BEANTOWN TOURNEY

July 11, 2003 - For those who are so inclined, the Boston / Metro West Chapter in conjunction with the Cottage Park Yacht Club is sponsoring the 2003 Boston Harbor Fishing Tournament to be held from daybreak to 12 noon on Saturday, August 9th. Angling categories include; shore fly, shore conventional, boat fly and boat conventional. Award ceremony and blue ribbon BBQ lunch will be served from noon-2 PM at the CPYC in Winthrop. Trophies will be awarded for the longest stripers in every category. Tickets, which includes registration and lunch, are $20 for members, $12 for children and $40 for non-members (includes 1yr. membership to CCA). Advance registration is preferred and can be obtained by contacting the CCA New England office @ 800.639.3061 or give Ray Avitable a buzz @ 617.448.2269. Door prizes, boat moorings and shuttle services will also be provided.

BAYSIDE AND THE FLATS
Over the holiday I had the opportunity to fish both sides of the hook and, in general, would give the angling a good to very good evaluation.

Friday, while accompanied by West Yarmouth resident Jeff Millard and Wellfleet guide Captain Kevin Coakley, we picked around the Billingsgate Shoal and Sunken Meadow areas. While by no means fast and furious, we did managed to land a mixed bag of stripers and bluefish in the mid-20's while employing a variety of sand eel and top water offerings. The interesting sidebar is we witnessed very few other anglers and had numerous takes occur within easy wading distance of Chequessett Neck.

Saturday I was treated to a lovely morning of blind casting on the flats area of Brewster. Grafton resident, Mark Kralian proved the perfect host as we maintained slow drifts in 10-12 feet of water just off the lip of the white sand. We estimated a total of approximately 20 fish (striped bass and bluefish) to our credit before submitting to the heat of the day. I did manage to call up a few with gurglers while Mark opted for more effective baitfish and sand eel patterns fished on a 325 grain Cortland QD. Once again we found the company not overly crowded considering the extended holiday weekend.

Concluded the weekend on Sunday by wet wading the west side flats of South Beach in Chatham. Despite lacking ideal conditions considering the early afternoon low (not my favorite) and the annoying cloud cover I did manage to encourage 5 or 6 linesiders to a diminutive sand eel pattern. You begin to realize the futility of blind casting this vast domain as all victims were snared in full view during one of the occasional glimpses of sun while recklessly flogging the water yielded nary a fish.

Good fishing and safe wading,
JB