Anglers who last week bemoaned the constant, heavy northeast winds changed their tune rather abruptly sometime Wednesday morning when the word circulated through Facebook, cell phones and tackle shops that the Cape Cod Canal had caught on fire. The heavy winds pushed large schools of sea herring into the Big Ditch, which then put the hapless 4- to 6-inch silvery baitfish at the mercy of the current. “Mercy” may not be the proper word since said currents then flushed the baitfish into Buzzards Bay and put them on a collision course with a massive school of striped bass that had staged there on its migration north.
As tends to happen when massive numbers of stripers meet massive numbers of baitfish – the blitz was on. Boat anglers found fish in Buzzards Bay, and shore anglers found them in the Canal from Bell Road all the way to Pips Rip. Chris at Bad Fish Outfitters in Falmouth informed me via text message at breakfast time Thursday that he was into fast action Bell Road. Around lunchtime, I got another text from Chris that he was then catching fish around the Scusset Jetty. Sounds like a nice day – I might have to see if there are any job openings at the new Bad Fish Outfitters location in downtown Falmouth.
Stripers ranged from 24 to 40-plus inches, though most fell in the 32- to 36-inch range. As opposed to the fish found off the Southside lately, the fish caught in the Canal were skinny for their length, suggesting a newly arriving school – the first big push of fish we’ve had. Reports of 30-plus pounders being weighed in came in from Red Top in Buzzards Bay and M & D’s in Wareham. Pencil poppers caught plenty of fish, but bigger numbers have been coming on subsurface offerings, namely soft-plastic swim shads.
While vast crowds of anglers focus their efforts on the Canal, stripers are slipping quietly into other parts of the Cape. Christian at Falmouth Bait and Tackle said nice-sized bass have been mixing in with the blitzing bluefish at South Cape Beach. The bluefish have been good sizes themselves, with many over the 30-inch mark.
Brewster Flats is also holding big schools of stripers right now. Dan at the Hook Up in Orleans reported nonstop fishing there this week by casting slender, sand-eel imitating soft plastics. His success came on the Al Gags Whip It Eel, though Hogys and RonZs would be successful there as well.
Stripers aren’t the only “bass” pigging out on herring right now. A 7.5-pound largemouth was checked in at Falmouth Bait and Tackle this week. The fish was spotted harassing herring at the mouth of a run entering the pond and eagerly hit a shad swimbait cast in its path. This is probably happening at just about any pond on Cape with a herring run.
Though the seasons are still closed, black sea bass and porgies are loaded into Buzzards Bay right now, and when the season does open for these species next week, great fishing will be had.
Best Bets for the Weekend
Spring stripers are two things: hungry and on the move. By the weekend, it’s likely the school that spurred this week’s Canal blitzes will have moved into Cape Cod Bay and will be hanging off the East End. The reports from Chris at Bad Fish late Thursday seem to indicate this movement. If the mackerel that have been hanging around Barnstable Harbor move just a bit west, you can expect the East End and just outside it to light up with big bass for surfcasters and boaters alike.
Bring pencil poppers and other long-casting topwaters, but don’t forget swim shads, RonZs and other subsurface baits to get beneath the blitz. Action should be spread through the entire Canal as the fish move through, but the area east of the Herring Run seems to have prolonged action, on both sides.
Boat anglers would be wise to intercept these fish as they make their way into Cape Cod Bay before they spread out in the big body of water.
Though overshadowed by the striper bite, bluefishing is also top notch right now, with bigger than average fish. South Cape Beach, Popponesset, and a number of other south-facing beaches are getting big bluefish blitzes with an increasing number of good stripers mixing in.
And anyone without saltwater on the brain might want to hit a herring run in a freshwater pond to look for giant largemouth bass lurking in the wings looking to pick off lunch.