Fletcher Fishing

posted by John on May 13

The boat survived the winter. Batteries were re-installed, and the engine fired right up. I decided to go fishing to celebrate the fact that it took a lot less time than I expected to get the boat running. Wellfleet harbormaster was gone, so my drop was free today. I checked all the usual places in the harbor, and the shoal, and the bay. Nothing! There were reports of huge bait balls of sand eels. No eels, no birds. I went to the Brewster Flats to fish the drop off. Again, nothing. Everything moved west.

I went by Sesuit, and on to Barnstable. There were many boats fishing in 30-40 feet at the outer entrance to Barnstable harbor from the bay. They were not catching during the 7-10 minutes I spent poking around.  I decided to try the Jeff Smith Spot. It was a bad drift. One minute you are in 17 feet, the next you are in 2 feet.

The spot was great, no one was there (although they were zooming by) and I caught 8 keepers and 2 small ones. The 4 big ones were about 34″ and very slim. The rest of the keepers were around 30″. Here is a picture of one big one we kept for supper.