The Canal, which had been slow for most of July, turned on big time Thursday morning. With bass up to 40 pounds caught, this weekend could finally produce some nice fish for the weekend warriors.
The Bay has fished very well for us all year and especially this past week. It’s been basically all tube and worm and believe me I have tried some other techniques. For whatever reason these fish just want to be fed tubes.
I’m not sure exactly what kind of bait I was marking this past week. If I had to guess I would say sea herring and/or sand eels. There are still some mackerel from the East End down towards Scorton Ledge.
If you put your time in this weekend on the Bay, you may hook into a bass in the 20-45 pound range.
Compared to last year the fishing off Chatham is, as of this moment, not quite as incredible. The thing that is still incredible is the amount of boats!
A few of the guys I know who are very skilled fishermen only managed a handful of bass the past few days off the Backside. That’s saying something considering that these guys usually have no trouble at all filling up the boat.
Snapping wire along the bottom has been producing the best. At times there has been a decent vertical jigging bite, but for the most part this has been few and far between.
However Wednesday night’s intense northeast blow may have stirred things up a bit. Yesterday morning there were whales in surprisingly close to shore, which tells you that the bait got pushed in by the breeze.
If the bait continues to get jammed up against the beach things could really turn on again off the Outer Cape.
There’s been many bass over 30 pounds taken this past week off Cape Cod.
The weather this past week was a little nutty at times, but all in all we enjoyed a nice week on the water. There’s plenty of life in Cape Cod Bay, Nantucket Sound and off the Outer Cape for those who are hoping to find some good action this weekend.
I’m no scientist but I will go out on a limb and say that it seems like the bass are starting to think about settling into their summer time routines. There’s a big bulk of fish that moved north across Nantucket Sound to Chatham and bass in Cape Cod Bay are starting to show up in their deep water haunts. Spring is behind us – well, sort of!
There’s still some incredible top water action going on out there for folks who like to cast plugs. For guys like me who prefer live bait, live mackerel is still an option. Bunker spoons and the tube and worm have been working well on big fish for the trolling crowd.
I’m a little short on time today/this weekend so instead of typing up a full forecast I went ahead and put together a couple videos depicting the areas that I personally know fished well this past week.
For the Cape Cod Bay video forecast and spots that should produce well click here or on the below image.
For the Cape Cod Canal video forecast and spots that should produce well click here or on the below image.
I have not been able to get down to check out the good bite at Monomoy, but I hope to the beginning of next week. I’m planning on fishing the area from shore so we will see what happens.
For more information on fishing the Monomoy area, I recommend checking out Goose Hummock’s fishing report section. A few of the charter captains down that way do a nice job of writing up quality reports – and we all know how valuable reliable information is when planning a fishing trip.
On the Water also does a nice job of checking in with all the local tackle shops, so I recommend heading on over to their website for a good read as well.
For the latest on the tuna bite check out John Bunar’s Massachusetts Fishing Report. Maybe one of these days I will find the time to get out tuna fishing again!
Have a great weekend and I’ll be sure to post anything I hear over the weekend regarding hot spots and fast action in the members forum.
I still can’t get over this beast – congratulations Tom and crew!
The bass fishing around Cape Cod has, so far this season, been the absolute best it has been in years (at least in my opinion!).
I was speaking with a couple long time fishermen yesterday, guys who have fished the Ditch, Cape Cod Bay and the Outer Cape beaches for years. They agreed that the fishing so far this season has been nothing short of stellar – especially at the Canal.
“Absolutely epic” is how they have been describing the action at the Canal.
I agree with them. It seems like the main body of stripers, millions of bass, have decided to swim in closer to shore this season. Last season the fishing was much more hit and miss, at least for yours truly. This year I can’t go buy a gallon of milk without someone commenting on all the big bass they’ve been seeing.
The stellar start to this season makes good sense based on the huge amount of bait that is around. The waters off Cape Cod are very healthy this year, from the bottom of the food chain all the way up to the top. Fishing is most certainly a cyclical activity, and fortunately it seems like the 2012 season is on the uptick of that cycle.
I’ve heard of giant bluefins, bruiser bluefish and cow bass this week being caught in areas and in amounts that guys have not experienced in a long time. Something special is most certainly happening out there.
There was even a rare Beluga whale spotted of Provincetown and the Cape Cod Canal – go figure!
I can only imagine what’s going to happen to next. Needless to say, if you are heading out fishing this weekend I think you stand a great chance at finding some fish that are willing to bite.
Blog member and good friend Andrew Massard came out tuna fishing yesterday with Mazzola and myself. We didn’t hook up with any giants, but we did find acres of mackerel and humpback whales.
For many Cape Cod fishermen this past week has been incredible. The good news is that if you weren’t able to cash in on this past week’s phenomenal fishing, there is a fine chance that you can find some action this weekend.
The first week in June has historically (at least for the past few seasons) been one of the best striped bass fishing months of the entire year – at least on Cape Cod and in particular at the Cape Cod Canal. As if on schedule, this past week featured some of the best striper fishing we have experienced thus far this season.
It all began last weekend with some fine catches of bass well over the 25 pound mark and even well into the 40 pound class. I was not able to make it down to the Canal last weekend, but a few of my buddies did extremely well – even in the afternoon. If you want to torment yourself, then become a Facebook friend of Canal Bait and Tackle.
Jeff is always posting pictures of the latest fish weighed in at the shop. There have been some absolute monsters weighed in recently and the pictures on Canal Bait’s facebook page tell it all.
I’m sure more than one fifty pounder has swum through the Canal this past week.
The solid Canal fishing continued into Monday morning, with all out blitzes happening throughout the land cut. Again, I completely missed the bite! I heard about the fishing via email, text message and even a phone call from my Mom and Dad, who both saw fishermen dragging big stripers back to their trucks after the morning bite.
Finally, after hearing all these positive reports I woke up before 3AM on Tuesday and was rewarded with a beautiful fish. The action on Tuesday at the Ditch wasn’t as hot as on Monday, but were still some real nice fish to be had.
Well yesterday the Canal bite turned on big time again. Again I missed it as I was out poking around Stellwagen Bank for tuna (not complaining!). My father drove by one Canal hot spot and saw 10 guys all with nice bass in the 20-30 pound range.
Will these bass stick around for the weekend gang? Your guess is as good as mine, but one thing is for sure – you just have to go and find out.
If you’ve never been part of an all out Canal blitz, then you may want to check out the Ditch this weekend. Of course there are no guarantees, but historically this weekend fishes pretty well at the Canal.
Aside from the Canal, stripers are being caught all over Cape Cod. There’s been nice bass caught from Billingsgate to P-town and everywhere in between.
Now I’m not saying you are guaranteed to catch a striped bass. But so far this spring has been pretty darn good as far as striped bass fishing is concerned.
I think the main reason is that there is a ton of bait around.
Yesterday I was out in 90-200 feet of water poking around for bluefin tuna. The amount of sand eels, mackerel, whales and seals that we encountered was staggering. Every 100-200 yards, for well over a mile, we found globs upon globs of mackerel. We hooked up with macks virtually anywhere we dropped a sabiki rig.
Granted these particular macks, sand eels, whales and seals are a ways away from the beaches of Cape Cod, however it is just one example of how abundant our Cape Cod marine ecosystem is at the moment. Much more abundant, in my opinion, than what I personally observed last year at this time.
Hopefully all this life sticks around through this weekend! Fortunately I just received word that certain areas had some pretty good bass fishing this morning, which bodes well for the weekend crew.
