Big Fish on Top

My latest Cape Cod striped bass fishing trip began at the leisurely hour of 4:45AM-just in time to catch the sunrise. My idea was to check out an area I haven't fished since last season, in hopes of finding bass busting on top. I was excited to be on the water, and so was my buddy Andrew, who was mate for this trip.

We were greeted by a moderate SW wind and picture perfect skies. I kept an eye on the sonar and Andrew searched for birds during our 15 mile run. I felt like our chances were pretty good, as long as the destination was not completely devoid of life.

We ended up not marking or seeing a thing.

Around 6AM I decided to head closer to shore to see what we could find. Once in tight to the beach the sonar lit up with clouds upon clouds of sand eels. Terns and plovers were diving in the shallows and squawking up a storm. The bait was here.

But the bass were nowhere to be found. Despite thoroughly working the area we failed to entice a bite. I only marked a few very small bass hugging the bottom. Perhaps larger fish were in the area, but they weren't making a move on the bait.

Either way the sun was climbing high in the sky and our odds of experiencing a good top water bite were fading fast. I decided to head back out to deeper water which I felt improved my chances of stumbling across bigger bait and larger fish. It was not long until Andrew spotted birds working the surface a half mile or so in the distance.

We could see bass tearing up the water beneath the diving terns. The sonar showed a big school of stripers just beneath the hull of our boat. The fish were here, and there were a lot of them.

After taking one cast and feeling the bass hit my jig, I knew we were dealing with an acre of school-size bass. The fish were voraciously slurping down sand eels all around us. The stripers were small but fun on the light tackle.

We caught a few small fish and watched in amazement as the feeding frenzy continued all around us. I decided it was time to make a move in the bottom of the 9th, to try to find some larger bass. We reeled in the lines and headed way down to the east, to an area I thought would give us a better chance at a good fish.

Upon arrival Andrew instantly spotted a flock of birds dive bombing the water off in the distance. I slowly eased our way towards the action. With 200 yards to go a school of much bigger bass erupted on the surface. The fish were going nuts!

Andrew was on the bow, waiting for the right moment to cast. The center of the action was still out of casting range. I had to get us up close and personal to the feeding frenzy, without spooking the fish.

From about 50 yards Andrew fired his pencil popper just beyond the surface feed. It was the perfect cast for the situation. I watched the plug dart back and forth for about three yards when one of the fish turned towards the plug.

With a powerful swoosh of his tail the bass exploded on the pencil, spraying white water into the air. Andrew reeled up tight, leaned back and was on with the first real nice bass of the morning.