10 Reasons To Already Get Excited For Spring Fishing On Cape Cod

There may be 3 feet of snow outside, but in my mind, spring is not that far away. I plan on wetting a line about one month from now, as soon as the snow and ice begins to melt.

Whether you want to catch trout, stripers or just some fresh air, we sure have a lot to look forward to!

Here's 10 reasons to already get excited.

More...

10)  Getting back outside

Most of us spend a great deal of time indoors during the winter. One of the best and most refreshing aspects of spring, is getting back outside.

You won't find many other people on the beach right now. Early spring is an excellent time to explore the Cape's "wild" places before the busy season begins.

Early in spring before the fish arrive, I love hiking and exploring the Cape's estuaries, woodlands, ​beaches and dunes...

I filmed the above video using a drone and GoPro camera at a beach I wouldn't dare venture to during the busy summer season - it gets packed! 

But during March and April you'll have the entire place all to yourself. Here's a few of my favorite places to catch some fresh air:

Of course there are countless other places to explore on Cape Cod. The above list is just the tip of the iceberg.

9)  Catching a trout

I fell in love with the simplicity of trout fishing during April of 2014, and I cannot wait to give it another go this season.

​As is normally the case for me, the best part of trout fishing is being outside in a nice natural setting. Fortunately there is no shortage of kettle ponds on Cape Cod to explore, and many of them are stocked with trout.

I fish for trout in the same fashion I surfcast for stripers - walk/wade and cast plugs. Only difference is the 6lb line and tiny Rapala!​

No doubt my strategy is not the most effective. If I used shiners, powerbait, worms or various flies, I would probably catch more.

The benefit of my strategy is I get to explore and see the entirety of the pond, surrounding woods, and beaches.​

Click play below to see what I mean:

During early spring there are many places on Cape Cod where you can catch some nice trout and find solitude at the same time. For me trout fishing is simple and peaceful.

It's a great way of easing back into "fishing shape."​

Here's a few of my favorite posts from 2014 about trout fishing Cape Cod's kettle ponds:​

8)  Finding your new surfcasting hot spot

Early spring is also a fantastic time to scope out new areas to fish once the stripers arrive...

In 2014 I stumbled upon one of my most productive fishing spots (pictured above) during an exploratory hike in early April, well before any migratory striped bass showed up.​

A month and a half later I was catching some awfully nice bass and bluefish in this new area, which I never knew existed, prior to that early April exploratory hike.​

This is a good time of the year to notice the changes which the winter ocean has brought to the Cape's beaches, bays, harbors and estuaries. You will likely see that the sands have shifted since the last time you stepped foot on the beach.

New bars and troughs have appeared in new areas. Some inlets may now be wider, while others are skinnier. Or like what happened in Chatham during 2013, an entire section of coastline may of been breached.

7)  Catching your first striper of the season

Catching that first fish of the season is always a thrill. Depending on where and when you are fishing, your first bass may be a holdover, or a fresh migratory striper.

Here on Cape Cod rumors of stripers being caught typically start to fly early in April. Often times these are holdover striped bass which spent the winter hunkered down in an estuary or back bay.

Once the weather begins to warm these holdover stripers get active and feed with vigor. By the end of April fresh migratory stripers from the open ocean start to appear, and join the holdovers in their feeding frenzies.​

The best places to find these early spring stripers are usually in estuaries, protected coves and shallow bays.

These places warm up quick and can be chock full of bait and small prey items.

Light tackle and barb-less hooks are a good idea because most of these fish are "micro" size​. These first fish of the season may be small, but they are a lot of fun considering it may of been months since you caught your last striper!

Click play to see what to expect:

There are many different lures which work well for early spring schoolies. Below are two of my favorites, and remember to use a pair of pliers to crush the barbs on the hooks.

Crushing the barbs causes far less damage to these small and fragile fish. ​

3 inch Storm Shad

4 inch Curly Tail Grub

As far as areas are concerned, I feel you're best luck will be in the upper reaches of estuaries. A kayak or small boat can come in handy for accessing these spots. 

When on foot I often find myself trudging through weeds, forest, mud and muck to reach the most productive upper reaches of marsh systems.​

To get a better idea of the best areas to target, I would recommend reading the following reports from 2014:

The spring of 2014 was very cold, and I would say the fishing was about 3 weeks "behind schedule." I will be interested to see what happens this spring!

6)  Sight fishing for tautog

Tautog are a lot of fun to catch, whether fishing from shore or boat. Spring is one of the best times to fish for these hard pulling, delicious eating, rock loving, green crab crushing finned friends.

"When the dandelions bloom" is when the old timers here on Cape start fishing for tog. I've had good success catching tautog throughout the month of May.

Tautog congregate around rock piles. If you're fishing from a boat, look for rock piles on your chart in places like Buzzard's Bay, Nantucket Sound and Vineyard Sound. ​

If you're fishing from shore, focus on rock jetties and places where boulders and rock piles extend out from shore. If conditions are right, you may even be able to sight fish for tautog, which is a unique experience.​

The arrows in the above photos point to keeper-size tautog, which were darting into and out of the crevices of a long rock jetty.

The next step in a situation like this would be to pitch a green crab at the fish.

Let the tog crush the crab...

...and then set the hook!

Do your best to prevent the tautog from burying itself deep into the rocks. If all goes well you'll eventually have yourself a delicious tautog dinner.

If you'd like to uncover more about sight fishing for tautog, then watch the below tautog video report my fishing buddy Andrew Massard and I created in May of 2014.

***You'll have to be logged in as a My Fishing Cape Cod member in order to view the above tautog video report.

5)  Encountering a blitz at the Cape Cod Canal

Keeper-size striped bass show up in the Cape Cod Canal usually at some point in early May. This is a very exciting moment for a lot of people.

At the same time alewives and river herring are making their annual migration up the Bournedale herring run to spawn. 

Atlantic mackerel, which reside in Cape Cod Bay, will also venture into the Canal during May. Pogies even join the party once in a while.

Catching a speedy Atlantic mackerel​ in wide open Cape Cod Bay is quite difficult for a striper. The mackerel has a lot of space to escape to.

But in the confines of the Canal, mackerel, herring and pogies are much easier to catch. Occasionally the bait will even be driven up onto shore by marauding stripers.

The first migrating schools of bass are mostly "schoolie size", and arrive early in May. Larger fish tend to show up later in the month through June. Arrival times change from season to season, and may be dependent on water temps.

One thing is for sure. The collective consciousness of striped bass in the Cape area have discovered the Canal to be prime feeding habitat. The fish population has learned to use the Canal as a migration shortcut to the north.

If it weren't for all the fishermen, the Canal would be a paradise for striped bass!​

Check out our new Fishing the Cape Cod Canal page for more info about fishing the Big Ditch.

4)  Live crabbing tropical sand flats

A bright and sunny morning spent fishing the great sand flats of Cape Cod is one surefire way of warming up after a long cold winter.

Some of Planet Earth's most expansive sand flats can be found right here places like Cape Cod Bay, Monomoy, Wellfleet and various other areas around the Cape.

The flats are spectacular places​ to catch a sunrise or sunset.

I tend to venture to the flats later in the spring, but before the real heat of summer sets in. My best luck seems to occur when water temps are still relatively cool.

However I do know of a 48lb striped bass caught in a tidal pool over the flats during the middle of August. Go figure!​

Most folks use sand eel imitations, which can work extremely well. However, I prefer to use live crabs (granted I can find them).

You can find crabs like the one above scurrying over the flats in just a couple feet of water during the ebb. Reach down and grab them before they bury themselves.

Watch out for your fingers!

I feel your chance of enticing the interest of a larger striped bass is increased when using a premier live bait like a crab.

If I was a big striper, I would opt for the crab over a Slug-Go every time.

Cuts, troughs and tidal pools can be good places to check for stripers amid the miles of expansive flats.I like to think of tidal pools as "oasis" among a desert of sand.

This season I plan to use a kayak for accessing these areas. The kayak ought to be a valuable tool for extending my fishing time at these extremely tide dependent troughs, cuts and holes.

3)  Splashing the boat for the first time

Getting on the water for the first time after the winter off-season is always a special moment.

Even if the weather doesn't cooperate...

There's lots of striped bass fishing options during the spring if you have a boat at your disposal. You could:

The list goes on...

During late May and June of 2014, there was a stretch of time when topwater blitzes seemed commonplace in certain spots off Cape Cod.

I was lucky to be there on one of the days when good size bass came to the surface.​

Hordes of mackerel moved in to feed on the clouds of sand eels. Stripers to 30 pounds followed suit and began chasing the mackerel all over creation. 

This sorta thing is not common once the heat of summer settles in. There's many exceptions, but the most memorable topwater feeds I've ever seen while fishing from a boat happened during late May and early June.​

One of my favorite ways of catching stripers at this time of the season is on live bait. During May and June it's usually pretty simple to find mackerel and sea herring anywhere off the northside.

Load up the live well by jigging Hyabusa sabiki rigs in 50 or more feet of water.​ 

Find where the bait is by keeping tabs on our forum, or just look for diving gannets.

2)  Plugging the beach​

I've been really fortunate to do all sorts of different kinds of fishing in my lifetime. Yet right now, without a doubt, my heart is set on fishing the beach. 

Luckily for us surfcasters, spring is a time when large striped bass gravitate to shallow near-shore areas.

Even better, you can fish during daylight and expect success (contrasted to July and August when night time is the right time).

Bluefish are also around, and this early in the season I still enjoy catching them.​

Things get crazy when bluefish push a shoal of squid up close to the beach. Sometimes it is very possible to catch two bluefish on one plug!

I feel your best bet for encountering topwater bluefish action will be off the southside of the Cape from mid-May to mid-June.​

Some good places to hit at sunset for blues include:

These can be good places to look for stripers as well, however my best luck plugging the beach for bass during the spring of 2014 happened on the beaches of Lower Cape Cod. The bait in this area of the Cape during May and June was extraordinary.

​During one particular morning MFCC member Jeff Richard and I encountered bass and blues feeding upon juvenile herring, sand eels and squid.​

Neither Jeff or myself caught any monsters that morning, but we did catch bluefish, dozens of schoolies and a few small keepers-mostly on topwater plugs.

The stretch from Eastham to Provincetown has been very kind to me the past 2 years and I'm hoping for a repeat during 2015. Additionally the boulder fields of Buzzard's Bay are also worth a check.

Huge striped bass can be found in amazingly shallow water among these boulder fields. Only issue is successfully landing them once hooked!

​Here's what happened to me in the boulder fields, last year during the month of May​...

In hindsight I would have fought that striper quite differently. What else can I say aside from "I tried my best."

​For more on surfcasting Cape Cod, check out our new Surfcasting Cape Cod page here on MFCC.

1)  The Next In-person MFCC Fishing Class at Bass Pro Shops

I've been having a great time at these in-person fishing classes!

The most recent set of classes at Bass Pro Shops in Foxboro, MA back on January 17th was a ton of fun, and I am looking forward to hosting another round of classes at Bass Pro towards the end of March.

I have some interesting ideas for the next classes including:​

​It's almost that time again...

I can feel the excitement in the emails, comments and forum posts. It is nearly that time and it won't be long now.

​I wish you the best this spring! The months of April, May and June are certainly some of the most special for fishing on Cape Cod.

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

Tight lines and take care,

Ryan​