This time of year, I tend to get overwhelmed. Too many fishing opportunities begin to present themselves all at once, and it’s never an easy choice deciding what the next day’s target will be.
Personally, I was put onto freshwater fishing by largemouth bass. Their takes are often exciting and powerful; once hooked, they’ll jump and head shake or dive and pull drag in an attempt to break off around structure. But as I enjoy largemouth bass, other freshwater anglers favor trout.
Trout stocking has begun in Massachusetts, beginning with the Cape and the southeast corner of the state. This is one of the most popular times of year to find fishermen and women lining the shores of kettle ponds for freshly stocked trout. Trout fight entirely differently than largemouth bass, in my opinion, and that makes for a difficult freshwater fishing decision. Rainbow trout and brown trout in particular are acrobatic and rambunctious upon being hooked. Playing a fighting bass is far different than fighting a trout , and some days, I’m more interested in experiencing the leaps and rambunctious squirms of a rainbow trout than I am the force and strength of a largemouth bass.
For those interested in fishing for largemouth bass, jerkbaits, lipless crankbaits and big swimbaits or glide baits will be productive lures. I like to use something that imitates river herring in the ponds that receive a herring run. In deeper kettle ponds that receive a trout stocking, I’ll be throwing rainbow trout swimbaits.
On days when trout fishing is the move, inline spinners, golden spoons, trout magnet and Berkley PowerBait are a few popular and productive artificial baits. PowerBait is versatile because it can be fished suspended under a float or weighted on the bottom, similar to bait like shiners or nightcrawlers.
OTW’s Jack Burke wasted no time hitting a local spot in the brief snow shower during lunch on Wednesday. He hooked a beautiful, freshly stocked rainbow trout with a golden-bladed inline spinner. Trout stocking will continue over the course of the month; to find more information about trout stocking in your local waters, check the Massachusetts trout stocking report.
Largemouth bass are good fun, but for many kayak anglers, springtime means smallmouth. Local kayak angler Jack Houghton got into a nice small bite this past week, even though his fish finder battery was dead. Finding fish will come by targeting slopes and drop-offs, ledges, and underwater humps. All it takes to pinpoint the right structure is coordinating fishable spots using a cell phone GPS and a contour map of the lake.
Chain pickerel are active post-spawn, which usually happens right after the ponds thaw out. They’ll gladly chew any of the lures that bass anglers use in the springtime, so bring a lip grip and some pliers to properly handle and release these toothy “slime darts”.
From the Shops
Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth reported that he’s been selling plenty of bait this week. Anglers are using shiners for trout rather than nightcrawlers, and trout bait will continue to sell this weekend as the stocking continues. A lot of his customers have been fishing at Grews and Ashumet Ponds. Evan also has a customer coming in for paddletails every week or so for the past month; he’s been catching winter holdover striped bass regularly in local salt ponds. Evan relayed that there’s apparently plenty of bait in the salt ponds, which is a good sign for early season saltwater fishing.
Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay is closed this week for minor interior renovations, but they are trying to open for the weekend. They will have shiners ready when they do reopen, but give a call before dropping by to make sure they’re doing business and have what you’re looking for.
Amy at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis reported a customer fishing around Marstons Mills. Her customer, Tim, caught a 19-inch brook trout on PowerBait. He also caught lots of freshly stocked rainbows on Mepps spinners. Right now, Sports Port is selling tons of shiners, even during shoddy weather. One customer was out catching plenty of rainbow trout and a healthy holdover brown trout yesterday in the rain and snow. Fishing is good and getting better!
Jeff at Canal Bait and Tackle in Sagamore reported that customers have been chasing the trout stocking trucks. If you need trout gear, they are currently running a 10% off everything sale. This is a great opportunity to to grab some freshwater tackle, or bring in your reel to be spooled for the upcoming saltwater season. Jeff says holdover stripers are also active, and because we didn’t have a deep freeze this winter there should be some steady action in salt ponds, rivers and tidal creeks.
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
Freshwater fishing will only improve across the board as we near the first day of Spring in the coming weeks. As the water and weather warm, I’ll even be scouting out some new saltwater spots and trying my hand at some winter holdover stripers in the process.
It can be difficult to find fish right now as conditions continue to fluctuate. This week, I was skunked several times while fishing for largemouth with OTW’s Anthony DeiCicchi, but it’s still early. Fresh stocked trout will be keeping us busy when the bass don’t cooperate. We are a few weeks out from some stellar freshwater fishing; until then, the best fishing will occur after stretches of warm weather or with drastic barometric pressure changes. Things are looking up for anglers around Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod!
How come the stae stocks Soules pond on rt80 in Kingston. There is no public access to the pond so the only people who can fish there are those with homes on the pond.