Cape Cod Fishing Report: June 6, 2024
Cape Cod Canal – Buzzard’s Bay
Earlier today, I stopped over at Canal Bait and Tackle in Sagamore to catch up with Jeff Miller and he reported that after the bite tailed off in the Cape Cod Canal– especially around the Sagamore Bridge – as the east current began to slack mid-morning, a bunch of folks who had been in on the bite – both on plugs and jigs – came in to restock to fish the turn. Green mackerel was definitely the hot color, with some folks opting for loaded plugs.
At 5:18 PM, Jeff texted that about an hour into the east turn, the west end had turned on big time. There’s a very good chance that the large number of mackerel that had moved in around the east end had made it to the other end of the Big Ditch with the west current, perhaps driven by the bass. Or maybe the schools of pogies that were seen working their way into the west entrance had been pushed in from Buzzards Bay by stripers holding in that body of water.
In any case, perhaps due to east wind and cloudy, cool conditions, a lot of fish were caught on paddletail jigs, including Jeff’s Canal Bait Shad in wacky mackerel.
With sunshine expected to return and a shift to a southwest wind tomorrow – combined with the new moon – I suspect people will be waiting for a topwater bite on the early morning east turn.
And I almost forgot to mention a very unique fishing lure that Connor Swartz from Red Top told me made the difference for some folks fishing the Canal this week. They were down around the Herring Run at night and had nothing to show for their efforts after several hours of casting with jigs, so they opted for a rig that I had never heard of – a castable umbrella set up. Apparently, they began to catch fish, but I am just reporting, not verifying this happening. That said, given the effectiveness of paddletail, shad body jigs, putting a bunch of these soft plastics in front of some bass doesn’t sound too farfetched.
