Cape Cod Fishing Reports

Cape Cod Fishing Report: 5/15/2024

I finally managed to find the motivation to get the boat in the water for the first time this season and enjoyed what can best be described as an interesting day of fishing in Woods Hole and Naushon, along with a couple of brief detours to the rip off Nobska and over Middle Ground way.

Phil Stanton was good enough to send me some photos of quality bass taken from what I can presume were the waters of the Hole and perhaps down the Elizabeths since he and his guests spend a lot of time fishing these waters. Although snapping wire is a common early season technique used around these parts, Phil mentioned that they were casting; along with bucktails and topwater plugs, one of Phil’s favorite lures is a large plastic Finnish style swimmer in what some folks call clown and others label Wonderbread, but basically it is pearl with splotches of red, blue, and yellow. This color pattern is used both by smaller custom wood plug makers and the large manufacturers of plastic lures and it should be noted that the level of brightness of the three colors mentioned above can vary widely from one builder to another, with the one Phil uses tends towards more a faded look on a white pearl background.

I had no illusions that I would have the same success that Phil and company enjoyed, mainly because we are in the midst of the migration and a school of fish can move in on one tide and be gone the other, especially in the Hole.

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.

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.