Safe ice off Cape continued to produce fish for anglers this past week. Lots of yellow perch, some black crappie and largemouth bass were reported. On the Cape, continues a different story. Last week, OTW’s Jimmy Fee was able to get a few bass through the ice one morning around Falmouth- but the ice hasn’t held, and it has been difficult to find fishable water since.
To escape the fishing purgatory of Cape Cod, I took a trip to Florida for a couple days and got some much needed sun in the process. Jimmy headed north for a few days of fishing, only in much colder conditions than I experienced down south. Based on the coming week’s forecast, I may have brought a dash of warmth and sunshine back to the Cape with me. That means ice fishing will likely be slowing down, but it hasn’t stopped just yet.
From the Shops
Evan at Eastman’s Sport & Tackle in Falmouth is selling shiners and has lots of anglers venturing off Cape in search of fishable ice, but no action down here as of the past week or two. Eastman’s will keep stocking shiners and before long, the trout stocking trucks will be making rounds at the local ponds.
Cole at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzard’s Bayshared that customers are pretty strictly ice fishing. Most anglers are targeting yellow perch, and there have been flurries of largemouth bass mixed in as bycatch. Small jigging rapalas and shiners for bait are the keys to success.
At Sports Port in Hyannis, Frank reports trout and yellow perch biting on some of the few, small half-frozen ponds out their way. The only action they have seen from customers are anglers catching trout and yellow perch on shiners and power bait nuggets. The trout bite will pick up as the stocking trucks head out in a couple weeks.
From the Shore
On the ice this week, the chew continued. Angler Hunter Thayer has been out fishing almost daily, and reported: “We’ve been finding good ice in the Plymouth area with about 6 to 9 inches. We will be heading back out tomorrow (2/10) hopefully to get back on the bite.” Hunter and his girlfriend, Joyce, have been catching tons of healthy, full-bellied yellow perch, and there have been some other notable catches in the mix. Joyce Simon landed a healthy bass for a change of pace during their yellow perch outing, a welcome surprise.
There were also some white perch in the mix, reported by angler Jack Houghton. He got into a decent white perch bite earlier this week; their head shakes are bound to be a good time with ice fishing gear. Tidal waters will soon open up from the skim ice, and lend themselves to solid white perch fishing.
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
It would appear that the wintery conditions may be taking a turn. With warmer weather looming, the slushy, unsafe skim ice that continues to freeze each night may dissipate. Use extreme caution when fishing through the ice over the next week. If there is safe ice, the best time to fish will be in the early morning as the sun is rising; the days are getting longer, and that means more sunlight and warmer temperatures could melt the ice rapidly. It’s a good idea to avoid fishing hard water in the late afternoons or evenings going forward.
Open water is on the horizon, and I know I’m not the only one looking forward to the trout stocking trucks making their rounds within the next month or so. I’m also eager to hit some bass ponds to try out some new swimbaits that I accumulated during the off-season. Over the next week, I’m hopeful the only struggle will be in deciding whether to fish for largemouth bass, chain pickerel or trout. Spring is on it’s way, and with it comes some great freshwater fishing opportunities before we shift gears to saltwater with the annual arrival of striped bass.