Stripers, Smallmouth, Weakfish and Tog

Every season has a few surprise catches, and so far this season, the biggest surprise has been the weakfish caught by OTW Contributor Larry Backman while he was looking for his first striper of the year. Larry and a fishing buddy caught no bass, but did manage multiple weakfish on small pink RonZ jigs.

Striper fishing is steadily improving as well. Andy Nabreski can claim first keeper in the OTW office for a fish he took Tuesday, casting plugs from a Falmouth beach. Keepers aren’t quite abundant yet, but schoolies are. The Herring Run in the Cape Cod Canal has had stripers with a few from 28 to 30 inches reported Barry from Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay. In fact anglers stand a good chance of finding keepers from the Herring Run east, right on through to Barnstable Harbor. Dan at The Hook Up reported schoolie action in Barnstable Harbor and winter flounder action throughout Cape Cod Bay.

Anglers can also find school stripers in the Wareham rivers, and there have been some keeper bass to 36 inches have been mixed in there as well.

Squid boats are working, but Keith at Riverview said the anglers fishing from the docks after dark haven’t yet connected.  It should only be a matter of days before the squid are catchable from lighted docks close to shore.

Tog fishing is heating up. Red Top weighed in an 8-pound blackfish this week from Buzzards Bay. Green crabs and sea worms will do the trick. Tog should be moving into shallow structure by now, so look for wrecks or rocky bottoms from 15 to 30 feet.  Cleveland Ledge would be a best bet, especially now when it hasn’t been too picked over yet.

As exciting as the saltwater fishing is, you can’t forget about the freshwater either. Big largemouth bass are haunting herring runs, and making easy targets for fishermen with live shiners. Smallmouth bass are moving shallow. The bronzebacks are snapping at tube jigs and jerkbaits. Trout fishing is still good, but for the best action, use bait. That said, a friend of mine took two big tiger trout over the weekend using a gold 1/8-ounce Kastmaster.

Though not strictly saltwater, the brackish salt ponds have good white perch fishing right now. Small jigs or grass shrimp will get the bites.  If you’re wondering why white perch are worth targeting, I encourage you to try a brackish-water white perch on the dinner plate.  According to some fishermen, they are some of the best eating fish our local waters have to offer.

 

Best Bets for the Weekend

Your biggest challenge this weekend is going to be deciding what to fish for. Striper fishing is getting better each day, and at this point, it’s a pretty safe bet, if you go, you’ll at least have a couple hits. Tog fishing should be great, and with tog more than any other fish, the early bird gets the worm. That is, the first anglers to fish over productive structure are usually the ones to connect with the trophy-sized tog.

Largemouth fishing is good, but that isn’t news. The good smallmouth action is worth a look, though. This is your best shot of the season to catch a 4-pound or better smallie on Cape Cod.

The ponds are warming up quickly now, so trout fishing will be fading soon as the fish move deep.  This weekend could be one of your last good shots at trout.  Shiners, nightcrawlers or PowerBait are your best bet, but spoons should work too.  Barry at Red Top recommended fishing stickbaits after dark for big brown trout.

Looking for weakfish would be a bit of a wild goose chase, but, there were some caught on Cape on Monday, and could very well be more. Check out the From the Surf column in the May Issue of On The Water magazine for some advice on chasing down your own New England Weakfish.