All the houses were full as well as houses of other cousins and extended family with wedding guests! John and Dinah (Hannah’s aunt and uncle) did a fantastic job with all the wedding organising and hosting! The ceremony was held over looking the bay and was heartfelt and sincere. A huge marquee was erected in the garden which housed the dinner tables and guests. The reception party was great fun with the wedding musicians partying harder than most!
Most of the guests left on Sunday and a few on Monday and we were lucky enough to have Dinah to ourselves on Monday night. After an exhaustion-induced nap (due to going fishing at 3am), we cooked up some bluefish fillets I’d caught that day. After a good meal and a great conversation, it was sad to finally to go to bed. Hannah and I stayed in Cape Cod until Thursday. We hired a car, play adventure mini golf (putt-putt), read our books in the hammock, swam and went fishing again for bluefish. Hannah even reeled in her first bluefish on fly! Thank you for Dinah and John (and all the other people) for their incredible hospitality.
The bride and groom!
Chester and I
Thinking about going for a swim...
Sunset at Pleasant bay
The core of the wedding party having sundowners
Fishing report (skip if you aren’t interested)
Cape Cod is famed for its fishing (hence the name!). I hired a guide with the movie star name of George Ryan, for the Monday after the wedding to show me the areas. He picked me up in his 69 Ford Grand Cruiser at 3am and headed down to Provincetown at the northern tip of Cape Cod.
Cape Cod is famed for its bluefish (elf / shad in SA), striped bass and once for its cod. Due to cod’s complete lack of fighting ability, bluefish and striped bass are inshore fishermen’s main quarry. We fished along the breakwater off Provincetown Harbour. The breakwater creates three distinct fishing areas, namely 1) off the beach (surf), 2) in the bay between the breakwater and harbour and off the point of the breakwater. We couldn’t fish off the beach due to the onshore 15mph wind so we tried the inshore bay in the early morning and worked our way to the point. We arrived fishless, but the point is surrounded on the western side by a deep channel and allows one to get a fly into deep water. I caught my first bass of about 5lbs on a well sunk clouser. Bass are quite similar to the Kob in SA even to the point of the shaking of their heads when hooked. We caught several smaller ones before the fishing when quiet. We fished our way back into the bay and I caught one of a similar size of a sand eel imitation. There is a sharp drop off in the middle of the bay which can be accessed at low tide where bluefish patrol for baitfish swept over the edge. The bluefish have razor sharp teeth and therefore a few centimetres of steel wire is needed to avoid getting bitten off. We were only able to fish the drop off for about an hour due to the prevailing tide, but we quite quickly caught four hard fighting bluefish around the 4-5lbs mark!
Although the fish weren’t the biggest, it was truly a fantastic day out! I’d highly recommend George as a top notch fly guide. I was really impressed at the quality of the fishery. The striped bass were virtually swiped during the 80’s and have made a full come back! My mission is to catch a ‘keeper’ which is bass over 28inches.
My first England bluefish
My first striped bass
Another shot of the same bass
Another bluefish on a different day!
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