By now, without fishable ice on the Cape, it’s a fair assumption it’ll be an open-water winter on Cape Cod. Some small ponds and coves have skin ice, but anglers are having no trouble finding open water where they can catch.
Stocked kettle ponds like Grews in Falmouth, Peters in Sandwich, Mashpee-Wakeby, and Cliff Pond in Brewster are producing mostly rainbow trout (stocked in the fall). Some of the ponds are also turning out bonus browns and tiger trout. Both live shiners and lures, like stickbaits, tube jigs, and Wooly Bugger flies are working.
White perch are schooled up and feeding in brackish waters around the Cape, and there are probably some holdover stripers hunkered down in the tidal rivers – but we still haven’t seen any photo evidence this winter. Tom at Red Top said he’s been getting some inquiries from fishermen hoping to try for smelt on the Weweantic River. Cape Cod once had a robust smelt fishery, with fishermen catching them by the bucketful even in Falmouth Harbor. Today, smelt are fairly rare south of Boston, and few fishermen bother looking, but the Weweantic does support a run for the fishermen willing to try.
And, don’t think you need to wait for spring to catch a big largemouth bass. Mike Wec caught this monster 8-pound, 2-ounce largemouth on a Ned Rig in a Cape Cod Kettle Pond. Largemouths can be caught all winter, but slow presentations (and live bait) can be needed to get the bite.
Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod
As the temperature fluctuates, the fishing will too. Warmer days will fire up the trout fishing, especially in the afternoons. Use flies and lures you can retrieve slowly and keep off the bottom, like tube and marabou jigs, stickbaits, and lighter spoons. Pickerel will continue to bite well, especially on warmer days, as will largemouth bass. Jerkbaits will be the There will be slow periods between windows of intense feeding, so on some days, you’ll just have to wait out the bite.
Incoming weather will put bass, pickerel, and trout on the feed, in the same way that an approaching storm fires up the striped bass bite.