Cape Cod Fishing Report: June 2, 2024
Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds
Even in areas where bass have been active, such as in the wide array of shoals in Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds, bluebird conditions that might make for a nice boat ride can leave anglers wringing their hands as they search – often frantically – for a way to coax a bass into committing after it has been tracking and seemingly nosing your offering or tracking it like a submarine.
While I struggled on my trip in the sounds today looking for striped bass around Nobska and along the north shore of the Vineyard, Capt. Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing Cape Cod put his plan into action confidently and skillfully. He started with some sea bass fishing just off of Cotuit and although Ben said they didn’t get any purple or blueheads – or big spawning males – everyone on the boat got their limit, even while picking through plenty of shorts.
On a side note to Capt. Ben’s experience, Capt. Mike went out yesterday afternoon with his first mate, Max, and he continued to prove his prowess at finding bigger sea bass using the new Hogy Groundfish Biki Jig in Nantucket Sound. Whether fished with bait – as shown during a video shot in April as Capt. Ray Jarvis put the Hogy crew on big tautog tipping this new jig with green crabs – or just on its own, this design is already proving its versatility and ability to catch fish.
After Capt. Ben’s charter had fish to eat in the cooler, they went looking for striped bass in the rips. As seems to be the case more often this year than in past seasons, Succonesset Shoal was definitely holding more bass than other shoals that are typically known as striper haunts. Ben is a big fan of supersized, eel style soft plastics such as the Hogy 10-inch Original; he believes by opting for larger baits that he can target bigger fish. He did try some topwater plugs, but overall the fish were a bit gun shy today with the high, bright sunshine and slightly elevated water temperatures. They got a lot of follows and half-hearted swipes at their lures, but it was a challenge getting the fish to commit. Given the conditions, Ben opted for bone/white or bubblegum/pink Hogy’s in the larger size fished on weighted swimbait hook and they caught bass up to 36-inches.
The captain admitted that they have to work hard for their stripers, especially when confronted with at least one boat that charged through the rip as if he were headed for home – and then stopped abruptly and began casting into his own wake close enough to Ben’s boat that he could have cast right into it.
I realize this is going off topic, but it just seems there is more and more boorish, inconsiderate conduct on the water right now, especially with the ever increasing numbers of supersized center consoles tricked out with way too much horsepower. I have no answer in terms of how to handle these muscle heads who have never heard of “being responsible for your own wake.”
In my case, I am going to use the old “too sunny” and “not enough current” combination to explain away my failure to put my guests on fish, but the reality is that in the same conditions towards the end of our trip, we had a big bass come up and inhale an amber Hogy Charter Grade popper right around high noon in Woods Hole. And it wanted that plug “real bad” as it knocked it out of the water four or five times before Stephen Dallalis came tight, an impressive feat since it is far more common to yank a lure away from a fish as opposed to being patient and waiting for the hook to find its mark.
But this was one smart fish as it dove into the boulder field/rip we were fishing and severed the line.
Finally, although I don’t play that tune any longer, Arthur Vose told me that he has had no problem catching larger bass around Nobska and Halfway/L’Hommedieu snapping wire and the pig-and-jig.
