Cape Cod Fishing Report
Wind and rain, wind and rain, sunny day, rinse and repeat. These April showers have been an extension of March, which came in like a lion and went out… like a lion.
The weather conditions haven’t exactly been conducive to fishing, from shore or kayak, but brief windows between storm fronts have provided a decent bite for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and trout. Of course, Easter Sunday, the day most of us have family plans we just can’t bail on, was the nicest day in recent memory. It was sunny, mild, and flat-out gorgeous outside with minimal cloud cover. That was a real taste of spring which, hopefully, lies on the back end of this weekend’s weather. At the time of this writing, Saturday and Sunday look like: you guessed it, more rain and high winds. However, there is a silver lining.
As of April 1, the Massachusetts tautog season is officially open. By the end of next week, conditions should have settled a bit, the water will have warmed up a tad, and tautog should be readily available in shallow water. April is arguably the best time of year to go kayak fishing for tautog, but if you don’t have a vessel capable of pedaling or paddling, try dropping some crabs on a rig around your local jetty, or in the Cape Cod Canal. By mid-April, tog will be in depths of 20 to 30 feet or less, sometimes as shallow as 10 feet. The past couple years, tautog have checked the box for my first saltwater fish of the season, and by late April, stripers are filing into the estuaries. We have some saltwater fishing to look forward to, we just need the wind to lay down and water temps to climb a bit more.
In addition to tautog, the sweetwater silver lining is the stocked trout that have been chewing despite the recent foul weather conditions—especially brook trout. From the Upper Cape, Brandon Robinson is still finding a good trout bite from the Jon boat this week, although the fish were more responsive to lures cast into shallow water rather than deep, open water. Brandon spent Tuesday morning throwing brown trout-colored Kastmasters and Little Cleo spoons at brown and brook trout, landing a couple of quality browns in between the brookies. Despite the rain, water temperatures are slowly rising in the kettle ponds along with the water level.
Meanwhile, the Outer Cape kettle ponds are giving up brown and brook trout as well. One of my fellow Long Islanders, Matt Bauer, is a new resident to Cape Cod, and after a couple weeks of adjusting to and exploring new waters, he managed to put together a solid trout bite using Baker Lures suspending jerkbaits. Matt’s first fish on Cape was a pretty-looking brown trout, and a couple days later, he found some brookies feeding agressively.
Those Baker Lures swim great, they have a loud rattle, bright color schemes and, most importantly, they’re an appetizing size for trout.
This weekend, trout fishing might be the best bet until the tog bite really picks up. Otherwise, the shallow, marshy bass ponds should hold some reliable fishing as largemouth bass continue to enter their pre-spawn feeding patterns.
Earlier this week, I hit 3 separate ponds in one night with only one dinky largemouth to show for it. The fish was about the size of the wakebait it ate, but it was just chillin’ in a foot of water over sandy bottom. Earlier that evening, at spot number 1, an extra large bass swiped at my wakebait on the edge of a deep cut that connects two portions of the pond. I heard the pop of its mouth snapping shut, but it pushed so much water that it missed the hooks and decided not to take a second chance. A wise fish.
Big largemouth bass continue to move shallow even after the brisk weather and rain we’ve had, and with more herring running the creeks around Cape each week, the fishing is still heating up.
Smallmouth bass fishing is getting a little better too. They’re slowly moving shallow, only not quite as shallow as their big-mouthed cousins. I got out in the rain with Anthony DeiCicchi for a short session at one of our local smallie ponds. We threw mostly jerkbaits and small soft plastics like curly-tail grubs and tube jigs, hoping a trout might even swipe at one of our lures if our target species played hard-to-get. Luckily, toward the end of the hour, Anthony hooked a nice bass on a ned rig to beat the skunk, which made getting drenched a little more worth the effort.
In the weeks to come, as largemouth and smallmouth bass fully shift into their pre-spawn patterns, they’ll be feeding more aggressively. We’ll be able to pack away the ned rigs and hair jigs til November, not because they won’t catch, but because big bass will be looking for larger prey and are more willing to chase down chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, buzz baits, swim jigs and swimbaits. Don’t hesitate to really beef up the profile of your offering with a larger soft-plastic trailer going forward.
Connor Swartz at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay told me that their die-hard trout crowd is fishing through the wind and rain and doing pretty well for themselves with live bait. They haven’t heard much about the freshwater bass fishing recently, but he did mention that holdover stripers are becoming more active in the area. Connor caught a few micro schoolies on paddletails earlier this week. With the amount of herring around, he even had the idea of going down to the Canal on Sunday to throw around plugs in hopes of hooking into a holdover or two. Something tells me he might be casting alone, but you won’t know unless you go.
Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said he has been selling quite a few buckets of large shiners this week to the bass guys coming in, but there are some customers getting small ones for trout, too. One of his customers has been bouncing around locally in search of holdover stripers, but he has yet to find action. Sounds kind of like my experience! However, with herring running the rivers, the salt ponds and estuaries should see an uptick in activity from our small local striper populations. Evan also mentioned he has some green crabs on order for next Friday, but he’s working to get some even sooner from a local source. If you have any thoughts of getting out there in search of tog around Buzzards Bay/Vineyard Sound this coming week, give him a call or swing by the shop.
Amy at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis had just sent two customers on their way with squid and sinkers when she picked up my call. What they were after, who knows, but there’s not much swimming out there right now, let alone something that’ll eat squid the first week in April. Sea worms for tautog is a more common request this time of year. Anyhow, Amy said she splashed the canoe on Easter to go fishing for largemouth in a new pond. She said the action was pretty slow, but by the end of the outing she had caught and released around a dozen bass. She also said she’s getting mixed reports from trout anglers fishing the ponds between Marstons Mills and Yarmouth, and made a point that if you’re not getting bit and you’re throwing everything but the kitchen sink at them, try to cover more water. These hatchery-raised fish could still be in schools in some places. Finally, Amy said there are 2 or 3 customers of theirs that have been getting holdovers at night locally with some consistency. That bite should continue to improve up until stripers begin to arrive. She added that they’re working on getting green crabs for the tog crowd that will inevitably start calling the shop once dandelions begin to sprout.
Mike at Riverview Bait and Tackle in South Yarmouth said that it’s been pretty quiet this week due to all the wind and rain, but their regulars are still doing well for trout and largemouth bass. The tautog fishing doesn’t start to heat up until late April out their way, so they will not have green crabs in stock just yet, as most of the early-spring tog fishing happens back west in Buzzards Bay. They have live bait and freshwater tackle until the saltwater fishing picks up, so swing by this weekend for your trout and bass bait.
Captain Cam Faria of Cambo Charters reported that he’s been doing some largemouth bass fishing recently, and he plans to fish Wachusett Reservoir for lake trout on opening day this weekend. He’s booking a ton of striper and squid charters in late April, and although he’s booked up on the last weekend of the month, he has openings during that final week when stripers are just arriving and beginning to look for squid out in the rips. In May he has some openings as well; he’ll be focused mainly on stripers until he starts running sea bass charters starting in late May when the season opens. Check out his website and call or message him to book a trip!
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Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
The forecast for the week ahead looks promising until next weekend, when it calls for… you guessed it, more rain and wind. Take advantage of those sunny days and get some fishing in while you can. Largemouth and smallmouth bass will be out and about and on the prowl, and trout fishing continues to be good for anglers trolling, casting or playing the bait-and-wait game with shiners or nightcrawlers.
If you plan to go bass fishing, try throwing around some bigger, more active lures like paddletail swimbaits, chatterbaits or spinnerbaits—especially try the latter two where there’s stained, muddy or tannic water. Tossing shiners beneath a float is a great way to find a few big bass, too. With herring running into some of the ponds, they’ll be more willing eat an XL shiner (or a well-placed jumbo swimbait).
There’s no reports of tog just yet, but the spring season is young. The water still has some warming up to do, but once we get into the middle of the month, the tautog bite in Buzzards Bay and the Canal should really pick up.
Get out there and hit the ponds before saltwater fishing season begins to take off. There’s a PB largemouth and plenty of trout out there, waiting for your hook.
Best of luck on the water this week. Stay safe and thanks for reading.
(If you’d like to contribute to our weekly fishing reports, 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.)