There are still plenty of striped bass north of Cape Cod in places like Boston Harbor, Scituate and even along the New Hampshire coastline. Those fish have to move south at some point and when they do they will either go around the tip of the Cape, or move south through the Cape Cod Canal. Intercepting these fish is easier said than done but it is possible.

I mixed things up a bit during my most recent surf casting trip and put my expeditions to the backside beaches of Cape Cod on hold. Plus with the government shutdown I am not even sure if I would be able to access any of the National Seashore beaches. So instead of fishing the sandy beaches of Provincetown and Truro, I opted to make a rare venture off Cape and fish some of the gnarliest boulder fields around.

Boulder Bass

Walking over and around these boulders proved to be very difficult. At times I was basically crawling and moving at a snail's pace. The terrain was challenging but I had a feeling that the hard work would pay off.

According to geologists these rocks were deposited here during the last ice age. In the spot I fished this week some of the boulders were absolutely enormous, which makes me appreciate the power of those long disappeared glaciers.

If you are not too steady on your feet then I wouldn't recommend venturing into boulder strewn terrain like this. If you do decide to immerse yourself among the rocks, be sure to keep an eye out for super slippery sea weed and black spots that are as slick as ice.

Finding the Fish

In areas like this I place my bet on the fish finding me. Sure I'll move around a bit, but basically I am looking for an ideal casting platform to make fishing somewhat "easy."

Once I find such a spot I will perch myself on the rock or point, start casting and hope that a school of bass will eventually swim by.

Just as the sun was setting I found my perch for the evening. From the boulder in the above photo I was able to cast into fairly deep water. For the most part the area in front of my perch was relatively clear of obstructions which would make landing a decent size bass much easier.

The only question mark was whether or not any migrating bass would swim by my boulder. Fortunately I would not have to wait long to find out.