Well here we are 5 days into November and the striped bass fishing is still holding strong-especially at the Cape Cod Canal.  Who would have thought?

This past weekend I hit up the Canal with a friend of mine and blog member Andrew Massard.  Andrew's a great guy who has just recently caught "the fishing bug."  Due to work obligations he doesn't get as much fishing time in as he'd like, which I think you can probably relate to.  Like a lot of folks Andrew had logged a good amount of time in at the Cape Cod Canal, but was yet to catch a fish.

To make a not so long story a heck of a lot shorter, I happened to be down at the Canal this weekend when I got a text from Andrew, asking how the fishing has been.  Instead of going into detail about the fishing, I just told him I was currently at the Canal and that he could come on down and join me if he wanted.

In true fishing nut fashion Andrew dropped what he was doing and made his way down to the Big Ditch.  I was fishing the same holes that the 25 pounder from the previous report came out of-definitely a good area for Andrew to try his luck.

Andrew and I set up shop and got to jigging.  I was tossing the same big Slug-go I had been using all week, and Andrew was tossing a Spro jig.  Two good offerings that usually have no trouble enticing a late season Canal striper.

After allowing my Slug-go to reach bottom I looked over to my right and noticed a slight bend in Andrew's rod.

"Do you have a fish on?" I asked.

"Sure do!" Andrew replied.

On his first cast with the Spro jig Andrew had hooked up with his first ever Cape Cod Canal striped bass.  Not bad!

Unfortunately I don't have an epic fish tale or incredible story about how enormous and hard fighting his fish was.  There weren't any drag screaming runs or a doubled over rod.  Instead the bass came in relatively easily, providing enough of a tug on Andrew's Canal setup to let his presence be known.

Sure it was no monster, but hey a fish is a fish-especially when it is someone's first bass from the Ditch.  Nice work Andrew!

We released the bass and continued fishing, with the occasional bump and hook up with a small striper.  I was hoping to be surprised with a big fish but it just didn't happen.  Nevertheless we were happy with the action on smaller fish.

Cape Cod Canal Fishing Report | Weekend of Nov. 3

The action on small bass lasted right through the entire weekend.  I received numerous reports from folks this weekend about solid action on small stripers.  Many folks managed double digit catches which is pretty darn impressive for the first week of November.

Bass could be found feeding on the surface throughout the length of the Canal this past weekend in the mornings and early afternoons.  When the fish weren't showing on top, they could be caught by tossing small jigs and soft plastics and working them low and slow along the bottom.  Swimming plugs also worked well-basically just about everything worked!

As mentioned above, most of the fish were on the smaller end of the spectrum.  But every once in a while a larger bass would make their presence known.  I have not caught any keepers since Thursday of last week, but there are most certainly some mixed in.  I got reports of a few low to mid 30 inch range bass taken over the past few days.

I'll be heading down to the Canal tomorrow morning (Tuesday) so if you happen to be heading down definitely let me know.  As always I'm happy to share information.

I am crossing my fingers that the hot action on schoolies will hold for the remainder of the week.  The good fishing has to end eventually, so we might as well take advantage while we have the opportunity.

Good luck and tight lines!

Ryan