With each passing day, fresh schools of striped bass are arriving and feeding on Cape Cod, like voracious tourists piling into an Old Country Buffet. Reliable reports of larger surf and boat bass weighing more than 20 pounds, have begun spreading like wildfire throughout the region. If you plan on fishing Cape Cod this Memorial Day Weekend, then you will indeed have a good chance at catching a memorable bass or two.

The one thing that may keep many anglers off the water this weekend is the forecasted winds. Of course things could change, but as of right now the weathermen are predicting gusty winds and choppy seas. For most of us this will translate into fishing from shore.

The good news is that late May is one of the best times of the season to target stripers from shore on Cape Cod. There are good size bass around right now, and many of them are hanging close to the beach. For surf casters, right now is prime-time. We may as well enjoy this opportunity, because once the heat of summer rolls around our odds of connecting with a nice fish from shore will diminish significantly.

So with all that in mind here are 3 ways to catch a striper this Memorial Day Weekend while fishing on Cape Cod.

1) Fish a Boulder Field

This past Tuesday I fished a boulder field and was rewarded with a nice and fat 37 inch striped bass. Boulder fields are great places to target stripers during the month of May. Here on Cape Cod there is absolutely no shortage of productive rocks to fish.

Productive boulder fields stretch from Plymouth down along the shoreline of Cape Cod Bay. Buzzards Bay has its fair share, as well as Vineyard Sound. A quick look at Google Earth can help tremendously with regards to locating good areas to fish. Check out the below video to get a sense of what I mean.

Of course locating a productive boulder field is just half of the battle. If you want to bring it all together and improve your odds of an epic trip, you will need the correct gear and at least a basic understanding of how tide and time of day influences the fishing.

Many different types of equipment and lures will get the job done. Yet as with anything else I have my favorites which I talk about in the below video.

(for information on tying knots visit this page)

As mentioned in the video, I have had my best success at boulder fields fishing the incoming tide. Yet it can pay to experiment and fish the same boulder field at different tidal stages, to see how fish in that specific area react.

As far as time of day is concerned, it is hard to beat a night time or sunrise trip. As is true in most striped bass fishing scenarios, the middle of the day is often the least desirable time to fish a boulder field.

2) Jigging Inlets

Last week I caught a nice keeper while jigging an inlet with a good old fashioned white bucktail jig. Inlets will be phenomenal places to target stripers this weekend, especially if there is a strong wind blowing in towards the inlet.

I like fishing inlets and estuaries when the wind is howling. Often times these are the only places that are fish-able when the wind is cranking. I also think that when the entire ocean is rolling in towards shore, it increases the odds of a school of big bass entering an inlet.

A sure fire strategy for me when fishing a new inlet has always been to try the outgoing tide first. There is no golden rule to follow with regards to tides in estuaries, and sometimes certain spots in the same estuary fish better at different stages of the tide. However generally speaking, when trying out a new inlet, I like to get there for the outgoing tide.

The size of the jig often depends on the size of the inlet. For example, the Cape Cod Canal is the largest inlet on Cape Cod (if you want to call it that). Therefore I often find myself casting 4 or 5 ounce jigs, and bouncing them along the bottom often in depths of 50 plus feet.

In the below video I was jigging a  9 inch Slug-Go on a 4 ounce lead head when a nice 27 pounder decided to engulf the jig without warning. The current was not moving very quickly, so you'll notice that I had to reel a little bit while jigging in order to keep the jig just off the bottom.

As you'll see in the video I also applied some scent to the jig. I don't know how much this helps, but I have always thought that it certainly can't hurt to slap some scent onto your jig every now and again.

At smaller inlets, the  jig of choice will often be something in the 1-3 ounce range. Depths in these inlets vary substantially, but most of the spots I like to fish are between 10-20 feet deep.

In both situations the same general jigging technique will get the job done. Cast up current, allow the jig to hit bottom, and then work the jig up and down by lifting and lowering the rod tip. When the current is really moving fast, you often will not even have to reel line in during the retrieve. Simply letting the jig tumble along in the current is plenty enough to entice a bite.

When fishing inlets in the spring and fall, you may catch a schoolie on one cast and a keeper on the next. This is exactly what happened to me in the below video while jigging a southside inlet with a small white bucktail.

3) Find the Birds and Find the Bass

If we do get a break in the breeze and you are able to make it out in a boat this weekend, definitely remember to keep an eye peeled for diving birds.  Bring along a pair of good binoculars, or use your radar to zone in on the flocks.

Migrating biomasses of stripers put the feedbag on this past week in numerous Cape Cod locales only accessible by boat. In most instances these fish were relatively far from shore, which will make getting to them quite difficult if the wind does indeed blow as they are predicting.

Yet if you do make it out on the water, try to take notice of the bird life in the area you are fishing. Are you seeing terns and small birds which indicate the presence of small bait fish? Or are gannets and larger sea birds dive bombing all around you?

Most of the terns will reside relatively close to shore, and often give away the presence of sand eels and other small bait fish. Good places to find this sort of action are over sand bars and inside estuaries.

Gannets and larger birds will be more focused on herring and mackerel. Sometimes these birds are an indication that the feeding frenzy is happening well beneath the ocean's surface. Remember that these birds are capable of diving down into the water, so just because you are not seeing bass busting on the surface, it does not mean that they are not around.

In Conclusion

Despite the iffy weather forecast, I think we all have a pretty good chance at finding some good action this weekend fishing Cape Cod.

I will be eagerly anticipating some solid fishing reports being posted in the MFCC Members Forum. Our forum is really taking off this season which I think is great.

What are your fishing plans for this weekend? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Tight lines and take care,

Ryan