There’s a fun way to beat the crowds of summertime tourists smothering the famous sand-slope Great Beach, the place where Thoreau said a man may stand “and put all America behind him.”
Rise at 4 a.m. Drive east to the Atlantic Ocean on any of a dozen public-access roads, from Nauset Beach in Orleans north to Race Point in Provincetown. Sip your coffee and look up at the stark grandeur of the lustrous black pre-dawn sky. Inhale the soft, dank sea air as you make your way through the dunes and down the 100-foot sand cliff to the sound of breaking waves.
Now survey your domain. These 40 miles of magnificent open-ocean beach–the Cape Cod National Seashore–belong to you. Watch the gulls and the terns. They’ll take you to the fish. As the tide recedes, striped bass with lavender sides and white bellies from one to four feet in length patrol the shallows for schools of silvery baitfish.
Wade right in. The fish are close. Look for fins. Cast your glittering streamer boldly into the sudsy wash behind the surging waves. Strip your 10-weight floating fly line as fast as you can back into your stripping basket, making the fly dance like a drunken sand eel.
The action is fleeting. Stripers are essentially nocturnal creatures. As the tide turns and begins a powerful, pounding climb toward its nine-foot peak, it’s time to reel up and head out. Things are heating up. The smell of Coppertone is in the brightening air and the pet poodles on leashes are arriving.
Thomas R. Pero is the editor of Fish & Fly magazine.
Resources:
Cape Cod National Seashore
S. Wellfleet, Mass. 02663
(508) 349-3785
Province Lands Visitors Center
Provincetown, Mass. 02657
(508) 487-1256
Race Point Ranger Station
Provincetown, Mass. 02657
(508) 487-2100
Outfitter:
Nauset Angler
4 Coles Place
E. Orleans, Mass. 02643
(508) 255-4242
www.nausetangler.com
Airports
Provincetown Municipal (KPVC)
Longest runway: 3,500 ft,
2 mi from Provincetown.
FBO: Cape Air, (508) 487-0241.
Barnstable Municipal (KHYA)
Longest runway: 5,425 ft,
28 mi from Provincetown.
FBOs: Air Cape Cod, (508) 771-5725;
AMA, (508) 771-8273;
Griffin Aviation, (508) 771-2638;
Rectrix Aerodrome Centers, (508) 771-7520.
Wade right into the Cape Cod surf at dawn
