I was all sorts of pumped up to get out striped bass fishing yesterday for the first time in 6 months. The strong wind, rain, fog and nippy temperatures were not going to deter me. It's May on Cape Cod which means one thing - the bass are back!
I've recently been receiving all sorts of emails and reports from members of the blog, which is really great. Thanks to your good advice and help, my fishing buddy Mazzola and I were able to piece together a great first striped bass trip of the 2012 season.
Because the wind was howling from the north, I knew that fishing the Cape Cod Bay side beaches would be pretty uncomfortable. Often times an onshore breeze pushes up big patches of weed tight against the beach. All these marine plants, plus an "in your face" 20 mile per hour breeze makes fishing very difficult-especially when fishing from shore.
I recently received a Cape Cod fishing report a few days ago from blog member and die hard fishermen Jim in Chicago. Now you wouldn't expect to hear a recent Cape Cod fishing report from a Chicago-an (not sure if that's a word!) but Jim has roots in Buzzard's Bay. Apparently a few of his family/friends have been getting into some decent action in the area so I figured it was definitely worth a shot.
Before heading out I hopped on Google Earth and started looking around at some potential fishing spots in the area Jim had mentioned. With Google Earth it is possible to quickly and easily identify areas conducive to holding striped bass. Using the program I found a nice spot with a deep channel that runs parallel to a popular swimming beach. To ice the cake I found a public parking lot where we could park the truck-thank you Google!
The weather in Buzzard's Bay was 100 times more enjoyable than the weather on the Cape Cod Bay beaches. The bay we chose to fish was glass calm and the wind was dead. On top of that the rain stopped which was appreciated.
As soon as we arrived we noticed that a fly fisherman to our left was hooked up. After a short battle he landed one of the smallest striped bass I have seen in years - this thing had to be less than one foot in length. Nevertheless that small fish was a good sign that put a bit more gusto into our casts.
It was not long after when I had a fish boil on my small pencil popper. I noticed a foot print in the water just behind the popper and one second later SMACK! Unfortunately I swung and missed on the bass and was quickly down 0 for 1 on the season. Eh well, I may have missed that first bass of 2012 but it was awesome to watch him explode on a top water plug.
After another 20 minutes of fruitless casting Mazzola and I decided to head to a new spot just to the south. A hop skip and a jump later and we were again casting for that highly anticipated first bass of the season.
Mazzola was the first to start registering bumps and taps. After a few missed fish he finally managed to set the hook into one of the little guys. After a quick fight he had his first striper of the year. It was a small fish but a good sign of things to come.
Five minutes later I was able to put my first bend in the pole when a little schoolie inhaled my curly tail grub right in front of my feet. Mission accomplished.
The sun was setting so we decided to make another move to the Cape Cod Canal for a chance at the first keeper bass of the season. I did not expect to find any sort of stellar action on big fish at the Canal on such a cold, rainy, foggy evening like last night, but I'm happy to say that we were delightfully surprised.
We put in some good effort but were rewarded with out first keeper striped bass of 2012. Man that fish hit like a freight train!
At one moment we had decent size stripers swirling right at our feet! There seemed to be plenty of bait around and pretty decent life for so early in the season...
Interested in learning about the exact spots fished and techniques used? Then consider becoming a MFCC member by clicking here.
Existing members can access the full extended fishing report by clicking here.
That sounds awesome Chris. My father saw gannets absolutely pounding that area a few days ago. I also heard that there were numerous whale spotted off the East End – as well as in the middle of the Bay and out towards Provincetown.
I will 100% be down there early next week!
Go get ’em!
Tons of Macks around the east end Monday, I’m anticipating some good action Sunday and Monday with the tides were going to have. Hope to see you guys out there!
Lies!! Just kidding. Great report Ryan, I’ll support that all day. Time to break out the old wand I guess. Give me a call when you’re heading down, I’ll come down and put on a little demonstration, free casting lessons and all : ).
Haha, yes all fish reports are just elaborated lies!
Thanks for the compliment. It was a great way to start off the season. I’d say it is definitely time to break out the wand and start casting around.
If you are offering fly fishing casting demonstrations than you most certainly would whoop my butt. I have no idea what I’m doing with a fly rod, very clueless.
Good luck if you head out this weekend and be sure to post something back here on the blog if you catch a nice one.
Thanks!