This past month I've spent my nights hanging with my girlfriend Lauren or working on the computer, reading an enlightening book or having a staring competition with our cat Izzy. It's been riveting.
It had been 6 months since I fished the beach at night, and 6 months is far too long a time to go without fishing the beach at night, if you were to ask me. 6 months is far too long to not be a nocturnal creature, if for just a night or two, and experience the feeling of being alone on a 15 mile stretch of beachfront, that only a skunk, or a deer has stepped on in weeks.
That's a feeling that not many people quite understand, and that's a feeling that I can't quite explain. It's why I went fishing last night and why I will go fishing tonight too.
I am fortunate to have such an understanding woman in my life. Unfortunately the darn cat just doesn't get it.
Night Fishing Cape Cod Report | May 16
"That's  a squid" is what I said aloud to myself as I peered down into the water at a squid the size of my forearm. The squid was big, as far as inshore squid are concerned, and he had tried to eat my lure which I intended to use for stripers-not squid.
Either way, seeing the squid was a good sign because it meant the area was chock full of small fishes, bait and prey items which the squid, and striped bass, love to feed upon.
Then I saw a swirl, and another, and then a definite splash. These were no squid.
These were bass and they were feeding. The stripers were nearly leaping across the surface of the water, as they hunted down their prey. Shooting this way and that, scaring hapless minnows into the air, and then gobbling them down, with a tail smack and a spray of white water.
These bass were not the 30 plus pounders from last season, but they were not "micro" size bass either. These fish were the largest I had encountered so far during this young Cape Cod saltwater fishing season. That I was sure of.
My second cast did nothing but entice another squid. My third nothing, and so on and so forth, until I had made at least 20 casts. The bass were still breaking and feeding all around me.
What was I doing wrong? Should I change my retrieve? Am I using the wrong lure? Have I completely lost my marbles and gone off the deep end?
I made another cast and was instantly on with a striper. I love fishing the beach at night.
