While the rest of Massachusetts, and the Northeast, experienced glorious 60- and 70-degree temperatures this week, here on the Cape, cold, blowing fog and rain kept things a little chillier—but the freshwater fishing fired up regardless!
Trout, bass, pickerel, and panfish are chewing like crazy around the Cape right now, taking advantage of this late-winter warm up.
The most impressive catches this week were several monster pickerel taken in shallow bog ponds. The bigger the bait, the better, if a state-pin-size pickerel (4 pounds, 8 ounces or 25 inches) is on your agenda. The smaller, shallower ponds will be your best bet, because these will be warming faster than the deeper kettle ponds.
But the Kettle Ponds are fishing well too. Big rainbow trout, leftover from the fall and spring stockings in 2017, are crusing the shallows of the ponds. Spoons are working well, in fact, OTW’s Eddy Stahowiak took a 17-incher before work this morning on a Thomas Buoyant. My favorite tactic this time of year is a Yo-Zuri Pins Minnow or Rapala X-Rap retrieved at an excruciatingly slow pace. Small jigs, worked slowly also catch big this time of year. White, yellow, and black are my most productive jig colors.
Fly-fisherman are also catching on streamers and sub-surface presentations. OTW’s Pat O’Donnell got out in the rain this morning and fooled a rainbow trout and a perch on an olive Woolly Bugger at Peter’s Pond.
Cliff, Sheep, and Long Pond (Plymouth) are also producing trout right now. If the trout fishing is already this good, I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like when the stocking trucks start rolling next month.
While Pat and Eddy were targeting trout this morning, I dropped the kayak on a local bog pond. It was windy and spitting rain, prime conditions for ripping a Rat-L-Trap across the top of the weeds. In my hour-long, before-work session, I had an even split of bass and pickerel. None were too big, but it felt great to get the first bass trip of the season under my belt.
Jerkbaits are working as well, and when all else fails, the live shiner never disappoints. Jonah Olsen of OTW caught a half-dozen bass and pickerel on his lunch break dunking shiners in a small, shallow pond.
Crappie should also be stirring as they school up in the deeper water near the shallow coves where they spawn. There aren’t many crappie waters around Cape Cod, but the Agawam River system has them, as does Coonamessit.
Small shiners or fathead minnow will work on the crappies, but most often a 1/32- or 1/16-ounce jig slowly lifted and dropped or fished under a float is all you need.
Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod
The weekend weather forecast looks promising for continued great freshwater action. For a sure thing, get some shiners and hit a small pond. For a little more of a challenge, take some lures to a trout pond and see if you can pull a big brown out from all the rainbows. Either way, fishing season is here, so get out there!
Any word on bronze backs at peters or Hamlins pond