Cape Cod Fishing Report
Last week’s fishing report feels like yesterday. The holiday weekend flew by, and the New Year is quickly approaching.
It has been a very slow week since our last check-in. Weather has been mostly uncooperative between the wind and rain; maybe you sneaked out to the local bass pond for a little action between family get-togethers. One thing is for sure, any fishing that took place was reserved to the kettle ponds, and maybe the salt ponds or rivers.
(If you’d like to contribute to our weekly fishing reports this winter, email me at mhaeffner@onthewater.com with a brief report of your day on the water and what you caught, or message me on Instagram @matthaeffner.)
There was some good action in the ponds late last week before the holiday scramble set in. On Friday I spent lunch hour relentlessly casting jerkbaits with OTW’s Chris Megan and Jimmy Fee in search of largemouth bass and chain pickerel, but only Jimmy was able to connect. He was throwing a suspending jerkbait—the Shimano World Minnow. Its interior “Flash boost” design is deadly when it comes to enticing those subtle bites.
At the same time, OTW’s Anthony DeiCicchi was on a brief video shoot with Kyle Geggatt just north of Cape Cod, where they were targeting smallmouth bass on small soft plastics. During their hunt for football smallies, Anthony dropped his ned rig down to what he expected to be a trophy smallmouth, but when it ate, the fish didn’t budge. Anthony described massive headshakes, and didn’t realize he had actually hooked a massive brown trout until it was on the surface. His ned rig hook was left mangled like a weak paper clip.
Me? I stuck a couple micro-class largemouth bass on the spoon while searching for another big pickerel on Saturday morning. The lake I chose was half frozen after a drastic drop in temperatures, but I entered on the sunny shoreline where wading was still possible. The skim ice that had formed around submerged bushes along the shoreline crackled as I waded out to my first spot. After two hours of throwing jerkbaits, spoons and soft plastics up and down the whole open side of the pond, my feet were going numb in my leaky waders, so I called it quits after releasing only two small bass. The cold snap had shut off whatever bite existed late in the week, so I was content to come away without being skunked.
Our local shops didn’t have much to report between the holiday, operating on winter hours and some flat-out crummy weather, but here’s a quick update.
Connor at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay shared that not much has changed since last week. There were a few anglers out getting their fill of mackerel in the East End of the Canal, but there hasn’t been much activity otherwise. However, last week, after I asked Connor what he’d like his final fish of 2023 to be, he got the itch to make it happen. Connor wanted to catch one more striped bass this year, so he took a little ride off Cape and did just that.
Evan Eastman over at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said the shop is closing for the month of January. Swing by and make any last-second purchases for freshwater tackle and/or shellfishing gear before the doors close for the month.
Amy at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis said it has been quiet in the shop, with a few people coming and going to the trout ponds nearby. Nightcrawlers have been selling well for finicky trout, along with the standard spoons and spinners. They’re anticipating angling activity to increase a little once the New Year celebration passes us and people start getting a little antsy to get outside and wet a line.
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Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain around Cape Cod and the Islands!
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
The forecast for the next week and a half looks cold, with daily lows teetering just above or at the freezing mark. There’s no telling what effect the increasingly chilly weather will have on fishing in the ponds, but there does appear to be more sun in the forecast. If you find yourself fishing the ponds for bass, trout or pickerel, focus on the areas that receive the most sun exposure, especially for bass and pickerel.
I don’t know about you, but I need to re-up on suspending jerkbaits. It’s getting to be the time of year where even a slow-swimming spoon can be too much movement for a bass or pickerel to give chase.
It’s looking like the last fish of the year (for me) will be one of the three usual suspects: a rainbow trout, a largemouth bass or a chain pickerel. And that’s fine. This time of year, I’m just happy to still be fishing whenever the opportunity arises.
I hope you all have a safe and happy start to the New Year. As always, thanks for reading— now go catch something!
(If you’d like to contribute to our weekly fishing reports this winter, email me at mhaeffner@onthewater.com with a brief report of your day on the water and what you caught, or message me on Instagram @matthaeffner.)