Andrew Burke
After fishing until 12:30am the night before, I cracked my eyes open at 2:45am to hit the water yet again. The plan was to fish a sunrise tide at Cape Cod Canal with MFCC member and contributor Hayden Gallagher.
Hayden and I had made plans to fish together during the 2017 season, and scheduling would have it that last Thursday (May 25th) would be ideal for a meet-up at the Canal.
I was very excited to hit the canal, considering the great reports that have been coming from the general area. However, this would be my first time seriously fishing the banks of the Cape Cod Canal...
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Do Your Homework
I fish the beaches of Cape Cod nearly every day, but in order to be successful at the Canal, I knew I had to do some research beforehand.
Canal striped bass seem to love smashing pencil poppers, so I made sure I had quite a few of them in my bag on the day. With reports of herring in the canal, I also packed my trusty Super Strike popper in a herring colorway.
Luckily, Hayden sent me a text saying that mackerel have been thick in the canal during the morning. Knowing that, I made sure I packed a big pencil popper with a very realistic mackerel pattern.
Armed with knowledge and some pencil poppers, I set my alarm for the early morning hours...
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Next time try and leave some slime on the fish. Most of it ended up on your pants. Super bad for the fish.
For sure Sean, definitely best to do everything possible to make sure the fish swims away in good shape ✌️
Great video and information. My plan is try the Canal this Saturday (08/05) for the first time. Pretty new to the area and saltwater fishing. I like this website already..
Glad to hear you’re enjoying MFCC! Hope you had some luck this Saturday at the Canal. Tight lines!
Hey Andrew,
Quite the workout bringing in big fish against that current. I noticed that you hold the line between the fingers of your rod hand as you work the pencil popper. Interesting. What do you feel that helps you with?
Indeed it is Dex! And I hold the line between my fingers when pencil popping sometimes, to make sure the line is going tightly onto the spool to prevent any risk of wind knots. Normally, I only do this when I’m fishing a pencil in a stiff crosswind, but since this was Hayden’s reel, I was making sure I didn’t get any wind knots in it. Just overly cautious in this case!
Nice write up and video!! Just a tip on rigging the SP minnows. The hook hangers on SPs aren’t the strongest. So to minimize twisting of the hangers try adding a 125lb (or greater) swivel to the setup you show in the picture. So you would have hook hanger, split ring, swivel and then cut the eye on a 2/0 or 3/0 treble hook. Slide the hook onto the swivel then crimp the eye closed with a pair of pliers. The SP will cast the same, retrieve the same and be much more durable. I do this for the canal or for the open beaches. Just a thought.
Thanks for the advice! Funny you mention it, I just had a fish wreck the hooks of my SP minnow. That’s what I get for not changing them out LOL. I’ll certainly be taking your recommendation!
Nice
Thanks!!!
Very cool. I like the pictures you used to illustrate matching the hatch. Any plans on heading out my way this summer Andrew?
Thanks Brian! I certainly do have plans to make it to MV. I think I’ll be out sometime in late June, and will definitely keep you posted!
Great post ?
Nice job on the post and video congratulations on that fish welcome to fishing the canal
Thanks Hayden! Let’s hit it sometime again soon!
I was down there with Ryan T that same day. It was a pretty epic morning!
Indeed it was! Heard you had some very nice fish!
That certainly was a good morning, great report!
Great write up and video!
Thanks Ryan!!!