This page introduces Cape Cod's great fishing opportunities. Freshwater and saltwater fishing, a calendar of fishing opportunities, links to more specific fishing information by species, links to regulations and tackle and bait and charter serves are all found here.
Go to freshwater fishing for more information and how to catch 'em.
Ice, if any, forms up from late December to February offering good chances for Perch, Trout, Pike and Bass. Ice fishermen use store bought shiners or self trapped chubs from saltwater estuaries. Jigging is popular for big yellow perch and other pike relatives. Shiners for Bass. Watch for others on the ice of local ponds and follow their lead. (Take a look at the ice fishing articles in On The Water, Jan. '99.)
Then there is excellent open water Perch, Pike and Pickeral fishing from March on as the water warms. (Look for my article, "Yellow Perch", in the March, '98 issue of On The Water)This is the spawn and post spawn bite for Yellow Perch and White Perch too. Bits of worm below a pencil bobber best imitate the local food supply at this time of year. The water is still cold and the Alewives have not yet begun to run on the Cape.
Trout stocking starts about mid-March (100,000+ twelve inch to two pound Rainows, Brookies and Sea Run Browns. 50 stocked ponds, rivers and streams. And some hold over Salmon and Trout from earlier years that run to 8 lb.s and better! Small spoons and spinners work for some, muddlers, wooley buggers and hare's ear flies for others. Bait is the standby. These fish have nice pink flesh and are in top shape, mostly coming from our own Sandwich Hatchery.
Then 'Gills and Bigmouths start in April on the North and East corners of Ponds warmed by the sun. (Look for my article, "Coldwater Largemouths", in the April, '98 issue of On The Water) These fish are cold and slow but can be caught with patience and after a few sunny days have raised the water temp a degree or two in the shallows. Fish near the bottom and retrieve as slow as you can.
Smallies are coming up out of the depths now so try sloping structure with blades and jigs. In late April as the smallmouths come up shallow (first to 20' and then to 5') to spawn at about 50 degree water temperature, they are looking for their first meal of fry and bugs.
Starting in May and over the summer, all the pond fishing is remarkable, probably the best in New England. I say this because many ponds have largemouths up to twelve pounds, smallmouths up to eight pounds, yellow perch well over a pound and white perch over two. the bluegills are big (if you fish deep) and the pickerel are plentiful and many are over five pounds. Add to this, sea run brown trout that have been tagged at seventeen pounds, and holdover rainbows and brookies (not to mention tiger trout) and the Cape has the widest variety and best overall size of fish in the Northeast. And the fishing lasts fully 'til turnover in October and our first frosts in November or December (As I edit this the temperature is 64 degrees and its the fifth of December).
Where else can you get all of this and stripers, blues and tuna too?
Check out saltwater fishing for in-depth know how on catchin' different ocean fishes.
For charter information, go to guiding.
The first Stripers start arriving on the Islands around mid-April. Schoolies have been over-wintering in shallow backwater bays and coves all through the colder winter months.
Bluefish follow by early May along the Vineyard and on south beaches like Loop Beach in Cotuit. Then east along the coast past Hyannis, past Bass River, past Red River Beach and on to Monomoy by the end of May. Water temperature can speed this migration up or slow it down by weeks. Bluefish arrive hungry and hit topwaters well and big spoons too.
In May, Keeper size Stripers (28") are being caught along the Vineyard and South coast. Then it just keeps gettin' better 'til they migrate South for the winter in November. Early fish are a mixture of sizes and have varying tastes in lures and baits. Some early fishers swear by a deep slow fly, while others drift bait at night off beaches in pursuit of the first keeper of the year. Spin fishermen use mostly spoons and smaller plugs off jetties and at river mouths and channels. (Check my article on fishing Pleasant Bay Stripers in the June '98, On The Water.)
All summer the Stripers hang around as long as there is food to eat. If the herring are in short supply they may move along the coast or out to where they are plentiful. Keep an ear out for where the herring are running. Native forage is a consistent producer: black eels, sand eels and sea worms. The end of the season fishing, as the Maine Coast fish pass by, offers some of the biggest cows of the season and sometimes huge schools of smaller fish.
Blues last 'til November too if the water stays warm. Stripers a few weeks longer usually.
Flounder are rare nowadays but good Fluke fishing starts in May and June. Try at the mouth of rivers and coves on the tide. '98 was a banner year for fluke.
Scup and Tautog are taken near shore off the wrecks and rocks in April and May. Tautog lasts through the early summer in the Canal.
Tuna (both Bluefin and Yellowfin), Bonito and false Albacore are being caught by the end of June. Usually offshore but a few lucky souls get lined each year standing on jetties or at the mouth of the canal. '98 was the best year in a long time for tuna. Big schools of albacore were still actively feeding in mid-september. Everyone who went for bluefin got one. The Bonito were a little thinner than '97 but the yellow fin made up for it. Even the white marlin fishing was the best ever.
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