Cape Cod Fishing Report - March 12, 2020

With social media and news outlets barraging us with information on COVID-19, I won’t dwell on it here, other than to say that the Mass Bass Fishing Expo was cancelled this weekend after more than 50% of the vendors dropped out due to coronavirus concerns. Several other fishing shows have cancelled as well.

But, let’s escape the news for a bit and talk fishing. The spring freshwater fishing is right on schedule here on the Cape, if not a little early. Largemouth bass are biting well, and the hot lures, as far as I can tell, are lipless crankbaits. These are a great early-season, windy-day option (and we’ve had plenty of those lately). Suspending jerkbaits are working too. As the water warms and the bass move shallower, shallow-diving and squarebill crankbaits will begin to work as well. I’ve heard of several nice bass in the 4- to 5-pound range taken the past few days, though I have yet to hook one that big myself…yet.

Pickerel fishing is going strong as well. They are feeding well, and hitting a variety of lures and live shiners. Pickerel were the target for our first Lunch Time Tournament. That’s going to be a new web series from On The Water, where we compete against each other in a variety of tournament formats during our lunch hour.

Lunch Time Tournaments I – King of the Chain Pickerel

Live shiners are working on the bass as well. Set them a few feet below a float and hit your favorite shallow pond. The afternoon hours are best. Not only are the ponds a couple degrees warmer after a day of direct sunlight, but the bass increase their activity as the sunlight starts to fade.

Trout stocking is continuing. As of Thursday morning, a couple ponds on the Cape have been stocked a second time. It’s still all rainbows, but the brookies or browns should be going in soon.

Spoons, spinners, and small jigs work very well for the fresh-stocked trout. A wad of PowerBait or piece of nightcrawler work as well.

I’ve seen a few pictures of holdover stripers  taken on Cape over the past week. They too will be increasing their activity as the waters warm up. But I wasn’t expecting to see amonster holdover, like the one taken by Mike Dixon on a largemouth bass setup. There’s some fresh motivation for poking around the bays and rivers a little early this spring.

Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod

Trout are the top pick, if you’re looking for fast action, but bass and pickerel aren’t far behind. Especially if you fish with bait. But, the holdover stripers are starting to feed, so if you find some deep holes far inside the rivers and bays, it could be worth a look.

And, because the NBA Season has been suspended, OTW TV has a new time slot on NBC Sports Boston. In addition to our 10am Sunday airing, we’ll also be airing at 7:30pm Sunday night. On this weekend’s episode, I got humbled by giant bluefin tuna while fishing with Captain John Clothier of Fish Chatham Charters.