Cape Cod Fishing Report
It’s been a beautiful week on Cape Cod and if you’re a freshwater angler, you’ve probably enjoyed the weather from the seat of a kayak, or wadered up and waist deep in a kettle pond.
Trout fishing, in the words of Bill & Ted, continues to be “excellent” now that waters temperatures have risen a bit. Fresh stockers have had weeks to acclimate to their new home waters, so while the fish may no longer be schooling and have spread out, activity levels are high. With all this warm weather, spring hatches are occurring and fly fishermen are cashing in. Head to your neighborhood trout hole around sunrise or sunset and you’ll likely see fish rising on the surface, slurping up tiny insects. No doubt about it—it’s dry fly season. Spin fishermen are doing just as well throwing the classics: spoons, inline spinners, Rapalas, micro hair jigs and small soft plastics. The float-and-fly rig is an excellent way to catch trout this time of year as well. Tie a 1/16-ounce black, white, or olive-colored marabou jig beneath a slip float, cast out, let it sit, and give it an occasional twitch. If there’s a slight chop, even better. A small suspended hair jig can imitate numerous types of trout forage and this finesse-style rig is a good way to dupe pressured or finicky fish.
Largemouth bass fishing should be on fire, but it’s been very hit or miss depending on who you talk to. In my experience, the bass bite is painful right now. I haven’t moved a fish on wakebaits or swimbaits after dark, and it’s certainly not due to a lack of effort. However, for many bass anglers, largemouth have been more than willing to play ball. Glide baits, chatterbaits, and soft-plastic herring swimbaits have caught some very respectable fish on Cape Cod and just across the bridge this week. It’s the old bog ponds and herring-run ponds on and off Cape that are giving up high quality bass for fishermen throwing big, disruptive baits. Others are seeing some action from our native esox species at the very least. OTW’s Jimmy Fee spent some time casting a Stride glidebait from his kayak on Wednesday evening and had some fun with big chain pickerel, which were beating the bass to his bait. Jimmy was casting around downed tree limbs close to shore and watching groups of pickerel and bass follow his lure off the structure before pouncing on it. Getting bass to commit to a supersized glide is difficult as it is, and the pickerel are no help. Still, he connected with a few nice slime darts to bend a rod before day’s end.
Expect the largemouth bite to get better in the weeks leading up to the spawn. With warm weather like we have right now, and more river herring filling in, there’s still plenty of time to connect with a trophy bass. I’ll have to keep telling myself that until I land a good one!
On the topic of river herring, Adam Eldridge snapped a few great photos of a small school in one of our local river systems on Wednesday afternoon. It’s good to see them so far inland considering water levels are rather low in most of our streams at the moment.
Our freshwater fisheries have really come to life recently and it’s so refreshing after the long winter and cold spring we’ve had. However, our salt water fisheries are still rebounding from a chilly off-season. The tog bite has yet to really materialize for the few boats that are out trying, and it’s been a rough start for the shore-based tog fanatics here at the OTW office. We managed to secure quite a few green crabs last Friday—courtesy of Adam Eldridge and M&D Outfitters Bait & Tackle in Wareham—and have slowly depleted our buckets since then. I’ve been out on the rocks four separate times during different stages of the tide and have yet to connect. Until today, I didn’t even have a bite. But a promising thud on the other end of my line and a clean 2-ounce jig indicated that the fish have just started to move in shallow. Water temps are now hovering right around 50°F on the south side; a few more warm, sunny days and the tog bite should really pick up.
On the subject of the saltwater scene, we’re not far off from the arrival of migratory stripers. Fresh fish with sea lice tend to trickle into Rhode Island, Martha’s Vineyard, and the South Coast of Massachusetts around April 20th each year. But if the slow start to tog season is any indication of how our early striper run will unfold, I’d imagine the bass will show up a few days late (at the very least) this year. That said, our resident fish have been active, there’s plenty of bait around, and water temps are almost right where we need them to be. A few fishermen are quietly picking up holdovers deep in the salt ponds and rivers and around the mid and outer Cape.
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It’s not just river herring that the local stripers are eating either. I’ve spotted quite a few good schools of silversides in the backwaters, which is good because last spring there seemed to be a major lack of spearing, and they’re an important food source for our fresh-arriving schoolies. Grass shrimp and elvers (a.k.a. glass eels/juvenile American eels) are all over the place, too. And just a few nights ago, I spotted my first pair of squid under the dock lights on the south side of Cape.
Between bait filling in and water temperatures finally stabilizing to typical levels for mid April, the stage is set for a solid spring run of striped bass.
Here’s this week’s rundown from a few of our local tackle shops:
AJ Coots at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay said there are a whole lot of herring around, which has been great for the freshwater bass guys who are looking for big fish. The herring are just starting to show up in the Canal run too, which they were stoked to see. AJ also said the shop now has green crabs in stock for the weekend; a big group of Mass Maritime kids came in to get crabs on Wednesday and managed to catch some tog in the Canal, so they’re moving in shallower by the day. The trout bite remained status quo; they’re chewing, but largemouth bass are the bigger draw right now. Oddly enough, the shop also weighed in a 3 lb, 9 oz. sucker today, which was surprising to see. As far as stripers, Ralphie—a Red Top employee and avid fisherman—said there was push of fresh migratory fish in Rhode Island recently, so it won’t be long before we see our first fish trickle into the Cape’s rivers and salt ponds. There’s a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks.
Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said that green crabs are in demand, and he should have them by Friday—just in time for the weekend crowd. Otherwise it’s all about largemouth and trout until the saltwater fishing picks up. Evan’s buddy caught a bunch of largemouth in West Falmouth yesterday on a chartreuse chatterbait, one customer caught a handful of bass and pickerel in Jones Pond on live shiners, and another customer has been catching tons of trout on chartreuse power eggs at Grews Pond. Live shiners have been quite popular this week as people start to get out and enjoy the nicer weather, but he’s also got nightcrawlers, and a selection of bass and trout lures for the folks who would rather throw artificials.
Christian at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis told me it’s been a great week for freshwater fishermen mid Cape. He and a couple shop employees went out last night and had 17 fish total, including brown trout, rainbow trout, and smallmouth and largemouth bass—a Cape Cod freshwater grand slam. They missed their fair share of fish but were more than content with the results. Warm water has the fish chewing, he said. When it comes to saltwater, it’s still quiet, but there are plenty of customers interested and inquiring about bait. Christian said they’ll have green crabs and sea worms in by the weekend, so swing by for your tog bait!
Captain Elena Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters in Truro reported: “Reel Deal’s 26th season of offering Cape Cod fishing charters is less than a month away! Captains Brady Rice and Ian Wall will be returning soon from their warm winter adventures to join team leader Captain Bobby Rice for another exciting season of fishing Cape Cod. We will start with striped bass and winter flounder fishing on May 11th, adding on black sea bass fishing trips on May 16th. Our full calendar is viewable here. Also, we have been nominated as one of the nation’s Top Fishing Charters and would be greatly appreciative of your vote: https://10best.usatoday.com/awards/reel-deal-fishing-charters-truro-massachusetts/. It would be wonderful to bring another Top 5 to Cape Cod, which surely deserves the attention as a premier fishing destination! It has been wonderful to already hear from so many of our returning customers and some new voices as well. Please be sure to contact us soon to get your preferred date(s) reserved in our calendar. We look forward to seeing you all on the water in just a few short weeks!”
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
The weekend weather isn’t great compared to the sun and warmth we’ve had these past few days, but it’s a good time to scope out some early season tog spots or hit your local largemouth honey hole for a few hours. Overnight temperatures are dropping back into the 40s and 30s for a few days, which may impact the bite, but you won’t know unless you go. The wind won’t be much of a factor until Sunday evening when a rainstorm is forecasted to hit Cape, and we could use a little rain.
Tautog may be chewing in the Canal, but it is an incredibly tough place to fish when the current is running hard. If you’re going to give it a try, aim for high or low slack tide. Tog are still playing hard to get along our jetties and rocky shorelines, which leads me to believe they are just a bit deeper than usual for this time of year. Anglers who have splashed their boats (or kayaks) should consider heading just barely offshore to shallow rock piles in Buzzards Bay, or down the Elizabeths to drop jigs and rigs for their first tog of the year. By the end of next week, I’m sure a few fish will have been caught in 10 feet of water or less, and the short but sweet jetty tog season will be off and running. I just hope my coworkers don’t beat me to ’em!
Bass fishermen should continue to throw large and/or loud moving baits to trigger reaction strikes from pre-spawn fish. During the daytime, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, lipless cranks, big swimbaits, and jerkbaits will all be good options. At night, wakebaits, crawlers, and glidebaits should produce some better results—especially leading up to Sunday’s weather event. It’s not uncommon for a bite window to open when the air temperature and barometric pressure begin to drop simultaneously, which is exactly what the forecast calls for on Sunday afternoon.
Trout fishing will continue to be a reliable option for the remainder of the month and will carry us right into May. By then, the shallow tog bite will be fully underway and migratory stripers will be moving in.