The Fish and the Grounds

Striped Bass & Bluefish

      With outer Cape Cod’s Nauset & Coast Guard beaches to the north, and Monomoy Island & Nantucket Shoals to the south, we have great fishing in any direction. During the summer and fall the waters east and south of Chatham teem with abundant supplies of bait and game fishes. If equipped with polarized sunglasses, one can usually observe the fish on the bottom as the boat drifts over the more shallow rips. At times, large schools of Striped Bass, Bluefish and small Bluefin Tuna will come to the surface and can be caught by casting to them. This can be very exciting for customers (and to the Captain) with birds wheeling and diving into the feeding fish. Our season starts in early June with the early fish being located in the rips near Nantucket. In addition, a tremendous migration of striped bass occurs onto the west side of Monomoy and the shoals or "flats" there. I have seen schools of stripers so thick one could literally walk on them. By the first of July, the water temps on the east side of Monomoy Island and Chatham have warmed enough for the schools of sand eels to attract the bass around the point, providing some unbelievable top water fly fishing action.

      Bluefish are also very prevalent in Nantucket Sound in the early season and as the waters warm they come around the tip of Monomoy and can be caught with the light tackle off the east side of Chatham as well. By late August and September, the blues can be so thick on the inshore spots that my customers will say "enough!" and direct me to go find some cooler waters and some stripers. Some days it can be hard to find the cooler water in which to catch only stripers, but Captain Bruce has the experience to put you on the fish.
                    

Bluefin Tuna Fishing

     This type of charter is a more costly rate due to the distance traveled, and specialized gear required, yet could be combined with a bass fishing trip. There are two types of tuna charters, targeting the school and medium sized fish or going after the "giant" or trophy sized bluefin. Although there is always the chance of hooking a giant, they usually are taken using different methods and at different locations from the smaller sized fish. Therefore, there are two different rates for the Bluefin Tuna Trips. School Tuna trips start at $1150 for 8 hours and Giant Bluefin Tuna are 12 hours or more and start at $1500 and can go up to $3000 depending upon size of party, method of fishing, and distance to go to the fish.
     The best fishing is usually at the times of slack water (the period of low water movement when the tide changes direction) and at dawn and dusk, so to make sure we have the travel time to get to the spot before dawn, departures in the very early morning are common. We can troll, chum, jig, or use live bait for Bluefin tuna that are prevalent in our waters from June through November. Trolling is with daisy chains, birds and Chatham squid rigs, a number of vinyl squids rigged in a pattern to instigate a strike. Chumming is with cut bait, such as herring, cod entrails, mackerel or bluefish. Many blue and other large sharks will come to the chum line. Live bait with a live bluefish, whiting or pogy is by far the most exciting way to catch a giant Bluefin. These charters are usually an additional cost over a regular Bluefin charter price rate depending upon how hard it is to get the bait. Whenever possible I try to get the bait the afternoon or evening before the trip.
     Capeshores Charters provides four custom 8 foot bent butt 130 lb class tuna rods equipped with 80 and 130 lb Penn International 2 speed reels for the Giant tuna, in addition to the 50 pound class stand up gear for the lighter size class fish. The giants are fought from fixed rod holders mounted on rails. There is no fighting chair or post. We go after these larger prized Bluefin Tuna as serious business. My boat is small and these fish are big and powerful. The 50 pound class gear is used with safety harnesses and fighting belts for your safety. The daily bag limits and other regulations on these pelagic fishes are complicated and vary widely during the season depending on the sizes of the fish and the amount of quota harvested. Please take the time to research these regulations prior to your trip. The web address for these regulations is www.nmfspermits.com.

Sales of Giant Tuna

      Anglers target these giant tuna for the challenge and the thrill of the long battle. A 300 to 1200 pound giant bluefin tuna is a very valuable fish if properly taken care of and delivered quickly. Capeshores Charters boats were commercial fishing boats before they took parties out and we still carry a federal Atlantic tunas permits to sell any legal giant tuna we catch on the appropriate "commercial" days. Some prospective customers ask if they can sell the fish or receive a share from the sale of a fish, to offset the cost of the charter. Capeshores Charters policy is to not give shares or proceeds of the sale of Giant Bluefin Tuna to the charter. Some boats will offer a free fishing trip; some will offer a discounted trip or another gimmick to entice the individual to book the $2000 charter. Then as they waste the day trolling in an area void of fish, the customer realizes that there really isn't going to be a "payday". If you wish to catch a giant, I can take you where they are, at the time they are in the area, show you how I would do it, hook you on to one, and even let you reel it in, but I will be selling the fish when we get to dock.
     The recreational limit on a "GIANT" bluefin tuna in the "trophy" class is ONE PER YEAR PER BOAT. Once one is taken on a "recreational" or "angling category" permit, you can't fish for them for the rest of the year. That's why we sell them! If you want to take one home to eat, then we will go after the size fish that is appropriate. It doesn't make much sense to cut up a 7-10 foot long fish that's worth $1500 to $5000 to go pass out to the neighborhood. If you are out to make money from the fish, go buy a boat and the mooring and the permits, acquire the knowledge required etc. - and then you can go get them for yourself! But, just don't follow me to the offshore fishing grounds!
     There are days on which there are no sales of tuna allowed where we can and do fish recreationally, retaining the limit of the appropriate recreational size classes, and releasing the giants as NMFS regulation allows only one fish retained per year in the trophy size classes.

Whale Watching - Cod etc.

     Cape Cod is known for and named after the steadfast cod. Over the years overfishing and habitat loss has decreased the cod numbers considerably, and once the commercial gillnetters have their nets on the bottom, its pretty hard to fish most of the spots with GOOD results. Capeshores Charters offers very limited Cod fishing trips to the areas to the east and southeast of Chatham, MA. These areas have local names such as "The Mussels", "The Peaks", "Crab Ledge", "The Figs", "The Shells", "Bill and Sills" and "The Channel" etc. These areas are further offshore and are a more costly fishing charter than the inshore fishing charters. Cod trips are 8 to 10 hours long and start at $850. We can however try for cod at the end of a tuna charter and many folks do opt for this type of a combination trip. We do have a fantastic whale show during the summer months and whale watching has been a recent addition to my fishing charters. The whale watch trips are generally of lesser duration and costs that the fishing charters. Please email the captain for the latest info and rates. Captain Bruce has a recreational lobster license that allows him to fish up to 10 lobster pots offshore in the deeper waters where the commercial lobstermen fish. We have a hydraulic hauler and if the fishing is a little slow we can always go haul the traps for fun ! I cannot give the charter any of the lobsters because that would constitute a commercial use of a family permit, which is unlawful. But, we can put your kids in my foul weather gear and play "Deadliest Catch" and run a string of pots. Hooking the buoy, emptying and rebaiting the trap, tossing back starfish, crabs, and other surprises can make a slow fishing day more memorable