Here’s What Happened This Week Fishing On Cape Cod

There is a lot of life infiltrating the Cape's waters right now. This past week I encountered everything from scup to squid, striped bass to horseshoe crabs, tautog and sea herring and many other species.

I saw some of the first keeper striped bass of the season and heard a few rumors of fish at the Canal. Overall I had an excellent week, and I hope you did too!

In this Cape Cod fishing report I will recap everything I experienced this past week in hopes that it'll help you make the most of your fishing this weekend.

Fishing Cape Cod This Week | VIDEO Recap

This week my friend Jason Mazzola and I splashed his boat for the first time this season. I also spent plenty of time surfcasting for stripers and exploring new beaches, harbors and coves on the Cape.

Before we get into the "nitty gritty" of this post I want to share with you a 2 minute video recap of all the interesting things that happened to me this week fishing-wise. Click below to watch.

Detailed accounts of each one of the fishing trips mentioned in the video (and more) are available in the Reports category which you can view right now by clicking here.

There Are Schoolie Stripers In Almost Every Cove, Harbor, Estuary & Bay

This past week I consistently observed more schoolie striped bass feeding than in weeks prior. On 3 separate occasions I watched bass slurping down bait off the surface.

Small lures such as the 3.5 inch Storm Shad were most effective for me.

The key to success for me was to fish the section of a bay, harbor, estuary or cove where I could cast into deep water, where there was some current.

Here's what one such area looks like on Google Earth.

I would hypothesize that these areas will begin seeing small keeper stripers with greater consistency this weekend and into next week. I already know of a few 30 inch bass taken in such spots, and based on reports in our forum it seems like larger stripers are already here-most folks (myself included) just haven't caught one yet.

What You Can Find, When You Splash Your Boat

It felt great to be back on the water this week, despite the blustery and choppy conditions.

Scup & Tautog

The scup bite was quite outrageous. A small piece of squid on the bottom was all that was needed to entice plenty of 10 plus inchers.

I would recommend bringing along plenty of green crabs as well, because right now is also a superb time to target tautog. Rock piles are the best places to find these hard fighting, tasty fish.

You can read about our scup and tautog fishing trips by clicking here.

Mackerel & Sea Herring

The month of May is historically a great time for mackerel fishing. Mackerel move in close to shore off the Cape and can be caught with relative ease.

Yet I wondered how this colder than normal spring would affect the mackerel migration. So far for me at least, the mackerel fishing is off to a slow start.

However, we did find some sea herring this past week throughout the typical mackerel grounds.

You can read the complete reports of how our boat fishing trips panned out this week, by clicking here and visiting the 2014 boat reports category.

Cape Cod Canal Update

The rumors are swirling! However, is there any truth to them?

As mentioned last week, due to the intense popularity of Canal fishing, I am not going to comment here on what is or what is not happening right now at the Canal.

However, if you'd like to learn more about what's cooking down at the Big Ditch, I would recommend visiting our forum by clicking here and browsing some of the recent Canal threads.

The MFCC community is growing quickly, with more than 380 active members. I am really happy at how friendly and helpful everyone has been so far this season in the forum, especially with regards to the Canal.

Let's keep it up!

Are You New To Fishing Cape Cod?

With the 2014 Cape Cod fishing season just getting underway, I wanted to share with you a new quick start guide I have created specifically for people who are new to fishing the  Cape Cod area.

This easy-to-consume guide will provide you with basic Cape Cod fishing information as well as information about licenses, common fishing courtesy and a variety of other topics.

If you are new to fishing the Cape, then I feel this guide will be extremely valuable to you.

You can download the guide right now for free by clicking here or on the image below.

In Conclusion & Looking Forward

Larger striped bass, at least up to 35 inches, are here on Cape Cod. The thing is they are just arriving, so there does not seem to be any huge concentrations of them just yet.

However I have seen photos and received emails showing me that some keepers have been taken. So if you head out this weekend it might be a good idea to bring along a few slightly larger plugs and lures in case you stumble upon something more significant than 20 inch schoolies.

Boat fishing ought to improve this weekend and into next week as larger fish make their way north to the Canal and around the Outer Cape. Right now is most certainly a great time to go fishing.

Tight lines and take care,

Ryan

What do you think? Let me know by commenting below.