Rumors of Southside Bluefish

The rumor mill was churning out reports of bluefish caught on the Falmouth beaches this week. While the end of March is awfully early for bluefish to be around Cape Cod, it’s right on time for April Fools. Freshwater fishing took a hit when the temperatures dropped from their record highs last week. Some very nice largemouth bass have been caught, along with trout, and the stocking trucks added more variety to the ponds when they made their rounds this week.

Christian at Falmouth Bait and Tackle reported a 7-pound salmon taken from Peter’s Pond this week. Peter’s has been conspicuously absent from the reports in recent weeks, given that it’s one of the more heavily fished ponds on the Cape. Christian said the action in this large, deep pond has improved, and it also gave up a big brown trout and a largemouth bass of a lifetime to one angler. While the angler’s estimates were in the double digits, the fish was released unweighed and unphotographed. Nonetheless, I have no doubts the fish was exceptional.

Christian said sabiki rigs have been selling well at the shop as anglers take them to the Canal to catch mackerel with them. The macks have been showing up in the East End. The East End was the site of more bluefish rumors, as were the Falmouth and south side beaches. Cotuit also supposedly has bluefish. The blues must be camera shy though, because I’ve yet to see photos of one of the March choppers.

But, I’d feel less foolish for going on a wild goose chase after phantom blues than I would for entirely dismissing the reports and missing out on a rare opportunity to catch a March bluefish on Cape Cod. So I count myself among the “April Fools” who strung a surf rod and tied on a bluefish popper Wednesday afternoon. No signs of life where I was, but plenty of wind and weeds and cold. I made a dozen casts, broke down the rod, and went to catch some largemouth bass.

Roy at Riverview said the bass have gotten a bit tougher in this cold snap. The fish, which had been hanging in shallow water, may have dropped back to some deeper water. Coldwater presentations like jerkbaits may work, but when all else fails, live bait almost always catches fish.

Using some larger live baits could turn up some much larger fish. OTW Sales Rep Anthony DeiCicchi caught a fine largemouth bass over the weekend on a big shiner, and a friend of his used a yellow perch to best a 7-pound-plus largemouth. With herring running into ponds from saltwater in big numbers right now, the largemouths are keying in on big baitfish.

Dan at the Hook Up said his after work outings have been producing some good largemouth and smallmouth fishing. Shiners are working for both species. Some of Dan’s customers have been trying for winter flounder in Cape Cod Bay, but there’s been no word on whether or not they’ve been successful.

Panfish are biting well for anglers interested in scaling down their tackle. Mike at M and D’s in Wareham said the perch have spawned out and are biting well. Mike also had good things to say about the trout fishing. The trout have been running large this year, Mike said, with most of the fish he’s seeing in the 1 ¾-pound range.

Brown trout went into a number of ponds this week, and based on Chris Megan’s outing Tuesday night, so did a few brookies. The browns and brookies were on the small side compared to most of the fish stocked so far this spring, but they were aggressive and readily attacked spoons and small stickbaits.

Best Bets for the Weekend

A little over a week after having temperatures in the 70’s, there is a chance of wet snow in the forecast for Friday night. That’s what I like to call weather whiplash. The trout are biting well, and are likely the best option until temperatures start to climb again and get the largemouths and smallmouths stirring. There’s also the as-of-yet unconfirmed bluefish reports. Perhaps one of the forecast readers can be the first to snap a picture of one of these blues. In fact, if you can get a picture of a cape bluefish with a copy of the April Issue of On The Water in the photo with you and the bluefish before next Thursday, I’ll send you an OTW Hat.