“Living Large at the Lighthouse”

(First Place Magazine Feature 2005, Texas Outdoor Writers Association)

Anglers staying at the Race Point Lighthouse Have 24-hour access to Cape Cod's most productive reaches.

Saltwater Fly Fishing Magazine
By Phil H. Shook

It is 3:30 a.m. and a heavy overcast has draped a curtain around a full moon shining over the North Atlantic. The soft glow from the Race Point Light illuminates prime striped bass water on the north end of the Cape Cod National Seashore.

Steve Kean, a veteran flyfisher and beach outfitter, is wading a few steps out in the surf near the mouth of a small estuary when two stripers boil up in front of him. Shining his flashlight next to the shore, he is thrilled at the sight of sand eels stacked along the edge of the beach like a banquet of silver pasta. Stranded on the damp sand by the big falling tide, some of them are still alive and kicking.

Kean knows what is going to happen next. When the outgoing tide turns and water starts pushing back on the beach, these sand eels will be breakfast for a waiting horde of stripers eager to gorge themselves on the largesse of a full moon-driven tide.

Kean doesn't wait long for the action to start. Schoolie bass in the 20-inch class start falling for his sand eel pattern, keeping him busy for the next hour. As dawn starts to break and the tide pushes up on the beach, big bodied bass move in and the fly fishing action really gets serious.

In the early light, Kean sees big boils all around him. Surrounding him now are big-shouldered bass in the 30-inch class with some topping 40 inches. They are eagerly taking his fly, in some cases, only about ten feet from his rod tip. It takes him about 15 minutes to battle and land a fish. With his drag turned down as tight as it will go, he still has to palm the reel to slow them down. It is the kind of chaos that every beach flyfisher dreams about. "After I land a fish, I see the next bass I will cast to," Kean says. "I release a fish, make a throw and, pow, one hits it again, running like a tarpon in six inches of water."

Kean alerts a couple of his friends parked nearby to the action and between them they land and release between 30 and 40 stripers from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. with the biggest fish walloping flies for a full hour.

Hitting the lottery with monster stripers while night stalking with the flyrod doesn't happen on every visit to Race Point Beach. But flyfishers have many other options to prospect along this scenic stretch of the Cape Cod National Seashore near Provincetown.

Kean and his partner, Kevin Dick, run OutbackPro Sportfishing, a beach outfitting operation that provides full service, around-the-clock flyfishing safaris via 4X4s on this end of the national seashore. Flyfishers are shuttled to the beach from nearby Provincetown and Truro motels or, through special arrangements, can spend a few nights right on the beach at the Race Point lighthouse keeper's house which overlooks prime surf and estuary fishing.

By day, the view from the back porch of the keeper's house is a feast of angling possibilities. To the west, seagulls hover expectantly over lobster fishermen and tuna boats just offshore. To the north, beyond wind-sculptured sand dunes, Hatches Harbor, a glistening lagoon, feeds into the ocean where the North Atlantic meets Cape Cod Harbor.

Like the experience a flyfisher enjoys casting to cutthroats on a remote backcountry stream in Yellowstone National Park, there is a unique sense of adventure experienced by the angler walking a beachfront that cannot be duplicated in a boat.

Kean, who has landed 15-pound bluefish and 41-pound stripers in his 15 years fishing these beachfronts, is constantly roaming the beach, checking wind conditions, bird and baitfish activity for the best stretch for fly fishing action.

With tide tables always at hand and his years of experience driving the maze of seashore roads, Kean can avoid windblown beachfronts and waters choked in mung--the bothersome seaweed that clings to flylines and leaders--in favor of stretches with clear tides, modest wind and frequent visits by game fish.

Race Point's outer beach is a favorite with the surfcaster and plug thrower set as well as light tackle anglers and fly fishers but there is plenty of elbow room for everyone during the prime fishing season from late May through early November. Beach road closures designed to protect the endangered piping plover also provide opportunities for anglers who don't mind hiking to lightly traveled stretches of beach.

Spring striper action is usually well under way by the time the bluefish begin showing along the outer beach in mid-May. When the peanut bunker start turning up high and dry on the edge of the beach, it is a good bet that the bluefish have arrived, notes Bob Mahoney, a Race Point regular who lives in nearby Truro.

Mahoney says the hour before sunrise and the hour just after sunset are the prime times to find bluefish within flycasting range of the beach. He says some of the largest blues--15- to 20-pound class slammers--are caught in late October and early November.

Night fishing can be excellent along Race Point Beach but a full moon or new moon won't always kick off a feeding frenzy of monster stripers. The timing on the big tides is everything, Kean says, because other predators are competing for the exposed sand eels, which are actually fish that burrow into the sand. A big low tide during the night that exposes the sand eels followed by a big high tide near dawn to stir the mix is the ideal scenario. But once it gets light, terns and gulls, inactive during the night, will pick the beach clean of sand eels.

The estuary and outflow at Hatches Harbor, just south of the Race Point Light, offers exciting angling opportunities under constantly changing conditions. Arrays of terns and gulls gather on the sloping dune banks and inquisitive seals pop their heads up and make eye contact with wadefishers as if to ask if anything is biting.

The constant exchange of water and baitfish moving in and out of the estuary makes Hatches Harbor a natural draw for stripers. With the Race Point Light and Keeper's House in the background, anglers can sometimes sightcast to stripers visible as they move in the clear water over exposed sand bars and light sand bottoms inside the estuary.

Depending on the velocity of the moving tide, flycasters have the option of wading or casting from the bank on the inside of the estuary, working along the outer beach, or wading the rip formed at the mouth of the estuary. The bowls and flats formed on either side of the mouth also offer prime wadefishing opportunities.

ne memorable evening after working hard to find stripers along the outflow of Hatches Harbor without a rumor of strike, Kean and I discovered schoolies blowing up on the surface in the bowl-like flat just to the south of the outflow.

On a trip to the Seashore last May, six of us staying at the lighthouse keepers house made the short trip to a wind protected stretch of beach on the bay side of the cape nicknamed Mission Bell. Here we enjoyed several hours of action with schoolie bass. Pugliesi floating sand eel patterns, chartreuse Deceivers, and crease flies all drew savage strikes from aggressively feeding bass.

Casting 8- and 9-weights with intermediate sink lines, we stood at the edge of a light surf and landed stripers from 18- to 27-inches for most of the afternoon.

ain squalls would come and go but the bite continued for more than three hours. It was exciting to see the dark backs of the stripers tracking a fly to the edge of the beach before they slammed it at the last moment.

On more than one occasion, these smallish but feisty stripers did their best impersonation of much larger fish, making several long runs parallel to the beach while taking line well into the backing.

Another prime locale for fall striper action is south of the Race Point Light at Herring Cove Beach on Cape Cod Sound. Last October, Mahoney and Kean enjoyed a number of 25 to 30 fish days casting in the front wash along Herring Cove Beach.

In the fall, Kean and his parties begin looking for the dive bombing gannets to show up along this beach which usually means the birds are targeting juvenile herring and small tinker mackerel that draw bigger stripers and blues to beachfront. A fast action, graphite flyrod matched with a machined steel, disc drag, high performance saltwater reel that comes with a four figure price tag works just fine on Cape Cod stripers and bluefish.. But so will a wide range of more moderately-priced saltwater fly outfits. Kean, who lands 30- and 40-inch stripers every season, uses a Scientific Anglers Ultra 8 weight rod and Concept reel combo outfit that includes line, backing, and leader and retails for about $199.

Nine foot flyrods matched to 7-, 8- and 9-weight rods work well along the Seashore with the heavier models offering an edge for casting some of the larger streamer and bunker patterns into stiff breezes.

A quality, single action, direct-drive or anti-reverse reel with a smooth drag will do the job. More important than pedigree or price tag is the ability of the reel to hold 150- to 200-yards of Micron or Dacron backing.

Clouser Deep Minnows, bunker patterns, Deceivers and epoxy flies match up well with the local baitfish and have proven effective on stripers and bluefish. Kean has had so much success with sand eel patterns, both floating and sub surface models, that he rarely recommends anything else. For best results alternate between olive over white 3 1/2-inch long "young of the year" patterns to 5-inch long floating sand eel patterns for best results.

Mahoney has scored with a yellow flatwing sand eel pattern that imparts a tantalizing wobble on the retrieve. He also has taken a number of sizeable stripers on a five-inch streamer made of yak hair. For bluefish, he likes to use poppers including a custom made foam model made from the lobster buoys that float up on the beaches. It is the brainstorm of Bill Strakle, a guide who works out of a local fly shop.

While weight forward floating lines with 9-foot leaders will work along the beach front, intermediate or uniform sink lines offer more flexibility under the constantly changing conditions. Depending on surf conditions, Mahoney will use everything from intermediate sink lines to 300 grain shooting heads to cut through current and wave action.

When blues start cutting off leaders, Mahoney moves up to a 30- pound bite tippet or a 4-inch wire leader connected to the mono leader with a haywire twist. I have found a good quick change remedy for blues is to connect about a foot and a half of 50-pound Jinkai monofilament to the class tippet with a double surgeons knot.

Even calm nights in the summer can be on the cool side on the Cape Cod National Seashore so a set of hip boots and rain pants or lightweight breathable waders and a windbreaker are recommended during the fishing season.

For some of the best drive-up, walk-in flyfishing for stripers and blues on the Cape Cod National Seashore, just look for the light shining on Race Point Beach.

February/March 2004