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Last month, during a family vacation on Cape Cod, I happened upon a fishing and hunting shop called Goose Hummock (*). It’s on Route 6A in the town of Orleans, right near the Orleans traffic circle. Like most anglers in the Northeast, I have been hearing about saltwater fly fishing for stripers and blues. Hence my decision to go inside.
It wasn’t long before co-manager Mark Palmer talked me into giving the local fishing a try. At his suggestion, I booked an evening trip with Sean Fields, a guide who works out of the shop. What really attracted me about fishing with Fields is the fact that he fishes strictly on foot. That meant we didn’t have to go to the trouble of launching a boat.
We started out fishing a grass flat in Pleasant Bay on a falling tide. Panicking baitfish were being chased everywhere by stripers. Unfortunately, with so much natural food available, the stripers weren’t paying much attention to our chartreuse Deceivers. So we moved to the edge of a deep channel where we took a couple of schoolie stripers in the 20 to 24-inch range. We spent the last hour of the falling tide near the lighthouse in Chatham, casting huge chartreuse Wool Head streamers and landing several more schoolies.
Did I enjoy the trip? Do I recommend it to Angling Report subscribers? The answer to the first question is yes; the answer to the second is a qualified yes. I hesitate to give this trip a general nod because I felt the outing was not right for novices. The fish were in close for the most part and long casts weren’t really necessary, but it was still tough casting and handling line in the dark. Dealing with wind and tide on foot was also more difficult than I expected.
If you would like to try an on-foot guided trip yourself, you can reach Sean Fields at the Goose Hummock (*) shop in Orleans. He can provide waders, a stripping basket and even a fly rod if necessary. His fee this year for a one-on-one guided trip for up to two persons is $120 for three hours of fishing. He’s going to increase that to $150 next year, he says.
If an on-foot evening trip with Fields doesn’t sound right for you, I turned up another fishing option on my trip to Cape Cod. Seems the Goose Hummock shop has an Outdoor Center out back that’s right on the shore of Nauset Inlet. They rent canoes there ($20 for four hours; $40 for 24 hours; or $130 per week) and offer advice on how visiting fly fishermen can find stripers on their own. I didn’t have time to give this a try, but I understand canoe-fishing is a particularly good way to go early in the season – specifically in May, June or July.
Still another way to go is with a small-boat captain who specializes in fly fishing. The guys at Goose Hummock told me they give high marks to Capt. Bill Strakele (*) and Capt. Dan Marini (*). Strakele charges $225 for a four-hour boat-fishing trip for one or two anglers. That price includes all tackle. Marini charges $250 for a five-hour trip; or $200 for a half-day (three hours). – Tim Jones.