BREWSTER FLATS, MA
Broken promises are an element of fishing, but in this case I went back on my word for reasons of safety. They’d asked if I’d guide them to Billingsgate Shoal—not much of a stretch considering we’d launch their 22-footer in Sesuit Harbor. But when the engine refused to start then sputtered and died, that trip was out of the question. I used a screwdriver to remove a rusted fuel water separator and luckily the marina had a spare on hand. With the engine running better but still shy of well, I headed east to work the edges of the Brewster Flats and an area some call the “Seventeens,” which are three pronounced humps outside the flats.
With a dry nor’easter blowing a comfortable breeze, I hoped the bait would be stacked up along the drop-off where the flats fall away. We put out the tubes abeam of the Brewster Spire. It can be unnerving to watch stripers spook just off the bow. But on this morning, there were two huge schools of bass in the 12- to 15-pound class chasing sand eels and some other fine bait we couldn’t I.D.
We were working the 15- to 20-foot depths when the starboard rod bent under the weight of a fish. When that fish shot toward the port line, I called for the second rod to be retrieved. The rapid retrieve was all that was needed to coax a second fish into slamming the tube, and a day that had started with gloomy prospects gave us a doubleheader right out of the chute.
We’d been alone for that first pass, but the bent rods quickly attracted company in the form of several other skiffs. We dropped one bass and picked up another in the same class before some Pilgrim ran over our lines. I moved out to the “Seventeens” where a pair of five-pound blues climbed on and just as quickly charged the boat, making their escape. Despite a bright sun, we picked away at legal bass and blues while my clients were treated to glances of stripers pushing bait in the clean, clear water. As I was making a turn, I noticed the eyes of the angler on the port side of the console bug out as he looked astern. I turned just in time to watch a bluefish erupt in our wake, a football tuna breaching right on its tail. We harried bluefish all around the boat with the speedy bluefin bearing down for their kills.
The area from Barnstable Harbor to Billingsgate Shoal has long been a favorite location for savvy locals as well as visiting fishermen and with well-defined jumping off launching ramps at Barnstable Harbor and Sesuit. These are both just a short steam to Billingsgate Shoal and the Target Ship, another nearby location worth some recon.
