UPDATE: The following ponds have been stocked as of March 18, 2016
| Barnstable | Hamblin Pond, Hathaway Pond, Lovells Pond, Shubael Pond |
| Brewster | Cliff Pond, Higgins Pond, Little Cliff Pond |
| Bridgewater | Skeeter Mill Pond, Sturtevants Pond |
| Chatham | Goose Pond |
| Dennis | Scargo Lake |
| Falmouth | Ashumet Pond |
| Kingston | Soules Pond (Furnace Brook) |
| Marshfield | Parsons Pond (South River) |
| Mashpee | Johns Pond |
| Norwell | Norris Reservation Pond (Second Herring Brook) |
| Oak Bluffs | Upper Lagoon Pond |
| Orleans | Baker Pond, Crystal Lake |
| Plymouth | Fearings Pond, Lout Pond, Little Pond, Long Pond, Russell-Sawmill Ponds |
| Sandwich | Peters Pond, Pimlico Pond, Spectacle Pond |
| Scituate | Tack Factory Pond |
| Seekonk | Burrs Pond, Old Grist Mill Pond |
| Swansea | Lewin Brook Pond (Swansea Dam) |
| Truro | Great Pond |
| Wellfleet | Gull Pond |
| West Tisbury | Duartes Pond, Old Mill Pond, Seths Pond |
Round 1 of the trout stocking completed last week bring quality rainbow trout to the Cape Cod ponds. Fishermen found willing trout all over the Cape, up through Plymouth. Productive lures included spoons, spinners, and small stickbaits. Anglers also had success with PowerBait and nightcrawlers.
According to Stan at Red Top, the stocking trucks were rolling again this week, He wasn’t sure what type of trout were being stocked—rainbows, browns, or brookies.
Fishermen have been all about the trout reported Lee at Riverview in Yarmouth.
The customers at Sports Port in Hyannis have also been raving about the trout fishing lately reported Bill.
Some spring trout favorites include the Thomas Buoyant Spoon, the Al’s Goldfish, the 1/8-ounce Kastmaster in gold, the Thomas Lures Rough Rider, and the Panther Martin Spinner. Spoons are generally the lure of choice at Cape Cod ponds because they cast far enough to reach trout that may be rising far off the shore.
Fresh stocked trout move in big schools, so once you find one, you can usually count on there being a few more nearby. When fishing lures, staying on the move to find these schools is often the best move. That said sitting patiently with bait can result in a flurry of action when a school moves through.
Largemouth bass fishing has been very good as well. Last weekend, a fishermen using a swimbait caught an 8-pound, 12-ounce largemouth from a Cape Cod pond with a herring run. Bill at Sports Port had heard reports of largemouths to 3.6 pounds. Top baits for the bass lately have been suspending jerkbaits, shallow-diving crankbaits, and shiners.
Shiners have also been the hot bait for pickerel and perch according to Stan at Red Top. The pickerel are biting well, and the perch are at their heaviest of the entire year as they prepare to spawn. Smaller shiners or small jigs will be your ticket to a pin-size yellow perch.
Herring are showing in some of the runs already, and Stan heard a rumor of blitzing fish off Chatham. Before you run for your striper gear, consider that many early rumors of breaking fish and blitzes turn out to be seagulls diving over sea ducks.
If you want to catch a striper, however, the warmer water has made the holdovers more active. The bass will be way up inside bays or tidal creeks feeding on grass shrimp and spearing. Late in the day or early in the morning will give you the best shot at hooking up.
Best Bets for the Weekend
Yes, there is some snow in the forecast this weekend, but rest assured, spring is here. The peepers are peeping, the redwing blackbirds are calling, and we even spotted our first osprey of the year on Thursday.
Take advantage of the recent stockings by hitting a trout pond this weekend. Throw gold spoons or spinners and keep moving until you find a school. Consider taking one or two home for the table as well because Andy Nabreski penned some delicious recipes for trout in the April Issue of On The Water magazine, which will be hitting newsstands within the next two weeks.
Catching freshly delivered trout from the hatchery should be released. The fish taste like the pellets they have been fed till release. Give them a chance to eat natural prey and the pellet taste will diminish the more time they have feeding on natural prey. Catch only what you can eat. Enjoy a bigger and better flavored fish when we approach fall. Please don’t bring 5 children fishing and keep all the fish each are allowed. This foolishness deplete the new trout so quickly under a loophole in the regulations. Watching one father fill the creel of each youth creates an unpredictable fishing future.
The hatchery fish are the safest to eat.
If you are consuming holdovers , enjoy your shortened life.
Trout stocking is a joke. Why don’t they improve the quality of the water in the ponds but not like they did in Centerville… They closed Long Pond for 10 years to outside boats/cartops to kill a small area of hydrilla. They opened it for afew months and it’s closed again. The Fish and Wildlife people are the states biggest joke. All the other states work with the fishermen.
They closed it to control a very invasive plant that has huge ramifications to other fisheries. Its one of the most invasive aquatic plants known. We have to remember that there may be larger management issues at stake than whether or not we get to boat around and catch pellet-raised trout. It was likely fishermen that drug hydrilla into the system – thats the primary way aquatic invasives spread – with boats. Its we fishermen who have to work with managers to ensure we arrive with clean boats and clean boots. If we do our part it won’t be an issue and we won’t be seeing our waters closed in quarantine.
This put-and-take MA trout program should be reconsidered altogether. I admit that any rainbow is fun to catch and tasty to eat but let’s face it, trout don’t really belong in many of the stocking location. They’re not native, they wouldn’t hold over in most waters even with little fishing pressure, and they receive a lot of
This put-and-take MA trout program should be reconsidered altogether. I admit that any rainbow is fun to catch and tasty to eat but let’s face it, rainbow trout don’t really belong in any of the state’s stocking locations. They’re not native, they wouldn’t reliably hold over in most of our waters even with little fishing pressure, and they receive a lot of funding. It’s an unnatural and special-interest enough program that the state should just have fee trout farms and leave the natural waters as natural as possible. Let’s use that funding to restore waterways and the depleted native populations of shad, sturgeon, brookies, and eels. Its not like MA doesn’t already have plenty of fresh and saltwater opportunities to support the anglers and the tackle shops, etc.
I have been fishing for 60 years and I think the fish and gme department have done a great job what I don’t like is all of these tournaments they have to many boats on the water at once in the mass ponds catching to many fish like the striper cod and many other fish depleting we have got to slow down a.bit
I agree with Ed. I fish frequently in both Mass. and NH. Believe it or not Mass. does a better job with their fisheries programs than NH IMHO.I have fished fresh and salt in Mass. for about 60 years and NH for 40 years or more. Tournament fishing I believe stresses not only warm water fisheries but cold water fisheries as well in two story lakes and ponds. Just too much pressure on the fish. I’m sure it has a negative impact on the stripers as well.
We all know saltwater species are loaded with mercury. I believe in lawn treatment running off into the well established waters surrounded by homes. What about eating a holdover trout which is better? The trout which forages for insects and have no homes to create pesticide build up in the trouts natural forage, does the rain pollute the water that much? I would never hurt a fish nor eat it. I know the longer a trout stays in it’s new habitat it takes on brilliant colors and some size and weight. A trout looks better being released than hung on a stringer with blood streaming from their gills down their fresh silver hatchery bodies. If I had to take one it would be a holdover. Being a avid reader I never heard the incredible taste of a freashly caught trout right off the truck. Nothing like fooling those tasty morsels and the fight must make it worth it.