The striper fishing on Cape Cod isn’t done yet. Anglers who refuse to hang up the saltwater gear still have a chance to get lucky, like Red Top’s Jacob, who caught a 47-pound striper out of the Canal on Wednesday. A few other quality stripers were reported this week, along with decent action on smaller fish.
Most fishermen have been hitting the Canal in the mornings, but fishing after dark has been producing some fish as well. Pencil poppers, small swimming plugs and swim shads are catching in the daytime. Jigs bounced along the bottom are catching at night.
Schoolie stripers continue to be caught in the South Side bays and rivers reported Lee from Riverview Bait and Tackle. The most interesting news was the huge number of sand eels off Monomoy late last week. The sand eels have attracted a huge number of birds, and even whales, in close to the point off Monomoy, Lee said. Stripers and blues entered the fray as well.
Fishermen continue to pick up tog in Buzzards Bay. With the water temperatures still warm for this time of year, the shallow structures are still producing. When they drop, the tog will move to deeper structures before moving offshore for the winter. Before planning on going togging, be sure to call around to area tackle shops to secure enough green crabs for your trip. Otherwise, you’ll have them yourself, which isn’t particularly difficult. An hour of flipping rocks at low tide along the canal should be enough to secure a couple hours worth of blackfish bait.
Freshwater fishing is incredible right now. The mild weather has bugs hatching in huge numbers which has brought the trout to the surface in ponds like Peters, Johns, Ashumet, Cliff, Sheeps, and any number of the deep, trout-stocked lakes. While fly-fisherman are having a ball, spin-fishermen are doing well with small jigs, especially small black Maribou jigs, spinners, and stickbaits. Spoons have not been working quite as well lately. Bait is also catching trout. Nightcrawlers are producing rainbows, while live shiners offer a shot at a big brown.
Largemouth bass are biting well. The waters are still relatively warm, so largemouths will aggressively attack shallow-diving crankbaits, jigs, spinnerbaits, and even topwaters. Smallmouth are still holding shallow, and hitting jerkbaits.
Pickerel fishing is great as well. Live shiners, spinnerbaits and jigs are getting bites from pickerel.
In ponds with a herring run, the herring fry are schooled up and preparing to drop out. This can create blitz type fishing for smallmouths, largemouths and panfish as they ball up the baits and attack them on the surface.
The bluefin tuna bite raged on this week. Giant tuna were taken on live bait and jigs. Last year the tuna stuck around until Veterans Day, so there’s still hope if you’re looking for a big bluefin.
Best Bets for the Weekend
In all likelihood, the big fish that charged through the Cape Cod Canal this week as well south of us by now, but spending one last sunrise throwing big plugs along the banks of the Cape Cod Canal doesn’t sound like a bad proposition regardless of whether the fish show or not.
For the best catching, hit the freshwater this week. The early morning trout action is excellent, but the evenings and after dark may provide a shot at a big brown trout. It’s also a great time of year to target big largemouths. With the weeds dying back, big bass have nowhere to hide. Plus, they are feeding heavily in anticipation of the cold months ahead.
Why information for fly fishing is so limited-lakes,flies used,lines…..
Thanks
Because most (not all) of them believe they are superior to knuckle dragging bait fishermen.
I was set up once on the incoming tide on the Mousom River in Maine, when 3-4 fly fisher men showed up in their Orvis gear and asked me to move so they could back-cast.
Another time I was fishing on the Rt. 9 bridge over the Mousom, and a regular guy/bait fisherman told me that (at that time) the main reason why the (old) Maine slot for stripers – 20-26″ or one over 40″ was due to the fact that most of the guys on the regulation board in Maine were fly-fishermen-they had that slot limit for years when every other state in New England was 2 over 28″.
In my opinion and experience, most of them are elitist snobs.
But Bumknee, fact is most of the anglers who keep more than their limit, wipe out streams and rivers, leave nightcrawler containers and line on the bank of the stream ARE bait fishermen. In the experiences you listed, the fly fishermen were clearly in the wrong, but on a river, as a fly fisherman (who also spin fishes and uses bait), I look down on the bait fishermen IF they start snagging, keep more than their limit, etc., because truth is, I’ve never seen a fly fisherman do that. If they respect the rules, absolutely no problem, but the reason a lot of fly guys look down on bait fishermen is because of the empty packs of nightcrawlers left behind and the salmon moving into the rivers with treble hooks stuck in their sides.
HB,
I am agreement with you and others who were posting here the last couple of months about dirt bags who leave trash, over fish, take under size fish, etc. They make things bad for everyone, and there is not enough law enforcement to keep them from doing it.
Your capital letters to emphasize your points just reinforces my opinion of many fly guys being elitist snobs.
Not all fly guys are snobs (although I have not met any yet who were not), and not all bait guys throw trash or fish outside the rules.