Cape Cod Fishing Report
At least it’s fishing show season, because there hasn’t been much to look forward to otherwise. It was yet another week of fishing limbo for anglers on Cape Cod, and at this point, when the sun is out for more than two consecutive days, you can feel the restlessness of fishermen in the air as spring teases itself. It looks like air temps will continue to dip well below freezing through the weekend, but there is a silver lining; from Monday to Thursday of next week, we’ve got a four day stretch of temps climbing as high as 55 degrees. Can you say BASS?
Ice-out always brings a pretty decent bite to the bass ponds which, at the time of this writing, are predominantly locked up. After several days of prolonged sun and overnight temps lingering in the 30s and 40s, largemouth and smallmouth bass are likely going to move around a bit in search of a more substantial meal, and even some slightly warmer water. They’ve been eating all winter, albeit much less frequently, but if you put a slightly bigger bait in front of a largemouth after the ponds thaw, you may be surprised by the voracity of their appetites. Slow-rolling a paddletail swimbait along the edges of sun-shone flats, or twitching a jerkbait parallel to a drop-off (or over submerged vegetation) will entice previously “dormant” largemouth that could be cruising these areas in search of prey like small yellow perch, juvenile sunfish, or leftover young-of-year herring. Just like the smaller, shallower ponds are the first to freeze, they’ll also be the first to thaw. Some of my best days of largemouth bass fishing on Cape Cod and Long Island, in terms of both quality and quantity, have come after ice-out.
Another shore-based ice-out technique that I haven’t used in a few years is tossing a heavier, 3/8-ounce to 1/2-ounce Rooster Tail spinner into a deeper pocket of the pond. It’s as simple as cast, let it sink for a second or two, and begin a steady retrieve. The spinning blade generates some noise and a realistic flash, and a little bit of marabou/bucktail hair tied above the treble hook provides some additional action. The idea is to get the spinner right into or above the strike zone. Largemouth seem a bit more willing to give chase or rise from the shelter of vegetation and deeper water to grab an easy meal. My favorite color Rooster Tail spinner is black, mostly because the brighter patterns seem to attract pickerel, which will also be putting on the feed bag after ice out as their spawning season approaches.
One of the most productive patterns you can use this time of year, whether it be a jerkbait, a tube jig, a spinner or otherwise, is yellow perch pattern. We’ve mentioned in weeks past that they spawn around the same time as pickerel, which can be as early as the back nine of February, or as late as mid March (depending on water temperatures). Since perch are readily available and abundant in most of our ponds, their offspring will feed bass, pickerel, crappie and, yes, yellow perch. But even before they spawn, big yellow perch loaded with eggs will strike a perch-patterned lure. I’m not sure why, but my guess is they either see it as competition, a threat, or they’re just seeking sustenance for their soon-to-be perch fry. Point is, they’re willing to eat (even their own kind), and they can provide fun, reliable action on ultralight tackle once the ice is gone. The amount of times I have caught super fat yellow perch on perch-colored Rapalas and Megabass jerkbaits while bass fishing in late February and early March, is uncanny.
On another note, last week there were whispers of good-size pollock in the Canal, which sent OTW’s Jimmy Fee and Anthony DeiCicchi on a wild goose chase over the weekend. I commend them for getting out there in the snow and giving it a go, and had I been in town, I would have joined them on their fruitless search. This week, there haven’t been many reports of sea herring or mackerel in the Canal, but my buddy Hunter who lives on the south shore noticed a massive flock of birds working over fish just off of Plymouth on Saturday. The full moon falls on February 24th, so there is potential for that Canal mackerel and herring bite to heat up again around the full-moon tides.
To my surprise, AJ Coots at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay said that if you want to catch a fish this week, the best info he has gotten is for small pollock in the east end of the Canal. They are getting scattered reports of anglers catching juvenile pollock on diamond jigs and clams. The mackerel a sea herring, he said, seem to have thinned out, and the pollock have gotten noticeably smaller. They haven’t seen any pollock, or photos of them, at the shop yet, but with a majority of the ponds frozen over, there’s not much else to fish for. The shop is still loaded up on shiners and freshwater lures, so stop in to pick up some bass or trout fishing gear before ice out early next week.
Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said it’s been very quiet around Falmouth, which I can personally attest to. He said aside from the shellfishing crowd, he’s really only sold nightcrawlers to a couple of kids fishing for trout locally during their week off from school. He’s spent the month of February restocking the shop with saltwater and freshwater tackle before the spring rush, so check out the selection this weekend if you plan to do any tackle tinkering or hook/split-ring swapping.
Lee at Riverview Bait and Tackle in South Yarmouth said that shellfishing is still the main draw for people getting on the water. Despite it being vacation week with all the kids off from school, it has been too cold to go fishing. The ponds are mostly locked up aside from the bigger bodies of water, and even there, the bays and coves are freezing over due to lower winds. Today they had a couple guys come in for shiners since it’s pretty mild, but that’s the first they’ve really seen anyone going fishing all week. Hopefully that changes with the mild weather forecasted for Monday into Thursday.
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Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
A spat of spring weather may be around the corner, but it won’t be here to stay. If you’re planning to go fishing over the next week, best to plan it around the overtly mild, sunny weather in the forecast. Largemouth bass and pickerel, the usual suspects, will be waiting in the ponds, and while it’s always more fun to catch on artificial lures, fishing with live shiners could bring some really consistent action. Sticking to throwing lures? No problem. Soft plastics like 3-inch paddletails, curly-tail grubs, Neds and tubes will be your friend when rigged on a lightweight jighead and fished with a slow or steady retrieve around transition areas. Transition areas can be defined as changes in depth, like ledges or submerged humps, or changes in bottom composition (weeds to gravel, grass to sand, etc.) where bass are more likely to be searching for a meal after some sustained warmer temps.
Of course, stocked trout are also a popular target as the ponds thaw. I drove around a bit in search of open water around Falmouth and Mashpee on my lunch break, and even the larger lakes still have some ice on them. Look to those coves and bays that are currently locked up for the best action after the skim ice melts away, whether you plan to cast artificials like spoons and spinners or toss out some PowerBait and worms. A few weeks from now, the state of Massachusetts will also begin their spring trout stocking programs, with our corner of the state getting first dibs.
Between trout, bass and pickerel—and perch, if that’s your cup of tea—we really only have a month and a half left of fishing almost exclusively in the ponds before our few resident holdover striped bass become active, and fresh migratory fish begin to trickle into the estuaries.
If you are in dire need of a saltwater fix, like me, take a peek at the tides and conditions on the Cape Cod Canal this weekend. Maybe I’ll see you down there.
Thanks for reading, stay safe out there, and best of luck on the water this week.
(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.)