fishing cape cod — A healthy 25 plus pound fish making its way to the gunnel.

August 1 Cape Cod Fishing Report

The past couple of days have been a lot of fun and extremely productive. So far this has been the best summer of striped bass fishing I have ever experienced here on Cape Cod. Hopefully it'll continue straight on through October!

I had my Dad with me all this week which was really great. We butt heads once in a while over whether we should be trolling or casting, fishing out deep or in shallow - but it's all good. When all is said and done we usually at least sniff out a few nice bass to make the trip worthwhile.

However this week a "few nice bass" was definitely a big understatement. We were lucky to find acres of big bass up to and above the 40 pound mark. I am sure we had a few 50 pounders under the boat this week, yet for some reason they continue to evade my hook. Maybe we'll get one next trip!

Wednesday morning got off to a less than perfect start. I woke up at 3AM to an intense throbbing in my right middle finger. I flipped on the light and wouldn't you know it, my finger was about double its normal size = not good.

Considering how purple, hot to the touch and sensitive the finger was I decided to play it safe and head to the ER up at Jordan hospital. I've heard too many stories about guys getting bait poisoning and/or serious infections from fish so I wanted to make sure I caught it early if that was indeed the case. I was actually pretty convinced I had contracted some sort of fishy bacterial infection, considering all the fish handling I had been up to recently.

Thankfully the docs at the hospital think the infection was not related to fish. It was a bacterial infection of some kind but not the devastating flesh eating infections I have heard about. I popped a few pills and within a few hours the swelling began to subside - time to go fish!

My father and I hit the water uncharacteristically late but we were quickly able to locate and zone in on a solid bass bite. Within 30 minutes of being on the water we had 5 bass up to 35 pounds flopping around on deck. We had hit the tail end of what had been a hot and heavy morning bite. Nevertheless the bass were there so we decided to stick it out all day and try to pick away at them until the bite turned on again - whenever that may be.

cape cod fishing report — I found a few large crabs in the gullets of big bass like this one this past week. In addition to squid I think these fish are feeding scourging the bottom for whatever they can find.

We hit the bass over the heads with our offerings and managed to coax a fish to bite here and there throughout a very sunny and warn early August afternoon. By around 5pm we had 20 or so bass to 40 pounds which I was ecstatic about.

I credit today's solid trip to being able to work the sonar, locate the fish and then stay on top of them. A common issue I hear all the time (and one that I constantly am dealing with!) is finding the bass but then suddenly completely losing track of them. Having a firm understanding of your sonar unit and what you are actually looking at can help you not only find the fish, but stick with them once you have found them.

I put together and on the water video about how to find striped bass using your sonar. If you'd like to check it out, you can do so by viewing the Extended Fishing Report by clicking here.

As the sun sank lower on the horizon the bite turned on big time. Instead of coaxing fish to bite we could barely keep them off our hooks. I never cease to find it amazing how inactive fish can quickly become super aggressive without warning.

We called it a trip at 8pm and headed in to get a couple hours of rest before waking up at 4AM this morning.

August 2 Cape Cod Fishing Report

We were able to pick up today right where we left off yesterday. Our first cast produced a nice bass in the low 30 pound range and it was pretty much non-stop after that.

We had some fog this morning which I'm usually not all that crazy about but it was actually a blessing in disguise as we were able to work a nice school of fish without the fleet taking notice. Man were they aggressive!

We had bass flying completely clear out of the water and packs of a dozen or so fish following hooked bass right to the boat. The biggest bass today was 41 pounds and it sucked down a bait just a few yards from the boat right off the surface. What an incredible sight that was.

Today was definitely one of the most enjoyable days I've had on the water this entire summer. We had picture perfect weather conditions and the fish were cooperating. Sure beats the wind and the rain we had earlier this week.