| |
How to Go Kayak Fishing in the
Fog on Cape Cod:
Nantucket Sound to Billingsate Shoal to Truro and
Provincetown
by Dave williams (Adam Bolonksy)
Prone to Northeast Winds and Fog, Here Are Cautions for
Fishing These Productive Striper Grounds
During a recent October weekend, two Boston-area college
students paddling recreational kayaks drowned in the
waters of Nantucket Soundoff Cape Cod. The Coast Guard
recovered their kayaks and one body in Pollock Rip, the
fast moving tidal current that spins northeast from the
tip of Monomoy Island off Chatham. The two young women
got lost in the fog soon after launching from the beach.
The wind was blowing offshore. The pair were likely
pushed into, then capsized in, Nantucket Sound's
fast-running tidal currents where they accelerate near
Stone Horse and Handkerchief Shoals.
Nantucket Sound's water temperatures were in the low
60's that day, and it's likely the two succumbed to
hypothermia before drowning. The open waters east of
Nantucket Sound are pretty cold, and it's this
difference in temperatures which helps form the Sound's
fogs. Trailing your hand in the water, your hand is at
one moment numbed, warmed the next; when wind carries in
colder air from the open ocean, fog mounts.
Kayak fishing and flyfishing enthusiasts prowl the
nearshore shallows of these waters during the summer and
throughout the fall, often with no companionship other
than their own. Likewise, on the other side of Cape Cod,
on Cape Cod Bay, visitors kayak fishing and kiteboarding
launch into the waters south of Jeremy Point, Great
Island, Billingsgate Shoals and Provincetown. Some
consider pressing further north, past Eastham and Truro,
towards Race Point at Provincetown, that large curled
fist of sand and sloping berms the northern tip of Cape
Cod swings into the shallows of the Stellwaggen Bank
seamount.
A large series of shoals pile up there against this
point which separates Cape Cod Bay from the open ocean.
Like the waters of Nantucket Sound, when the tides here
twist offshore, they pick up speed, like water rushing
from a drain spout, then accelerate seaward.
Otherwise Cape Cod Bay's conditions are usually pretty
much benign. That day in October, conditions were,
benign despite thick banks of fog and a steady offshore
wind that wandered up and down the shoreline. Conditions
were manageable, and boaters and anyone kayak fishing
made a point of paddling within a half mile of shore.
The fog came and went, until finally, around four, it
rose over the eastern shores of Cape Cod Bay like a
mountain. The shoreline slipped from view and any on the
water was enclosed in fog's large and round, then
soaring disconcerting dome.
The feeling of enclosure in fog is what's most
remarkable. You feel alone, as if you've been buried in
a cloud that has dropped down in a remote valley. Then
the light changes, your perspective is altered, and
you're lost. One tactic in Cape Cod Bay when the fog
rolls in and the wind is from the east is to remind
yourself that land lies 90 degrees off the compass, and
that if you twist your bow to the wind, landfall lies
forward.
It's an act of faith in fog to rely on clues that are
blind and subtle. But keeping them in mind, the
fisherman without a gps can drop his fishing gear into
the water, place the rod into a rod mount, and begin
trolling. Fishing in Cape Cod Bay's fog can be lovely,
really, mysterious, a little spooky, absolutely silent
but for the clatter of bluefish chasing sand eels to the
surface.
On a day like this, the two young Brandeis College
students set out in kayaks in conditions less than
ideal. The local harbormaster speculates the fog slipped
in behind them. They got disoriented. Once fog lay
between them and the shore, the offshore wind took over,
and the sequence of events began to unfold. Likely they
were pushed towards Chatham Roads. A tidal current
there, running at three knots towards the eleven-mile
gap between Monomoy Island and Nantucket's Great Point,
is a fact of fishing and boating life there.
Three knots is about as fast as most kayakers and anyone
who enjoys kayak fishing can paddle. Off Monomoy lies
Handkerchief and Stone Horse Shoals, two spots known for
their cold water, breaking waves, tidal rips and
confused waters. Here, after a 52-hour, 750 square-mile
search, the Coast Guard recovered the sad evidence of
what took place here in the fog.
|
