July 7 2018

60 Bass From The Beach

25  comments

Ryan Collins

Nighttime is the right time for stripers during July! Back on July 1st, two members of MFCC and I experienced an epic bite fishing from shore here on Cape.

In this report I'll share with you the story of this trip, while also providing as many tips and details about the best tide, lures, and other advice for finding and catching stripers from shore this month on Cape Cod.

To view every little detail of this report, please make sure you are logged-in to the My Fishing Cape Cod website with your username and password. If you are not yet member, then you can still access a lot of this report (or you can sign up as a member and get full access).

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Nighttime Tides

During this trip we crushed all the barbs on our hooks, which made for quick and easy releases.

On the night of June 30th I picked up My Fishing Cape Codders Dan Almanza and Steve Davis around 9:30pm. We piled into my truck, and a half an hour later, arrived at a quiet beach parking lot with a nearly full moon and bright stars shining above in the crystal-clear night sky.

Steve and Dan were new to surfcasting for stripers. I told them that during the summer it's best to fish for stripers from shore at night, because there is a better chance of fish coming in close along the shoreline. 

This "keeper" striped bass whacked Steve's lure just a few yards from shore. At night striped bass will often come into amazingly shallow water, as long as the tide is right.

We also chatted about the importance of tides, and I told the guys that when fishing the Cape from shore, you need to time your nighttime trips around the best tide for the spot you plan on fishing. 

  • Hey Ryan – Revisiting this old post for it’s great wealth of info. Do you happen to recall what length the rods were?

  • I will be up in Orleans next week and I will definitely be trying this out. I’ve only been a member for a few days and learning a ton. Thanks!

  • Ryan great post. Was interested in your thoughts on beach structures that are good 3 hours before and after low tide. I always seem to struggle to find productive areas around low tide other than inlets.

    • Hey Dan – thanks for reading!

      I too struggle to find good places at low tide, aside from inlets. However I have done well during the last part of the outgoing, and the first part of the incoming, by wading around boulder fields.

      It is more difficult fishing these boulder fields during the lower stages of the tide than it is during high tide, but if I am willing to get wet and wade around in waist deep water then it can be good. It’s just not ideal for when I bring people on a guided trip.

  • Great tip about the weed beds. I spend hours on google maps checking out various spots and I did not know that they show up on the maps like that. Will be very useful when I’m down there for a week next month. Thx TH

  • Ryan,
    On my recent vacation on the Vineyard I was catching some stripers with red lesions as well. In fact my only keeper of the trip was covered in them almost looked like it was bleeding through the scales. It was odd because all the fish I caught on the south side of the island. We’re like that. But the stripers we caught on the north side around Menemsha and Lobsterville were nice and healthy. I caught 3 on the south side beaches that were pale and had the red lesions which leads me to believe it’s some kind of disease or fungus in the school. When I looked it up there was an article from “on the water” from a few years ago and it looked very similar. Thanks and keep up the good work.

    • Very interesting Nathan. The fish definitely look “diseased” but I believe they are actually probably quite healthy. I don’t think the lesions have much of an affect on the fish, but keep in mind I’m no scientist ?

      It does seem like different areas on Cape have schools of fish with lesions, while other areas have bright and clean looking fish. Just goes to show that it seems like different spots support completely different populations of bass, perhaps coming from different areas (ie. the Chesapeake, Hudson etc.).

      • Yeah Ryan minus the lesions it was a fat fish. And it was perfect for the dinner table at 32″ I just didn’t want to keep a fish that looked like that. Thanks for the reply.

  • Great report, loved all the information about what lures used along with the tide info. Have been a member for about a year but only get up to the Cape a couple of times a year(spring & fall). Would this info hold true in Sept/Oct about the time of my next visit. Many Thanks Jim Taylor

    • Yes this info would hold true all season long. Those lures work exceptionally well from the beach (especially at night) and the tide and location information is the same May thru October.

      Thanks for supporting MFCC for the past year James. Great having you onboard as a member!

  • Great trip…nice fish Dan and Steve! Ryan – it is great how many “first time” and “personal best” accomplishments you’ve been able to share with MFCC members so far this season!

    • We’ve had a great 2018 season so far! Yes there have been some slow trips, but we’ve been blessed with some really productive trips as well. I’m looking forward to what happens next ✌?

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