Ryan Collins

On a sunny day, fishing the flats of Cape Cod is more like fishing the Florida Keys. Stripers cruise in foot deep water, much like Florida’s famous bonefish. The water takes on a turquoise color that extends for miles in every direction. Under a summer sun tidal pools warm up to near 80 degrees as terns and sea birds dive for sand eels.

At times, the flats are almost a surreal environment.  Whether you are fishing Monomoy, Brewster or Barnstable one thing is for sure – there is nothing quite like the feeling of being all on your own with miles of sandbar and stripers all to yourself.

Mix in a few terns and gulls, the ocean lapping up against the sand, and a warm sun shining down from above and you have yourself one day to remember.  Catching a few fish is really just a bonus.

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First off Happy New Year!  I hope you have a great time tonight ringing in 2013.  Stay safe and have fun.

With 2013 now upon us, it is time to start thinking about the upcoming Cape Cod fishing season.  2012 was a phenomenal year on Cape Cod for striped bass fishing, so I think we have a lot to look forward to in 2013.  Will the fish return in droves?  I suppose only time will tell.

Regardless of whether the fish show up in the same numbers as they did this past season, there will be certain ways that you can maximize your odds of finding them.  Of course in some areas finding fish is as simple as finding the boats.  Love it or hate it, certain Cape Cod fishing spots get pretty busy during the season-resulting in more folks searching for fleets of boats than actually looking for signs of life and trying to “think like a fish” in order to find the bite.

If you are like me then you prefer to not take part in the whole “look for a bent rod and go there” mentality.  For me in this coming 2013 fishing season, I will be focusing on fishing more obscure locations.  I want to head off the beaten path to Cape Cod fishing spots where I’ll be the only fishermen for miles.  Believe me these areas still exist, they just require a little extra time and energy to get there.

“Fish where the fish are” seems like a no-brainer.  Yet viewed from a more broad perspective, fishing where the fish are is actually very important and easy to overlook.

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Winter can be a tough time of the year for us Cape Cod fishing nuts.  And guess what?  Winter on Cape Cod is just getting started…

Perhaps we’ll enjoy another mild Cape Cod winter like last year.  Or maybe we’ll get dumped on by snow like we did in 2011.  Regardless of what happens, we still have another 4 months to go before our migratory friends, the striped bass, return to our favorite Cape Cod fishing spots.

Cape Cod fishing during the winter can be pretty sparse.  The freshwater scene is often pretty darn good during the winter, especially if we get cold enough temperatures for ice fishing.  Other fishermen and fisher-women take to the woods to chase white tail deer, while others launch a skiff to shoot a few ducks.

Then there are those who watch the Patriots and just dream of that first Cape Cod surf fishing or boat fishing trip-still months away.  This is the category most of us Cape Cod striped bass fishing nuts fall under.

Regardless of where you fall in the winter fishing spectrum, one thing is for sure-if we are not careful, cabin fever can quickly set in.

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Can you believe it is almost 2013?  Seems like just yesterday I was part of fleet of boats trolling a tube and worm under a hot mid-July sun.  Time sure does fly.

I want to take a quick second here, and thank you for checking out the MFCC blog during 2012.  2012 was a year of ups and down (mostly ups!) for me, and your support throughout the season was awesome.  Because of this blog I was able to meet a lot of quality folks who live and fish here on Cape Cod.  I also met many people from across the United States who come to the Cape each summer to fish.

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Perhaps you are not able to fish Cape Cod 7 days a week, and you are looking to maximize the short windows of time you do get to fish the Cape.

Most people who enjoy fishing the Cape, only get a few trips in each summer. These people are eager to make the most of their short windows of fishing opportunity.  They want to make a memory for their kids, and put a fish or two on the grille for dinner.

These are Dads and Moms who want to have a nice, safe day on the water and enjoy the excitement and satisfaction of catching a big striped bass.

Does this sound familiar to you?  Odds are it does.  Most of us are not able to spend as much time fishing the Cape as we would like.  Life, kids, the career-you name it and it will get in the way of fishing.

The good news is that there are certain Cape fishing techniques that naturally provide less experienced anglers and folks who can’t be on the water 7 days a week – with a better than normal chance at hooking up with a big bass.  Said another way, by fishing the Cape with live bait, you will in most cases improve your odds of success – as opposed to fishing with the fake stuff.

In essence, live bait does all the work for you.  You do not have to be an expert caster or jigger, you just let the bait swim out and wait for it to be gobbled up by a fish.

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Over the past 8 Cape Cod surf fishing seasons I would estimate that I have purchased roughly 11,520 sea worms from Jeff, Bruce and Sheila over at Canal Bait and Tackle.  Along with the worms I would add in another 1,440 Gamakatsu circle hooks, 1,000 yards of leader material and couple rods and reels here and there.

So needless to say I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know the Miller crew pretty well – which has been great!

The other morning I received a text message from Jeff about a few folks who were in his shop this past week.  Apparently the customers had mentioned they had been reading Cape Cod Canal fishing articles here on the MFCC blog.

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When there is an all-out blitz at the Cape Cod Canal, just about any Cape Cod Canal fishing spot can produce a fish.  On certain days things come together perfectly, and just about every Cape Cod Canal fishermen leaves with a bass in hand.

However it’s the slower days that really separate the ones “in the know” from the folks who are just learning how to fish the Cape Cod Canal.  One of the best ways to increase your chances of consistently catching fish at the Canal, is to be able to locate the best Cape Cod Canal fishing spots.

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The spring Cape Cod saltwater fishing season may be a whopping 6 months away, but it’s never too early in my opinion to talk about the best Cape Cod fishing spots to try out come spring-time 2013.

Finding good Cape Cod fishing spots has increased exponentially in ease since the internet and Google Earth came to fruition.  Yet finding and accessing spots that are tucked away from the crowds takes a bit more effort.

This rings especially true here on Cape Cod where beach and parking access is often limited.

Well next season I am planning on venturing to little-known Cape Cod fishing spots and areas that are a bit more “remote” than your average wire-line jigging trip off Chatham or Southwest Corner tuna expedition.  I am hoping to focus on areas where I’ll be the only fishermen for miles – just me, the fish and a few sea gulls (and maybe the GF from time to time – LOL).

I’m sure I will discover some pretty cool fishing nooks and crannies as I bounce around the Cape next season.  It should be a lot of fun and I am looking forward to sharing what happens with you here on the blog.

As I look forward to the spring I can’t help but reminisce about the spring of 2012.  The surf fishing was phenomenal, with more bass in close to shore than the season prior.

Hopefully the biomass of bass will again decide to venture in tight to the Cape Cod shoreline come spring of 2013.  If they do, here are 3 areas and techniques you may want to check out.  Good luck!

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About 5 or 6 years ago my father, Mazzola and I bundled up and headed out to Stellwagen Bank during the first week in December.  Thinking back it was a risky move – if something was to happen we would not last long in water.  Without survival suits we would of lasted a few minutes at the most.

There also weren’t many boats around to help us out if something was to happen.  For the most part we were on our own.  Yet it was a crystal clear and “warm” December day, so we decided to give Cape Cod tuna fishing a shot.

The bait was in thick and despite it being December we had a good feeling about the trip.  We set out a couple of rigged ballyhoo’s behind the boat and began trolling, when off in the distance I noticed what appeared to be machine gun fire pelting the surface of the ocean.

“Tuna!” I recall announcing to the crew.

I honestly couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  A few hundred yards away a school of tuna the size of a Little League baseball field was erupting on the surface.  The fish smashed and tore through bait for a handful of seconds before disappearing again into the deep.

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The Cape Cod Canal has some of the strongest tides on all of Cape Cod.

During extreme weather situations the current inside the Canal can get cranking to almost scary speeds. It’s always important to remain cautious when moving around on the Canal rocks when the tide is cranking-especially if you are wearing boots or waders.

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With the amount of lures and tackle on the market today, it can sometimes get a little overwhelming trying to decide what to use in certain situations. Should I be trolling an umbrella rig, slinging a Sebile or drifting live bait?

Well at this time of the year my strategy is pretty simple. 90% of the time when heading out in my boat I am using either live eels or the tube and worm. These two techniques work well on big summer time striped bass and are easy for charter folks to learn.

In particular the tube and worm has a special place in my night fishing approach. Trolling the tube is a safe way to fish at night because you are moving forward at less than 3mph – which is pretty important especially on those dark nights with no moon. Tubes also work very well on lethargic mid summer stripers.

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Late summer means that it’s time to soak up as much sun and have as many beach days as possible. Plus with the kids heading back to school soon, many of Cape Cod’s beaches will have a bit more breathing room. This is perfect for combining a beach day with the family or significant other, with a live eel striped bass fishing trip.

This past Sunday my girlfriend Lauren and Cammy (the cocka-poodle she was dog sitting) and I all took a mid afternoon trip to the beach. It was a bright sunny day – not ideal for bass fishing that’s for sure.

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Fall is a phenomenal time of the year. The air has a nip to it and the fish get moving. There’s also more room on the beaches and out on the water with Labor Day behind us. The next few weeks are definitely a special time of the season for fishing on Cape Cod.

Usually the fish get moving as the days get shorter, and you begin to notice some unusual behavior. Sometimes you even find unusual species during the fall off the Cape. So far this fall I’ve seen a sea turtle swimming distance from the beach, which I’ve never seen before. I’ve also been noticing a few seals bobbing around in spots I can’t recall every seeing them before during this time of the year.

Fishing Cape Cod During the Fall | Odd Catches and Strange Occurrences

In past years I’ve seen bluefin tuna torpedoing half beaks no more than 300 yards from Sagamore Beach. Other close to shore tuna encounters occurred when I was younger with my father. We found tuna in our skiff swimming a half mile or so from a particular Plymouth beach. Another encounter happened in our 12 foot aluminum skiff in Cape Cod Bay as I reeled in a small bluefish. Out of the nowhere a huge animal (at the time I had no clue what it could of been) that was most likely a giant bluefin.

Ocean sunfish (aka mola mola) also get pretty active this time of the year off the Cape. These huge behemoth swimming “fish heads” of a fish begin appearing in very shallow water and in odd places like the Cape Cod Canal. Typically the swim slowly just beneath the surface, however for some unknown reason during the fall they launch themselves straight clear of the water and come crashing down-creating quite the top water explosion. They’ll often do this three or four times in a row before calling it quits.

A 500 plus pound ocean sunfish launching itself out the water like a giant tuna is quite the sight!

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October means one thing for a lot of folks here on Cape Cod. No it’s not bucket loads of candy or apple picking, its the pursuit of 1,000 pound fish within sight of shore.

Giant bluefin tuna typically infiltrate Cape Cod Bay (and many other areas) around Cape Cod during this special month. Of course it is feasible to catch a giant anytime June through December-October seems to be the optimal window for giant tuna hunting.

On top of all that, National Geographic’s “Wicked Tuna” show has gotten a lot of people pumped up for their chance at a giant. While most of us (myself included) do not have the tuna experience that these true professionals possess, we still do have a legitimate chance at bagging a huge fish this October.

Despite most of us falling under the “Googan” category, with some effort and time spent on the water, catching a fish the size of a car is not at all out of the picture.

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