A MAN AND HIS 10 WT.

June 15, 2007 - It was a real pleasure to reacquaint with Union Springs, NY resident Mark Vanderhoof as he passed through Worcester recently on his annual pilgrimage to Cape Cod. Mark always makes it a point to visit the shop when he's in the area and bring me up to date on his current outdoor adventures. This visit would be a little more than social as Mark, along with fishing partner, Joe Reynolds treated themselves to spanking new Sage Xi2 saltwater rods, Mark a 10 weight and Joe a 9. On his departure I tipped Mark on a few areas to consider during his weeklong assault.

A cell phone call later that afternoon confirmed that Mark had indeed located the piece of water I had more than enthusiastically referred him to. It led him to pitch off the following e-mail…

"Hi Jim, just a FYI. I found fish minutes after I talked with you earlier. The first fish, which was also the first fish of the season for me measured 29". I landed 7 schoolies after the first fish. This was all close to the bottom of the tide so that's a good sign. Thanks for the tips. Love the new rod, that first fish gave it a workout. Best, Mark"

A few days later we fielded a very similar from Mark…

"Hi Jim, just a quick report. It's 2am in the morning. Just got back from Claflins Landing. Crushed them on the outgoing tonight, 4 keepers and another 10-12 nice, strong mid 20" fish. Great action. All on black rattling deceivers and the intermediate line."

Does my heart good to know that we got a brother onto fish.

TP CHECKS IN
There's no doubt that Tony Penny has his pulse on anything related to fly-fishing on Cape Cod. Needless to say his recent visit to The Lower Forty more than raised an eyebrow or two. In what has been a relatively productive spring season to date, and a somewhat predictable one, Tony received a tip that BFT's have already entered inshore waters on the south side of Cape Cod. If this is true, and we have no evidence to the contrary, it would be the earliest reports of bluefin tuna we have ever received. He's not suggesting that there are enough fish present to begin targeting the species, only that the possibility exists that you may witness random groups while tooling coastal waters their known to inhabit.

Good fishing and safe wading,
JB