Goose Hummock Shop Archives - The Fisherman
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January 13, 2025 - 13:04:40

With the crew at the Goose Hummock Shop having just returned from the week-long Boston Boat Show, they were having to rely on the reports from their customers more than firsthand experience. Shiners have been flying out the door in the hands of both open water and ice fishers. With so many deep ponds on the outer Cape, there are still lots of open water fishing opportunities. Trout and pickerel are leading the way. Anglers coming in with ice fishing intentions have been coy with giving up where they’re finding safe ice, but the catches have been very good with some large pickerel and some heavyweight largemouth bass highlighting those catches. No one has been doing any saltwater fishing.

January 13, 2025 - 13:04:40

January 06, 2025 - 12:33:35

The crew at the Goose Hummock Shop said the recent dip in temperature and the deep dive below freezing in the coming forecast, has at least a few guys wondering if safe ice is in the near future. Safe ice on the Cape is a rarity, but typically produces some epic fishing when it happens. The shop guys are headed to the New England Boat Show and were busy with that, so they didn’t have much more to report.

January 06, 2025 - 12:33:35

15 Rt 6A
Orleans, MA 02653
phone: 508-255-0455

For centuries the shifting, grass topped dunes of Nauset Beach have formed the only barrier between the North Atlantic and the narrow arm of Outer Cape Cod. The only opening in miles of unbroken surf between Provincetown and Chatham is the narrow cut known as Nauset Inlet at Orleans. Here, winter and summer, the ever moving tides ebb and flow between the sea and Orleans Town Cove and Eastham Salt Pond, draining and flooding the vast salt meadows of Nauset Marsh. Since the days of the early tribes of Cape Cod Indians, the wide expanse of Nauset Marsh has been the winter refuge of great flights of migrating ducks and geese. In this same marsh, the Indian hunters of the Nauset Tribe, early white settlers, market gunners, and today’s sportsman hunter have all sought these wary waterfowl. Over the years, the largest most prized of these birds has been the Canada Goose. A small outcropping of marsh grass, forming a tiny island scarcely twenty yards in diameter backed by a broad salt meadow and surrounded by a tidal channel near the southerly end of Nauset Marsh, has for generations been called Goose Hummock by the hunters of Cape Cod. Goose Hummock has created a favored resting and feeding location for countless flights of geese winging their weary way over the dunes of Nauset. It was at Goose Hummock that the market hunter crouched shivering behind cakes of ice, waiting for a sight of these great water fowl. Goose Hummock has seen teams of young geese, reared in captivity and trained as live decoys, released as flyers to lure the flights of wild geese within range of the hunter's gun. It was in the creek and water holes around Goose Hummock that Willis Gould, formerly a market hunter, experimented with and perfected his now famous floating cork decoys. It was also at this same spot, sheltered behind a high dune, that there stood a small gunning stand which bore a weathered sign, "Goose Hummock Camp". The camp only cost $105 with a good part of the building fashioned from driftwood found along the outer beach. Winter seas pounded and washed away at the high dune so that the camp had to be moved several times over the years. Finally, in a great winter blizzard several years ago, mountainous seas broke through the dune and destroyed "Goose Hummock Camp". Later storms have washed sand clear around the little grass island, and Goose Hummock may in time be completely covered. Willis Gould, his son Bill, and Sarge Sargent, could foresee the day when the relentless tides and surf might finally win the battle against the little island, leaving nothing of it but a memory. So, when these three built the first sporting goods store on the Outer Cape in 1946, they named it Goose Hummock Shop. Goose Hummock Shop soon outgrew its original building in East Orleans and was moved to the center of Orleans. Then in 1950, its present home was built on Town Cove near the Eastham town line. In the winter of 1953, Goose Hummock Shop was doubled in size. So, as the original little grass island in Nauset Marsh is being sanded into memories, the bearer of its name, the "Goose Hummock Shop", continues to grow in size and service. Their staff hopes to continue in this manner, supplying the Cape Cod outdoorsman with the highest quality hunting, fishing, sporting, marine boating supplies and accessories available. As always, preserving a reputation for knowledgeable and conscientious service is their aim.