Could the weather have been any better this winter?
I feel as if the winter never really happened here on Cape Cod, or really anywhere in New England for that matter. As I write this I am enjoying a nice "spring-like" breeze that is blowing through many of the open windows in the house. It's 50 plus degrees and sunny at the moment with tomorrow's temperatures expected to be in the mid 60's. Unreal!
The warm winter weather has kept water temperatures well above normal. From what I have heard Cape Cod Bay is about 2-3 degrees warmer than usual for this time of the year. How this will affect the 2012 saltwater fishing season is yet to be determined.
Some folks believe that this year's fishing will be a little off due to the extraordinarily warm winter we have been having. However all current signs seem to be pointing to the contrary.
I'm really looking forward to this season because it will be my first year of providing in-depth and detailed Cape Cod fishing reports for subscribers to the blog. To access premium fishing reports during the 2012 season, considering becoming a member. Right now you can sign up for just $1.
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I'm also looking forward to this season because I think the incredibly high amount of whale and dolphin activity this past winter in Cape Cod Bay bodes extremely well for the upcoming striped bass season.
According to the National Public Radio service there has been abundant, higher than normal levels of sea life in Cape Cod Bay this winter. Extraordinary numbers of plankton have attracted pods of whales deep into the Bay. A few months ago right whales were spotted cruising through the Cape Cod Canal. Each day more whales can be spotted feeding heavily on the surface often within just a few hundred yards of the beach.
My father spotted whales off Sandy Neck beach just a few days ago. Keep in mind that it takes a lot of food to feed a whale. It takes even greater amounts of food to attract the rarest whale in the ocean-the right whale-deep into Cape Cod Bay.
Scientists aren't sure if the slightly above average water temperatures are responsible for the higher than normal levels of plankton. One thing is for sure though, there has been a lot of life this winter in Cape Cod Bay. I believe this can only bode well for this year's fishing.
Looking forward to the spring small striped bass typically begin arriving in late April. I would imagine there is a good chance that we will see bass a bit earlier than normal this season-maybe around mid April. The majority of these first fish will be on the small side, between 12 and 20 inches.
The best places to target these early season striped bass are around bait filled estuaries inside Buzzard's Bay and on the Cape's southside. I've always had fantastic luck fishing the Weweantic and Agawam Rivers in Wareham early in the season with super light tackle. Many of the creeks and estuaries from Falmouth to Hyannis also have the potential to produce good fishing in April.
Of course Nantucket and the Vineyard are great places to try for the first striped bass of the season if you don't mind riding the ferry.
Once May rolls around the bigger bass will return to Cape Cod and the Islands. Buzzard's Bay has, over the past few seasons, produced phenomenal top water plugging for the boating crowd. The key is to locate the flocks of birds feeding alongside the bass by using radar.
If you start hearing great fishing reports trickling in from Buzzard's Bay, consider fishing the Cape Cod Canal, especially during breaking tides. Often times the biomasses of Buzzard's Bay bass will move through the Canal a few days after anglers find them feeding in the Bay. They'll stick around in the Canal for a day or two before moving north into Cape Cod Bay and beyond. Then a new batch of fish will move in from Buzzard's Bay a few days to a week later (at least that is the theory!).
Small bass can be caught in Cape Cod Bay usually during the first week of May. By the second week of May the schoolie fishing is generally pretty steady, with bigger fish filtering in with each passing day. The middle of May is when I start thinking about targeting keeper size bass in the Canal and in Cape Cod Bay.
Fishing with live mackerel can be a lot of fun during May. Macks infiltrate Cape Cod Bay early in the season and are generally pretty easy to find and catch. Trolling and drifting with live macks is a blast and an awesome way to catch truly big stripers. I can still remember watching a 32 pounder inhale a live mackerel last season right off the stern of the Miss Loretta. That was one sight I will not soon forget!
I am hoping that all this whale activity is a sign that there will be an extraordinary amount of bait present in Cape Cod Bay for mackerel to feed on. Last year's mackerel showing was a bit disappointing compared to past seasons-at least for yours truly. In contrast during 2010 Cape Cod Bay was chock full of mackerel from April right on through August. The bass fishing, in turn, was truly stellar.
The good news is that right whales were spotted with regularity deep inside Cape Cod Bay during the winter of 2009-2010. Low and behold the following summer season produced awesome fishing in Cape Cod Bay. So far this year we again have the plankton and the whales. I am crossing my fingers that this is a precursor to incredible bass fishing, much like we had during the season of 2010.
Happy Spring!
Ryan
