Skim ice on the smaller ponds is cramping the fishing around Cape Cod right now, but don’t break out the tip ups just yet. Rain and temperatures in the high 40s this weekend will wipe that ice away, and should breathe some life into the bass and pickerel fishing.
Larger, deeper kettle ponds have remained open, and the trout are biting well. With the cold water temperatures, use slower presentations like Maribou or soft-plastic jigs. Rainbow trout will be feeding throughout the water column, but browns will be hugging the bottom. Bait will also catch, especially nightcrawlers.
Fishing Report For Cape Cod
There’s still good trout fishing happening in Long Pond in Plymouth. The juvenile herring are providing a feast for the trout, and fishermen are catching numbers and size.
Similar action could be happening at Mashpee-Wakeby.
While Peters and Cliff ponds lack a herring run, both have strong holdover trout populations, and should be providing consistent fishing right now. According to James at Sports Port, the trout are biting best around dusk, but the fishing has also been good at first light.
When the small ponds open up this weekend, turn to lipless crankbaits, shallow-diving crankbaits, and suspending jerkbaits to tempt the largemouths.
Smallmouth are schooled up over open-water structure like offshore humps and submerged points, and can be caught on dropshot rigs and bladebaits.
There have been mixed reports from the cod grounds south and east of Cape Cod. Around Block Island, some reports indicate that the cod fishing is improving, but is still on the slow side. East of Chatham, things have been slow.
Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod
Get out for trout at one of the herring run ponds and toss stickbaits and silver spoons, and small jigs. The afternoons are likely to have more action, after the sun has warmed up the water a couple degrees.