behind the breakwater.
Hurricane Bob was the first big tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season when it developed in mid-August 1991. I certainly do not want to do that again.
If you have a trailerable boat and the forecast doesn’t change, my advice is to get it out of the water sooner rather than later. You can haul your boat at the West End launch in town or at the Pamet in Truro. If your boat is too big to be trailered, then make arrangements to get it hauled out. The options here on the bay side are very limited, with Sesuit Harbor being pretty much the only one for bigger boats. Keep in mind that they’ll take care of their customers first, so get on that short list as soon as possible.
Staying in a mooring and riding it out is not a very smart idea. Depending on the wind direction, waves coming into the mooring field can be as high as six feet, and the mooring tackle just cannot withstand that sort of pressure. Going to a dock slip can be safer, but even that has its limitations; dock lines and cleats can take only so much stress.
You might want to check your insurance coverage before the storm hits so you have time to adjust it accordingly if needed. In all, having a well-thought-out plan and acting on it early is the safest and best way to go here. We are overdue for a big one.
