Cape reel popular with stripers
FISHING FORECAST
Over the decades, several locations in the Northeast have vied for the title of striper surfcasting capital of the world.
A century ago, Cuttyhunk Island was considered the pinnacle, and its striper-filled shoreline attracted the wealthiest and best-connected fishermen to its bass clubs. The outer beaches of Cape Cod in the 1960s and ’70s, before seals took over the surf, were legendary for their run of monstrous bass and an entire beach-buggy culture developed around it. In recent decades, Montauk, N.Y., was nicknamed “Mecca” by surfcasters who caught trophy-sized stripers casting from massive boulders and enjoyed day-long blitzes in the fall with stripers churning the water underneath the iconic lighthouse.
The current titleholder is, without question, the Cape Cod Canal. While some purists will argue whether fishing from the banks of the Canal can truly be considered surf-fishing, if you want to catch a big bass from shore, especially in the summer, there is no debate.
Once again, the Cape Cod Canal is loaded with bait and big bass, and fishermen are catching “personal bests” from shore, during the day, at a time of year that we used to call the summer doldrums.
Patterns change, fishing is notoriously unpredictable, and none of us can say for certain what the next decade will bring. But for now, we are blessed to have a spectacular fishery, one that attracts fishermen from across the country, right here in Massachusetts.
South Shore
The Cape Cod Canal continues to produce incredible numbers of bass and plenty of big ones. Juvenile river herring and small peanut bunker are feeding massive schools of mackerel, and the mackerel are in turn getting pounded by stripers. The fishing has been good from one end to the other, but the epicenter of the action is between the Bourne and the Sagamore bridges. Retrieving a Sebile Magic Swimmer at a high speed just under the surface is far and away the most popular technique. When the bass get selective midday, they won’t turn down a live-lined mackerel.
Live mackerel are also the bait of choice off The Gurnet High Pine Ledge and Fourth Cliff. Despite the prevalence of pogies, stripers are showing a clear preference for mackerel, and there are plenty of them in Cape Cod Bay.
An increase in the amount of small baitfish inshore has led to some good surface feeds in Scituate and Cohasset and is a good sign for the fall run.
Stellwagen Bank has plenty of haddock right on top in 80-100 feet of water, which goes against the usual pattern of haddock moving deep in summer. Fishermen are able to use lighter gear in the shallow water and avoid catching cod, which have to be released.
Boston Harbor
Stripers have been sticking to rocky shorelines rather than hanging with pogies in
open water. Rather than swimming the baits where you snag them, pitch live pogies toward rock drop-offs when the tide is moving. If the live bait is producing only half-hearted follows, try fresh pogy chunks instead.
Tube-and-worm trolling is also producing keeper-sized fish, and shore-fishermen are doing well on 30-inch fish from Deer Island on fresh chunked mackerel and pogies.
North Shore
Big bass have been on pogies from Nahant through Lynn Harbor. At times, the stripers have been pinning the bait against the shoreline, allowing surfcasters who are in the right place at the right time to snag baits and get in on the action.
Squid have arrived in catchable numbers from Nahant through Swampscott.
If you want to procure a pail of squid, you’ll need special squid jigs and some intel. You can find both at a local North Shore tackle shop.
North of Cape Ann, nighttime is the right time for stripers, and live eels can’t be beat.
Bass have been moving along the beaches under the cover of darkness, prowling for food among the sandbars and troughs. Cast and (slowly) retrieve a live eel, fishing it like a lure, and be ready for a bump in the night.