The weather is warming up, and so is the fishing! With each passing day, more members from the MFCC community are getting out and catching fish.
In this post, I'd like to highlight just a few of the notable catches I have seen over the past several days from inside our members forum.
As a thank you for sharing your catches, each angler featured in this post will be sent their choice of a free My Fishing Cape Cod gaiter or hat!
Please scroll below to continue reading. 
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White Perch Fishing
The white perch is a popular food and game fish throughout North America. On Cape Cod and throughout southeastern Massachusetts, white perch can be found in both fresh and saltwater/brackish areas.
On April 5th one of our members, Sean Lawrence, posted photos inside our forum of a beautiful white perch he caught while fishing a back bay area. The fish was caught using a small white curly tail style lure.
With regards to population numbers, white perch is a species of "least concern" which means their population is believed to be healthy and stable. Their meat when cooked is white, flaky, and delicious.
On Cape Cod your best bet for white perch will be in the backwater estuaries of Buzzard's Bay and along the southside of the Cape. Late winter and early spring seem to be prime-time for these fish.
Thank you Sean for sharing your white perch catches with us here on MFCC. Keep it up!
Kettle Pond Trout
As many of you probably already know, the month of April is fantastic for trout fishing on Cape Cod. Right now there are many ponds on Cape Cod which have been stocked with trout.
Many folks from around MFCC have been catching trout this week. Tyler Martin had a great day back on April 4th fishing one of the Cape's many beautiful and tranquil kettle ponds.
Trout fishing on Cape Cod is not rocket science. Worms, shiners, flies, and a variety of different lures are all working.
One of my personal favorites is the Thomas Buoyant chartreuse spoon pictured below.
In addition to trout fishing, Tyler has also been experimenting with making his own soft plastic lures. In fact, we just recorded a podcast with Tyler about his soft plastic lure making experiences which we'll be publishing soon.
Shellfishing
For thousands of years the native Wampanoag people relied on the Cape's abundant supply of shellfish for sustenance. Shellfish may not be as naturally abundant as they once were, but the Cape is still home to wonderful shellfishing opportunities.
On April 6th, five year MFCC member Tim Donnelly filled his bucket in no time at all while shellfishing in the town of Dennis.
According to the report Tim shared in the forum...
"I heard/read that clams go deeper in the cold water and then move up as the temps rise, hence the winter clam rakes with longer tines. I hit the mother load of nice smaller sized clams in an area I swore I raked before, right below the surface.
I always drag my rake across the sand until I find pockets, but this was crazy. I had a hard time getting get my tines into the sand to pull them. Fastest fill of a bucket all season."
Looking Ahead
In addition to the catches mentioned above, quite a few members have been posting in the forum about trout fishing, as well as fishing out west for steelhead.
I would imagine we'll start to see a lot more posts about striped bass fishing in about 2 weeks. Last year anglers from MFCC started catching migratory stripers in Buzzard's Bay during late April.
Squid fishing ought to heat up later this month as well. During 2020 anglers from MFCC were catching squid in Nantucket Sound during the last week of April and the first week of May.
Fishing for haddock in Cape Cod Bay and possibly on Stellwagen Bank is something I hope to try during April as well. Diamond jigs and clams will probably be my go-to techniques.
Tautog is another species I plan on going after during late April and early May. Tautog usually show up once the dandelions bloom and the water temperature in Buzzard's Bay and Vineyard Sound hits 50 degrees.
More News from MFCC
Recently there's been a lot of exciting things happening around the My Fishing Cape Cod community.
Here's a few highlights:
During the fall of 2020, Mike Marcus and a group of MFCC members (including myself) got together for our first-ever distance-casting competition. We're planning on hosting another distance-casting competition the morning of Saturday May 8th. You can learn more here.
Recently I've had conversations with MFCC members Mike Marcus and Eric Cronin about the possibility of creating a surfcasting tournament. We've decided on making it a team event similar in format to the extremely popular Cheeky Schoolie Tournament. Entry into the tournament is $25/person and all money raised will be donated to Kate McCoy and her children.
Kate is a Chatham resident and US Navy veteran who's house recently burnt down in a fire. So far we've raised more than $400 through tournament registrations which is terrific. Plus an additional several hundred dollars have been donated by members who do not plan on participating in the tournament, but still want to help. Any members interested in learning more about the surfcasting tournament can do so by clicking here.
A couple of weeks ago we published our first fishing report podcast of the 2021 season. We are going to publish these podcasts on a bi-weekly basis until May, when we will start publishing them weekly.
I am going to work on bringing new guests into each podcast to help us cover different regions of the Cape & Islands. I also want to expose our listeners to as many different types of fishing as possible, so expect to hear plenty of new voices during this season of podcasting.
The way the podcasting will work is that members of My Fishing Cape Cod will get access to podcast reports as soon as they become available. After a week or two I will probably share some of the podcasts on iTunes and YouTube, but members of MFCC will get access first.
We'll also be publishing regular in-depth interviews with members of My Fishing Cape Cod. These interviews will focus on one central topic, such as the Wooden Lure Making podcast which we just recorded with Anthony Besaw.
In Conclusion
Thank you Sean, Tyler and Tim for your reports this week inside the forum. As I mentioned at the start of this post, you'll each receive your choice of a free MFCC gaiter or hat!
Please stay tuned for more updates coming soon! If you have any questions then please leave a comment below.
Spring is an exciting time of the year as the Cape begins bursting with life. All sorts of migratory fish, birds and other species will be arriving over the coming weeks and months.
Tight lines! 
