I am really fortunate to have grown up just a hop, skip and jump away from Cape Cod Bay. I was even luckier to have a 12 foot aluminum boat at my disposal, which I used as often as I could to chase striped bass and bluefish.
Since then the boat has changed, and I have learned quite a bit about how striped bass behave in the Bay. I think stripers behave differently depending on the area and Cape Cod Bay is no different.
In this post I am going to share with you 4 little known tips that I think will help you catch a few nice striped bass this season fishing Cape Cod Bay.
4) Dogfish aren't always an awful thing
Dogfish are small brown sharks that can inundate a giant expanse of ocean overnight. They are plentiful throughout Cape Cod and will often venture into the confines of Cape Cod Bay.
In most instances dogfish are not a good thing. They will eat just about anything, including tubes and virtually any striped bass bait you can think of. You may even snag a dogfish on a bunker spoon, if you happen to troll through one of their incredibly dense schools.
However dogfish aren't always an awful thing, because it's a clue that there is a lot of food in the area. It must take an incredible amount of bait to feed a school of a few hundred thousand dogfish. So if you find an area filled with dogfish, there is a fair chance that a few nice stripers may also be present.
I can recall many instances when fishing Cape Cod Bay, in which bass were nestled in among hordes of doggies. Sometimes it's difficult to cull through the dogfish, but it can be worth it.
3) Keep your eyes peeled for dive-bombing gannets
Cape Cod Bay is home to a variety of seafaring birds. Gannets in particular love Cape Cod Bay for its abundant supply of mackerel and herring.
During the spring and fall you can find gannets dive-bombing the surface of Cape Cod Bay. When you find a tract of water in which gannets are dive-bombing, you have most likely found an area chock full of large bait. Of course wherever you find bait you may also find striped bass, bluefish and even tuna.
Last spring dive-bombing gannets lead the way to stellar Cape Cod Bay striped bass fishing for a few sharp, and experienced local anglers. In years past I have found school tuna inside Cape Cod Bay using the same gannet-locating technique.
They say that the birds are the best fishermen of all. I could not agree more.
2) Always have a leadcore trolling setup ready to go
Trolling for stripers with leadcore line may not be as exciting as vertical jigging or topwater plugging, but sometimes it is the only way to scratch up a bite. This is particularly true during the middle of the summer on Cape Cod Bay.
Leadcore is great for striped bass trolling because it is easy to target suspended striped bass with leadcore line. Often when bass are suspended in Cape Cod Bay, the fish are very finicky, and may only bite the most perfectly trolled tube and worm rig.
With leadcore you can easily place your tube or lure at the precise depth at which the bass are holding. If that doesn't work you can make an adjustment and troll just slightly above or below the bass, until you crack the code.
1) Look for "sleepy stripers" on those grease calm days
Once in a while, stripers will swim right along the surface of the Bay on those super flat, grease calm mornings. The fish appear lazy when doing this, and are basically just calmly cruising just beneath the surface.
I first encountered this behavior fishing with my Dad from our 12 footer when I was younger. We stumbled upon acres of what looked like rain drops on the Bay's surface. To my amazement it was a huge school of 20-30 inch stripers.
Big bass will exhibit this behavior at times as well. You just never know until you get close enough to take a cast.
In Conclusion
There's many great places to fish from a boat on Cape Cod, and Cape Cod Bay is one of them. The waters from Plymouth to Provincetown are challenging to fish. I hope the above tips help you out during 2014.
What do you think? Let me know by commenting below.
Tight lines and take care,
Ryan
I saw that “lazy” striper activity for the first time last summer. Sitting in my kayak after the sun had come up and I see these dorsal fins up ahead just gliding slowly through the water. Sure enough, I could eventually make out the lines on their flank. I chased them around for a while but they wouldn’t take any of my offerings. Pretty cool stuff, though.
I agree Billy, it is pretty cool when you happen to come across them.
One of the few lures I have had success with is a needle fish. A couple years ago I cast a needle at a school of these “lazy stripers” expecting maybe a schoolie.
I was quite surprised when 30 pounders began fighting over the chance to suck down the needle! For whatever reason they wanted the needle that day – strange animals….
Nice going Ryan!! I couldn’t have said it better myself. I found a 43lbr glued to the bottom on my sonar all amongst the dogs last summer middle of the day a bit outside the plotline in 65ft. Crazy ivan’d his ass and dropped a conga eel right to the bottom. That massive eel swam through the dogs and right to the bottom. Doubled over before I knew it!! Tight lines!!
Isn’t it amazing? Those eels sure are strong…unfortunately that eel swam right into trouble. Tough life being an eel these days….lol
Thanks for sharing & keep in touch!
How is the fishing on The Bass River? Do any stripers come up the river?
Hey Shawn, it can be pretty solid. Stripers absolutely venture up into that river.
When do you plan on fishing Bass River?
Hey Ryan how hav u been,its been awhile since i messaged u,i love the imfo that u give and hav saved it all for this years notes,been busy wth kids sports and hunting,hot a piebald deer in 2013,first time any of my buddys and i hav seen one,bout 90% white,try to send u pics of. Hunting coyote til march but lookn forward to first cast! I like dog fish,like u say,have caught sum of my biggest stripers when they are around,great talkin to you,try to in contact with u more,ttyl
Al, I have been well, good to hear from you. Seems like you’ve had a fun and busy “off-season”!
I would love to see some hunting pics if you get a chance – [email protected]
Thanks for the concise, useful tips. Any info on how to cull through those dogfish? I ran into that situation quite a lot last year. Someone told me to use a faster retrieve when jigging or casting–saying the dogfish are slower to react than the stripers. Also, can you see a difference on sonar?
No worries Jim.
If you let the jig, lure, bait, tube whatever lay still for a moment then you really increase the chance of hooking a doggie.
On my sonar dogs look like squiggly lines and are more blueish in color than the orange/red that is more typical of bass.