Herring everywhere.
The surface in front of me was alive with snappy splashes that I could hear, but could not see. The moisture in the air was so thick, if I even attempted to get a glimpse of the culprits, I was looking down a dense beam of fog. In 2 hours, the wind had shifted so that it was blowing almost completely in the opposite direction, and the temperature had noticeably dropped. The full moon flood tide poured in, and with it came endless schools of bait. I could make out areas where the mostly glassy surface was restless and “funny water” was developing. Then the fish would go down and pop up somewhere else. The only two things this could be were bunker and herring, and when one school finally swam too close to my ankles, I confirmed that it was herring bumping my line all night.
Occasional, but cautious eruptions from beneath the herring schools sent them fleeing in all directions, and for hours on end I cast everything in my bag at them, trying different retrieve cadences and speeds to no avail. I threw Storm Wildeye swim shads, Mag Darters, junior Danny plugs, JoeBaggs Swarters, Scabelly gliders and more, but there were so many herring it made no difference.
This was the most promising action I have seen so far this spring. Herring have been filing into our rivers for weeks now, but this push of bait was seemingly endless. It frustrated me, but I couldn’t help but feel excited for the next few weeks knowing that migratory stripers are already on their way.
For now though, resident winter holdover bass will have to do! I recently received this submission from OTW reader, Grant Stark (@starkfishinn), who has been finding lots of small local stripers in recent weeks. Most notably though, he hooked and landed this 35-inch holdover bass while throwing a suspending jerkbait from his kayak last week.
With even more herring heading into our rivers by the day, there will be plenty of bait for early migratory stripers, big and small, to enjoy upon their arrival to Cape Cod.
If I can continue to pull myself away from the now raging-allure of striped bass fishing, largemouth bass provide a good backup plan. They’re biting well during mild nights on everything from topwaters to swimbaits, glidebaits and suspending jerkbaits. I’ve only tied into a few smaller fish this week, but the activity has undoubtedly increased.
With trout stocked and herring heading upriver, big largemouth will be feeding more aggressively, and on bigger baits over the weeks to come. The night bite started slow this year, but it is surely progressing as mild weather and scattered sunshine continue to warm the shallow ponds. My friend Jack got into a few good fish this week using big baits, which is no coincidence; this bite aligned perfectly with large schools of herring flooding south Cape.
My coworkers Jim Fee and Anthony DeiCicchi have also been out on the ponds this week, only they’ve been hitting untouched corners of the ponds by scooting around with one of the office Bass Raiders. There are bigger fish biting for them, in the 3-pound-plus range, but they too are yet to top the 5-pound mark this season.
We’ll see what the next couple weeks has to hold. In the meantime, here are the reports from our local shops this week:
Connor at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay reports:
“Tuesday I went out and poked around a few spots for stripers. There’s a lot of bait in the Wareham River right now. No signs of large herring, but there’s tons of smaller 3- to 4-inch baitfish like mudminnows holding up along the shorelines and hard structure like bridge abutments. I’ll normally find mid 20 inch fish in the rivers by this time of year, but it has just been a little slower this year. Lots of people still coming in for trout gear like spoons, powerbait, shiners and nightcrawlers to get their hands on trout before stripers start.”
Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth reports:
“One of my regulars came in for shiners on Saturday and reported back that he caught some solid largemouth bass up to 4 pounds. We’re still selling nightcrawlers and shiners for trout too, so the bite has been pretty consistent on that front. I also have this one customer who is going out daily on a pond in Mashpee and crushing trout on a gold spoon, nothing else. On the saltwater side of things, I have a ton of demand for green crabs already, so we’ll have them in the shop for tomorrow (Friday).”
Amy at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis reports:
“I just talked to our guy Mike who said he’s been doing really well with largemouth by using Senkos and working them slowly around vegetation. Trout fishing is still good too, especially in Mashpee and Marstons Mills ponds where there are abundant rainbows and a good amount of brown trout being caught daily. In the salt, we’ve got green crabs back in stock already, and people are buying them up, so there must be tautog around! We’ll keep an eye on that bite while looking out for early migratory bass over the course of the next 7 days; by next week, we’ll have seaworms back in stock, too.
Canal Bait and Tackle in Sagamore reports:
“Most people are in here getting ready for tautog fishing, buying jigs and rig-tying materials. We haven’t heard of any being caught just yet, but spots are usually kept quiet anyway. If they aren’t biting yet, they’ll probably be biting this weekend. We’re still selling some trout fishing gear here and there, but at this point, we’re all geared up for the saltwater season.”
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Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
Cast some spoons for trout, throw paddletails, senkos or swimbaits for largemouth, or grab a bucket of green crabs and your favorite crappy shears for some early spring tautog action. We haven’t heard of one being caught yet, but the MMA underwater Canal Cam showed some bigger tog lingering among the rocks this week; so, who wants to be first?
I’m hoping that by this time next week, I have a striped bass fishing report for you. With all that bait in the water and no fish to show for it, I’m starting to lose my marbles over here. Stay tuned.
On April 22, we’ll be collaborating with Goose Hummock Shops in Orleans for a Kid’s Fishing Festival on Flax Pond in Nickerson State Park. This is not a tournament, but moreso a fun event to get young anglers involved in the sport and out on the water! The rod and reel combos for fishing will be provided, there will be food, prizes and of course, plenty of fish caught! We’ll keep you in the loop on that event as the date approaches.
If you’d like to contribute to our fishing reports, reach out to me via email (mhaeffner@onthewater.com) or via Instagram (@hefftyfishing) with a sentence or two reporting your experience on the water, along with any fish photos related to your report.
More info on plum island please