Eeling and Plugging Late Season Stripers | October 18 Report

Yesterday was a flat calm sunny October day - perfect for fishing Cape Cod in the boat.  I had my folks with me yesterday, my mom Kathy and my dad Jake.  Two very nice people!

My mom recently had surgery and had half of her left lung removed.  Pretty serious stuff.  Thankfully the procedure went well and things are looking good.  You really can't tell that she's recovering from such a surgery based on the above photo can you?

Pretty incredible woman.

So with some bright sunshine and light winds we headed out to the Cape Cod hot spots from this past summer.  Right off the bat we found fish, however they were not quite as big as the brutes we had in these same areas a few weeks ago.  It seems that the bulk of the big bass in the Cape Cod Bay area have moved south.

Do I think another batch of behemoth bass will move in?  I absolutely do, however when and where is a question I honestly can't answer at the moment.  Nevertheless I've learned from past experience that bass well above the 50 pound mark venture into the area throughout October and even into November - so I'm certainly not throwing in the towel on a big Cape Cod striped bass just yet.

We worked the waters for a few hours yesterday, managing a handful of small stripers and small bluefish.  I found the small bass congregated around inlets in less than 3 feet of water.  We also found bass feeding under birds down along the beach, within 30 feet of shore.  The bluefish were hanging out deeper with plenty of dogfish in 40-45 feet of water.

Cape Cod Surf Fishing Report | October 18

So after a nice afternoon on Cape Cod Bay I still had the bug for bass.  I have a bunch of live eels in a tank in my driveway, so I figured why not use them?

October is the time for fishing live eels from shore.  If you have never fished with eels from shore before, then I recommend you do it now.  It's a blast and striped bass in shallow water absolutely hammer them.

I actually just put together a member's post on how to fish live eels from shore, which you can access by clicking here.  You'll learn the techniques I've found to work best, as well as some areas to try.

So after spending a few hours taking care of email and other work related computer stuff, I headed down to the beach just before midnight.  The skies were crystal clear and there was absolutely no wind - perfect for Cape Cod surf fishing with live eels.

With no moon the beach scene was pitch black and I could barely see more than a few feet in front of me.  The sand was damp from the retreating tide and I noticed that loads of phosphorescence was present in the wet sand.

Phosphorescence is present in sea water and glows bright green when disturbed.  As I walked I left bright green glowing foot prints in the sand which was very cool.  The phosphorescence was so bright that I could see it glowing from a distance.

I chose to fish with "pencil" eels last night.   A pencil eel is simply a nickname for a very small and skinny eel.  Usually these are the eels that bait shop owners feel bad selling, because they are just so small.  However when fishing from shore these small eels can be killer.

Small bass can be very difficult to hook when using a large eel.  The fish will nip at the tail, bump the eel but not get the hook.  With small pencil eels hooking up with a small bass is much easier.

I could hear bass popping around in the flat calm conditions.  Once in a while I would hear bait spraying off in the darkness.  I began casting my pencil eel around the area and on my second cast I had a pickup.  Fish on!

The fish was no monster but he gave a nice tug.  He was not the only fish in the area either.  I began hooking up or at least getting a good  WHACK once every 6 casts or so.

Check out the below video for more*

*Filming in the dark is not easy (obviously!) You'll get a better picture if you select to view the video in HD.  Just click on the "gear" icon in the You Tube window below and choose HD.

If you'd like to learn how to fish with live eels from shore, be sure to check out the latest member's blog post.  Click here to access the article.

All in all it was a great surf casting trip.  Extremely relaxing and fun.  The perfect weather conditions were a nice bonus.

I know I'll be fishing with eels from shore at least a few more times this October.  One of these nights I'm bound to stumble across a nice body of big bass.  Until then I'll be happy chipping away at the little guys.

Thanks and tight lines!

Ryan