Cape Cod Fishing Report: 5/10/2024 Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds
It only makes sense that if you can catch good numbers of quality fish close to where you dock or launch your boat, meaning protected, backwater locations, there would be no reason to venture out into the sounds and that’s exactly what has been happening the last couple of days. As Christian Cook at the Sports Port in Hyannis said, the Three Bays area has lots of bass feeding on a variety of bait, including pogies, herring, and small bait such as silversides. Along with the Cotuit/Osterville area, the southside of the Cape is characterized by myriad locations that match this areas characteristics: shallower water close to shore dropping off into deeper channels and darker bottom sections – including shellfish beds and marshy shorelines – that warm more quickly.
Of course, the subject of warmth is relative at this time of year, with even the shallowest stretches that are easily fished by shore anglers have water in the low to mid 50-degree range at this time of year and these temperatures are typically considered numbers where bass begin to feed more actively unlike the 70 degrees of high summer which create low oxygen levels and accompanying algae/weed blooms that hamper the efforts of shorebound anglers.
Folks have been experiencing plenty of scenarios where a SURFACE BLITZ APPROACH will pay dividends, especially in the afternoon when the limited sunshine we have been experiencing will increase water temperatures enough to coax bass into feeding aggressively. It should be no surprise that boat shore and boat anglers working up inside have been seeing fish mainly in the high 20 to low 30-inch range since based on year class data on record, the stripers from the last good spawn in the Chesapeake will continue to produce a larger percentage of available fish as opposed to a healthier scenario where more year classes are contributing to the stock. If the fish are showing on top, then unweighted soft plastics like the Hogy Original or topwaters such as the Charter Grade Popper rigged for CATCH AND RELEASE FISHING is the way to go.
One thing that Christian emphasized is the water is still cold so early morning or night fishing will most likely be best served by a BLIND CASTING approach using weighted soft plastics like the Hogy Pro Tail and Slow Tail Jigs, along with the Thumper Series. Working shoreline drop-offs is a great early spring approach since the fish will most likely be hanging in deeper water where a slower, targeted cast-and-retrieve will pay off. Both the paddletail design of the Pro Tail and Thumper produce plenty of fish attracting action, but the Slow Tail is tops on the list when it comes to maximum action with the least amount of reeling/forward movement to get a fish’s attention.
There have been a few worm hatches around, but Christian said they have been of shorter duration at the moment, while boats that have elected to venture out into the sounds looking for squid have found tough fishing. In this case, as opposed to the backwaters where temperatures can fluctuate enough to create good fishing, in open, deeper water in the sounds, colder water that lingers all day can limit spawning activity of Loligo Pealeii, which is the reason they move inshore in the first place.
