big news for Fly Fishers on Cape Cod

[geebee]

anyone who visited the Monomoy and South Beach flats in its heyday (pre-2005) will be interested to know that the weekends storm produced a 1500ft wide breach on south beach about a mile south of the Ferry drop off.

February 11, 2013CHATHAM — The weekend storm that punched out the lights also dealt a body blow to the barrier beach just a couple of miles south of Chatham. At some point Saturday or eawind-driven seas carved a 1,600-foot-wide hole in the beach approximately three miles south miles south of Lighthouse Beach. Chris Weidman, research coordinator at the Waquoit Bay Estuarine Research Reserve, discovered the breach when he was walking the beach Sunday.

There appear to be two channels with a high spot in the middle that remain dry ground at high tide, Weidman said in a phone interview Sunday afternoon from the site. "There's still outflow at almost dead low tide," Weidman said, indicating that it was likely a channel had established itself.

"I would call it a break," Weidman said.

Chatham Coastal Resources Director Ted Keon said there were a half dozen or more low spots in that area that had been overwashed during recent storms and any one of them could have broken through.

The inner side of the twin channels appears to be higher than the Atlantic side, Weidman said, allowing water to potentially scour sand as it flows out with low tide.

That could possibly keep the channel from filling in, or it could deepen the channel to the point where it remains water-filled throughout the tide cycles. "It would take a lot to repair it," Weidman observed.

when the old 'southway' was open the twice daily flush of tide and bait kept cow stripers around for a few days on their way to stellwagen, ensuring 3 odd weeks of waves of fresh hungry fish every day or two from late May to mid June.

the fishing was epic - 18/20/25lb fish in two feet of water.

i'm sure fly fishers from NJ northwards will be watching the reports of the break pretty closely. lol.

 

[vcregular]

Cool. Those breaches usually mean good fishing due to the constant influx cool and clean ocean water. That same year the 'southway' breach closed, a breach opened up on MV - out on Chappaquiddick. Created as a result of the 2007 'Patriots Day' noreaster. This breach actually made Chappy a legitimate island. Since that time the flats fishing - if you hit it right - can be off the charts! Pretty much like dry fly fishing on steroids!!!

 

[jay348]

geebee wrote:

when the old 'southway' was open the twice daily flush of tide and bait kept cow stripers around for a few days on their way to stellwagen, ensuring 3 odd weeks of waves of fresh hungry fish every day or two from late May to mid June.

This was the opening that closed up in '87 correct? This is close to where I've been visiting the last two years; and everything I've read involved phenomenal fishing from those beaches...until the southway closed.

Should be interesting to see what comes of this.

 

[geebee]

jay348 wrote:

This was the opening that closed up in '87 correct?

other way around Jay.

the '87 storm breached the beach and it started one hell of a fishery once the stocks bounced back due to the moratorium.

it was good enough for those in the know to trailer flats boats up from Florida.

then from 2004 the seashore drift started closing the breach and in 05 it was no longer passable with shallow draft skiffs, and the fishing tailed off too. then in 2006 it was gone just like that.

in late June you used to get small pods of huge fish - i once had to shake off a 30" keeper cos my buddy 30 feet away hooked a measured 43" cow of about 28lb. she was pretty lean from the ride up, a month later she would have been well over 30lb - by fall 35lb probably.

with the seals on the 'outside' now (and the sharks) it could be quite the fishbowl come mid May...

 

[jay348]

Ah gotcha...very cool. I've been going up during the later end of summer, but that may need to change this year. Everybody I talked to up there would say that June/early summer was prime time.

Hopefully this is good for the fishery in the long run.

 

[David]

jay348 wrote:

Hopefully this is good for the fishery in the long run.

In sandy areas, nothing in the salt is for the long run... beach erosion and new storms make it an ever-changing envrironment... but always fun.

Sharks and seals... one seal can keep a great white happy all winter!

 

[sandfly]

great whites eat a seal every 4-7 days. watched a special on it the other night. thats a lot of seals in a season.. I think they had 5 different sharks off of monomy this past year..might have to think about going again this year..

 

[geebee]

sandfly wrote:
great whites eat a seal every 4-7 days. watched a special on it the other night. thats a lot of seals in a season.. I think they had 5 different sharks off of monomy this past year..might have to think about going again this year..

5 was 2011. in 2012 they tagged 15.

the great whites are totally keyed in on the seals now - nature rebalancing herself.

the first aerials of the new inlet are in. its awe inspiring the size of it. look at the colour of the water in the tub, that's channel sand being washed out.

the break is a good two miles north of the old southway :

and note the smaller break north of it with water in it.

 

[marcq]

I remember reading somewhere that the seal population was becoming a problem there. its funny how things work out in nature. only thing that would be cooler is if the white sharks start exploding on the seals like they do in south Africa.
i know lots of guys love to bring their yaks out around that area and jump right in. nothing like seeing bass in shallow water. only a few places in jersey that I can think of that are close but the water is usually to dirty in our area. and the fishing is not as accountable like in the cape cod area.