Last Saturday, the small ponds around the upper had a skim of ice on them, not thick enough to walk on, but a start. By Sunday afternoon, that ice was gone, melted away by the rain and warm temperatures. The cold returned this week, but with temperatures in the mid-40s forecasted for later this week, ice fishing on Cape Cod is looking unlikely again this weekenad.
But that doesn’t mean your fishing opportunities are caput this weekend. Eddy Stahowiak and I faced some frigid early-morning temperatures before work this week, hitting a small, shallow pond one day and a large, deep pond the next. On both days, we found fish.
At the small pond, we used live shiners to catch a mix of pickerel, largemouths, and yellow perch. At the larger pond, an Al’s Goldfish spoon drew strikes from a feisty rainbow and a big brown trout.
Reports of smallmouth bass are still coming from the larger Cape ponds. Fishing deepwater structure with bladebaits has been the recipe for success.
Saltwater fishing is pretty much a wrap on Cape Cod. There haven’t been any reports of anglers successfully hunting down holdover stripers. That doesn’t mean there aren’t any around, however. Holdover bass head for the upper reaches of estuaries and bays, usually schooling in channels or holes. Small jigs are usually the best bet for fooling these fish. While conventional wisdom might suggest targeting these fish during the warmest part of the day when the sun is high overhead, winter stripers still prefer to feed in low-light conditions or at night.
Best Bets for the Weekend
Wading a trout pond with spoons and stickbaits is a good bet for a bent rod this weekend. Big browns are still cruising close to shore, and on calm days, schools of rainbows can be spotted rising to hatching bugs.
Shiners under a float will generate interest from pickerel, bass and perch in small ponds. The shallower the pond, the better, as the bass have less places to hide.
The 10-day is showing some ice-making potential, so don’t pack away your tip-ups just yet. There may yet be a Cape Cod ice-fishing season this winter.