Activities
The Cape Cod Salties generally meet on the fourth Wednesday of the month at the
Yarmouth Senior Center on Forest Road in West Yarmouth. Workshops
begin at 6:30 PM, followed by the business meeting at 7 o’clock. The
workshops are designed to be skill-building sessions for members and
are generally given by members. Typical topics include schoolie
fishing tips, wire lining tackle, Atlantic outer beach fishing, guide
replacement, fishing leaders, tippets, and knots. You get the idea!
These presentations are the down-and-dirty, how-to-do-it topics which
skillful fishermen need to know. A guest speaker is scheduled to follow the
business portion of the meeting. These entertaining and informative
presentations are made by guides and captains, tackle representatives,
local experts, and writers as well as public officials.
The club hosts three dinners per year which supplant the normal meetings for those months. The January dinner features the annual awards presentations. The awards at this banquet are made in recognition of catches made by club members and entered into the season-long derby for members only. Dating from the days when members vied for cash and material incentives, today’s derby prizes of certificates, plaques, and trophies are no less coveted. The pride of each member so recognized is evident on the smiling faces. After all, they are being recognized by their peers for being the best of the best: the Cape Cod Salties. The derby has divisions for youth and adult, male and female, shore and boat, and conventional and fly tackle. Recognized derby species are striped bass, bluefish, bonito, cod, tautog, white perch, fluke, mackerel, winter flounder, false albacore, and bluefin tuna.
A number of environmental improvement activities are sponsored by the club. Cape Cod Salties members take part in a cleanup of the Cape Cod Canal south access road each Fall. Members also clean the West Dennis beach at least twice a year. The club helps to maintain a herring run and has participated in the planting of eel grass to help restore favorable marine environments. The club encourages catch-and-release fishing through the use of tagging kits which are available at low cost to members. These kits are obtained from the American Littoral Society, of which the Salties are members.
The Salties support community activities as well. A “Learn to Fish” Day is held in West Dennis in the late spring and offers instruction and information to the public about all types of sportfishing. A live tank displays specimens of sportfish such as bluefish and striped bass. Members have supported the Marstons Mills River Day program held each May by providing environmental and fishing instruction as part of a fishing derby for children as the public celebrates the Marstons Mills River. The club also provides financial support for young people enrolled at the Junior Conservation Camp held each summer.
Salties advocate for the interests of the saltwater angler as a participant in the Barnstable County League of Sportsman’s Clubs, which in turn is a member of the Massachusetts Sportsmens’ Council. Through these two organizations, for example, the club initiated and changed the policy on the catch of winter flounder so that the season now allows the harvesting of fish in the early Spring thus affording the shorebound angler an opportunity to catch these fish while they are in close proximity to the shore.
The club hosts three dinners per year which supplant the normal meetings for those months. The January dinner features the annual awards presentations. The awards at this banquet are made in recognition of catches made by club members and entered into the season-long derby for members only. Dating from the days when members vied for cash and material incentives, today’s derby prizes of certificates, plaques, and trophies are no less coveted. The pride of each member so recognized is evident on the smiling faces. After all, they are being recognized by their peers for being the best of the best: the Cape Cod Salties. The derby has divisions for youth and adult, male and female, shore and boat, and conventional and fly tackle. Recognized derby species are striped bass, bluefish, bonito, cod, tautog, white perch, fluke, mackerel, winter flounder, false albacore, and bluefin tuna.
A number of environmental improvement activities are sponsored by the club. Cape Cod Salties members take part in a cleanup of the Cape Cod Canal south access road each Fall. Members also clean the West Dennis beach at least twice a year. The club helps to maintain a herring run and has participated in the planting of eel grass to help restore favorable marine environments. The club encourages catch-and-release fishing through the use of tagging kits which are available at low cost to members. These kits are obtained from the American Littoral Society, of which the Salties are members.
The Salties support community activities as well. A “Learn to Fish” Day is held in West Dennis in the late spring and offers instruction and information to the public about all types of sportfishing. A live tank displays specimens of sportfish such as bluefish and striped bass. Members have supported the Marstons Mills River Day program held each May by providing environmental and fishing instruction as part of a fishing derby for children as the public celebrates the Marstons Mills River. The club also provides financial support for young people enrolled at the Junior Conservation Camp held each summer.
Salties advocate for the interests of the saltwater angler as a participant in the Barnstable County League of Sportsman’s Clubs, which in turn is a member of the Massachusetts Sportsmens’ Council. Through these two organizations, for example, the club initiated and changed the policy on the catch of winter flounder so that the season now allows the harvesting of fish in the early Spring thus affording the shorebound angler an opportunity to catch these fish while they are in close proximity to the shore.