Cape Cod Fishing Report - April 28, 2016

Schoolies continue to swarm Cape Cod waters, while some other saltwater species made their presence known this week.

The backwaters are full of 14- to 18-inch stripers reported Bull at Red Top. Some have even found their way into the Canal, including a keeper Bull caught this week. Bull said these fish are likely residents, but said when migrating fish arrive, they’ll find huge numbers of adult bunker, sand eels, and spearing.

The crew at Maco’s believes the striper fishing will break open in the next week. The water temperatures are prime in the low 50s, there’s plenty of bait, and small stripers are already here and active.

Schoolie stripers are spreading out along the South Side reported Bill at Sports Port.

The schoolies on the Vineyard are getting a little bigger reported Melissa at Larry’s Tackle. Though she hadn’t heard of any keepers yet, she had heard of bass up to 26 inches. Edgartown Harbor has been a likely place to find action with the bass.

Just in this week, squid in Nantucket Sound. Bill at Sports Port said the boats have been on them, but he hasn’t heard anything from the docks yet. Bill did mention that several fishermen had been in to buy squid jigs, and were planning on hitting the docks Thursday night.

Bull at Red Top had also heard of squid just moving into the sounds.

Melissa at Larry’s Tackle on Martha’s Vineyard reported that squid were moving in, with some making their way into Edgartown Harbor.

Tog fishing is getting good according to the crew at Macos. Keeper blackfish are “everywhere” from Buzzards Bay to the Cape Cod Canal according to the report. The largest taken this week was a 10-plus-pounder weighed it an M and D’s in Wareham.

Freshwater fishing continues to thrill. Largemouth bass fishing is great and getting better. I was out on a warm but windy evening last Friday and caught nearly three dozen green bass on small jigs. The bass were stacked up in a shallow, weedy cove. While I hoped I’d pull a big one out of the mix, none of the fish I caught topped 2 pounds.

Bull at Red Top noted the good largemouth fishing, but Jeff at Foresdale said the bass fishing in his neck of the Cape has been slow to start. He expects some more warm weather to really fire up the bigmouths. The smallmouths, however, have been biting well, Jeff said. Many anglers are catching them mixed in with trout in the deeper kettle ponds.

Speaking of trout, Jeff reported some very large fish being caught this week. Mashpee-Wakeby Pond seemed to be the hotspot, with fishermen catching trout from 3 to 5 pounds there this week. Jeff heard reports that Peters and Johns Ponds were slow this week.

Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod

With stripers, squid, and tog biting in saltwater, and largemouth, smallmouth, and trout in freshwater, it’s tough to narrow down just which species to target this weekend. If it helps narrow things down, keep in mind that the striper fishing is going to get much better in a few weeks, but the tog and trout fishing are as good as they will be all season. Largemouth and smallmouth action is excellent as well, and right now is the perfect time to beat your personal best for these species.