Stellwagen Bank is one of the coolest places to wet a line on Cape Cod.
The Bank is located about 19 miles from Plymouth, 27 miles from the Cape Cod Canal and 6 or so miles from Provincetown. That is relatively close to shore as far as cod and tuna fishing is concerned.
A computer generated view of Stellwagen.
Stellwagen is a pretty big piece of bottom. The Bank encompasses 842 square miles and is about 26 miles in length and 13 miles across at its widest point. It’s my understanding that the Bank is, for the most part, a large sandy plateau. At the Southwest Corner of the Bank depths as shallow as 65 feet can be found. However these shallow areas can drop off dramatically to hundreds of feet in certain spots and off the edges of the Bank.
According to NOAA, Stellwagen is the result of the retreat of the last great ice sheet – the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Odds are that the same ice sheet is responsible for the formation of Cape Cod. The Stellwagen Bank of today is the result of 25,000 years of geological activity.
Stellwagen has always been a hub of fishing activity. The Pilgrims supposedly fished the Bank along with many other daring anglers. I personally can not imagine what it must have been like to fish Stellwagen from small dorys and row boats-no thank you!
Whaling was also an important industry centuries ago, and Stellwagen Bank conveniently provided plenty of whales for the dozen or so whaling ships that once called Provincetown home. Today these whaling ships have been replaced by whale watching boats and pleasure vessels. Fortunately the whales are still around, and even relatively large concentrations of Right Whales (of which only 500 or so exist in the world) can be found feeding and playing around in the area.
Humpbacks, pilots and right whales are not the only marine mammals we have seen at Stellwagen. I remember once being surrounded by hundreds of common dolphins (which was very cool) as well as spotting the occasional seal. I’m yet to see a sea turtle but I know they are out there, and I’m still waiting on a Great White shark – which I also firmly believe venture into the vicinity of Stellwagen from time to time.
A big blue shark boatside at Stellwagen Bank.
This past season blue sharks infiltrated the Bank, which can be fun to catch unless you are targeting tuna. Mako sharks are also occasionally seen and caught on the Bank.
Cod, haddock and pollock are commonly caught off the bottom of the Bank. Once in a while a lucky angler will land a halibut or one of various other interesting bottom dwelling fish. Striped bass and bluefish can also be found all over the Bank, however it is illegal to target stripers at Stellwagen.
The most popular fish to target at Stellwagen is, of course, the bluefin tuna. Tuna of all sizes and shapes can be found all over the Bank. We have seen giants over 500 pounds and footballs under 75 pounds breaking the surface at the same time at Stellwagen. On a few trips we have been virtually surrounded by hundreds of jumping tuna, which is quite the adrenaline rush!
The tuna generally arrive sometime during late May or early June. With this winter’s super warm weather, I would not be surprised if we hear of tuna being spotted by the middle of May. We’ll just have to wait and see how things turn out.
During the spring one of the most productive tuna fishing techniques is flying live bait under kites. If you’re not familiar with how to catch tuna with a kite, click here for a crash course. I’m no expert but we have had some success in the past using kites.
A giant bluefin tuna that was caught using a kite at Stellwagen.
A lot of guys prefer to cast top water plugs and vertically jig for school size bluefins. Over the years we have had good success with 150 pound class fish by trolling soft plastics on spinning gear. Catching a tuna on spinning gear is, in my opinion, the best fishing workout in the world.
The tuna will stick around right through the summer and fall and sometimes into early winter. The latest we have hooked up with a tuna on Stellwagen was on December 5th. Not only did we manage to briefly hook up, we also were lucky enough to see a huge school of blitzing tunas on the horizon-which was pretty cool considering it was December.
Over the past few seasons a fantastic giant tuna bite has developed south of Stellwagen inside Cape Cod Bay. This past season we failed to catch a giant during the fall giant run, however with a new boat at our disposal we are hoping to figure out the anchor and chum bite and land some big ones during 2012.
In 2011 several tuna over 1,000 pounds were caught in the Bay. I believe one fish tapped the scale out at 1,200 pounds. Needless to say there are some seriously big giant bluefin tuna in the Stellwagen Bank area.
With spring now here the fishing at Stellwagen will only continue to improve. April is a great month to target cod, and with the approach of June comes the tuna.
Best of luck fishing Stellwagen this year. Maybe you will be the next guy to land a 1,000 plus pound fish.
Go get ‘em!
Ryan
