I remember years ago that there used to be a striped bass tournament in the CAPE COD CANAL region over Memorial Day weekend, the time when most folks expected the first push of larger bass moving into the area. But Jeff Miller at Canal Bait and Tackle in Sagamore said he has already been getting queries about whether there are fish 40-inches and up in the Ditch, which left me wondering aloud about folks whose idea of fishing is only about targeting what they consider fish worthy of their efforts. Jeff explained that the bass activity in the land cut is very good right now, with plenty of stripers in the high 20 to low 30-inch range, with pogies and herring the main source of food around the west end, while towards the east end the fish seem to be feeding on squid and perhaps some mackerel. The word is that it is mainly a jig bite and the Canal is a classic location for a SHORE RIP APPROACH with paddletails in white or pearl, along with colorations that imitate menhaden a good place to start, although heavily weighted pencil poppers have been working down around the bulkhead. Frankly, this kind of early season action should get any angler excited and with good numbers of hungry aggressive fish around during this large moon tide period, it’s a good time to work on learning how to jig the Canal and, just as importantly, when to conclude your swing and avoid getting hung up. It would be fascinating to know how many jigs the rocky, weed fringed rocks and mussel beds have collected over the years, but the failure to understand that at some point when your rig has swung down current, it’s time to reel with sufficient speed to get your lure up in the water column and away from the sticky stuff.
Over at Red Top in BUZZARDS BAY, Connor Swartz said that he hasn’t been able to break the 36-inch mark yet in the Canal, but he was happy to note that on Wednesday there was some solid topwater action around the west end. Once again, the bass were pushing both adult pogies and herring on the surface, and while plugging often requires dialing in a specific size, style or color later in the season when targeting resident fish, these are bass that are in the midst of their migration and they are hungry and not terribly fussy. That said, I would opt for the basics at this point, which means some form of a white or yellow pencil – including the stubby variety.
And although it is less likely that you will hang up with a plug late in the swing, you will not make any friends if you are tossing topwaters in a line of anglers and insist on prolonging your drift and retrieving too late, thereby interfering with anglers who have made another cast upcurrent whose line you cross due to your failure to follow the pattern and the tardiness of your next cast.