With the heat of summer knocking at our door, good day-time bass fishing will most likely happen less frequently. So far this season on Cape Cod, past reliable hot spots like the Cape Cod Canal have been less productive than in past seasons (especially during the day).
But there is hope for those who prefer to fish during the more "leisurely" day time hours, as opposed to staying up all night. Based on what I'm experiencing you will have to cover a lot of ground and be OK with walking for miles on end, to find the fish.
Yet once you do find the bass, there's a good chance that they'll be quite aggressive - at least that is what I recently experienced during this day-time topwater bass bite.
In This Case The Tide Was More Important Than Time Of Day
Time of day can be very important when striper fishing. Most of us know that night time and early morning are two of the best times to be fishing.
Yet in some circumstances tide is the #1 most important factor. In the location I fished during this trip, high tide is imperative for the reasons outlined in this blog post from last week. Conveniently high tide was in the morning, so there was really no need for me to stay up all night.
I feel that the fish here "run the shoreline" when the tide is high, and then retreat to deeper water once the tide drops. My plan was to intercept them while they were still within casting range, before they headed back offshore.
Seals - Usually Not A Good Sign, But In This Case They Were
As I walked down the beach, scanning for signs of life, I noticed a couple large seals hanging 25 or so yards offshore. They seemed curious as to what I was doing, and kept popping up in random spots to check me out.
Ask any Cape Cod  fisherman and they will tell you that seals are not a good thing for surfcasting. In 95% of the situations I would agree. Yet in this scenario, I felt that the seals were a good sign, because where there are seals there must be bait, and maybe even striped bass-which the seals prey upon.
I decided to take a cast and see if anyone was home.
I reeled the plug slowly across the surface of the water, and watched as the seals retreated, apparently spooked by my cast. The plug looked perfect as it swam from side to side on top of the waves.
About 10 feet from shore it happened, and water burst into the air, as a bass tried to engulf the plug. I was on with the first fish of the day, and ironically, I had the seal to thank.
