It sure felt like mid October tonight as I set off down a long vacant beach.  There was a chilly stiff breeze blowing in from the northwest, but the abundant sunshine helped to thwart the wind chill.  The air was crisp and it smelt fishy.

I had high hopes for tonight's trip after receiving some optimistic Cape Cod fishing reports speaking of good bass action throughout the area.  It's always nice going into a trip knowing that the fishing was pretty good, at least as of a few days ago.

As I continued walking down the beachfront I couldn't help but notice the abundant bird life.  There were gulls and piping plovers, as well as terns flying overhead and meandering through the dunes.  Birds may not always lead the way to good Cape Cod striped bass fishing, however having birds in the vicinity certainly can't hurt.

The tide was fully underway after I arrived at the spot.  My plan was to fish the remainder of the tide, probably just until after sunset.  As if on cue the wind began to die as the sun sank low in the sky, and to my delight the action on schoolie bass and small keepers heated up.

Cape Cod Surf Fishing Report | October 15

This October I've been strictly targeting areas where I believe there to be big bass.  So far the results have not been spectacular, but as usual I've had a blast.  Over the past week and a half I've had to work pretty hard from the surf to scrape up a few fish here and there.

As is the rule with Cape Cod striped bass fishing, if you put your time in, you will eventually be rewarded.  Thankfully tonight was one of those "rewarding" nights!

I started off chucking around a Savage Lure which I have not fished before.  All season long I've heard good things about this lure so I figured I would give it a shot.

I must admit that it does look like it's surely capable of doing some damage on the local striped bass population.

But tonight was not the Savage Lures' night.  I whipped them around for 45 minutes without a bump.  Time to make a change.

With the tide really pumping I opted for an old reliable-a white buck tail jig with a white curly tail grub.  Simple, yet very effective.

I was fishing with light spinning tackle in relatively shallow water, but using the same technique as you would if you were jigging the Cape Cod Canal.  I'd toss the buck tail slightly up-current, wait for the jig to hit bottom, and then slowly start pumping/snapping the jig as it drifted down current.

With the sun setting behind me the bass started engulfing the jig pretty much as soon as it bumped off it's first rock.  Nothing beats a hard and unexpected WHACK as you jig a buck tail just off the bottom.

The first bass I caught was on the small side, but there were some bigger specimens mixed in-as you'll notice in the below video.

The action only got better as the sun sank lower  in the sky.  For a while I got a good hit on every cast.  It seemed as if the bass settled in, and really turned on the feed bag between 6-7PM.

Despite the solid action I couldn't help but take a moment to capture the awesome low light conditions with a few pictures.  Tonight was just a gorgeous evening.

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After my moment with nature I headed back into the drink to hopefully catch a few more bass before calling it quits.  Luckily the stripers had only become more aggressive, as they happily bit the jig as soon as it swept into the strike zone.

These fish were not massive, but its the videos like the one below that will give me something to watch and dream about during a January snowstorm.

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Final tally for tonight was around 20 fish between 15 and 31 inches.  It was a beautiful Cape Cod evening that I won't soon forget.

Click here for more information on tonight's trip and the areas fished.

With the amount of bait and bass I stumbled across this evening, I am very optimistic that we'll have solid striped bass action into the month of November.

Tight lines and best of luck,

Ryan