A New Method of Bass Fishing...
By: Capt. Hap Farrell
The bass fishing in Cape Cod Bay has been an off and on proposition this summer. In the beginning of the season it looked as if we were going to have a fairly active year but the habits of the stripers changed. They used to come up on Billingsgate Shoals especially in the early morning. At that point you could use the jigged eel or the tube and worm with an expected success rate. During the flood tide, even in the middle of the day, we could find schools of good sized bass in the grass patches on the east end of the shoals. Even when the fish were in the deep water we would do well working them with umbrella rigs or the tube and worm. This season we have not seen the volume of fish in these areas. We are still catching fish, there are just not as many or as often.
To compensate for this lack of fishing in one area one of our charter captains went looking for another area and a new method, at least new to us. In as area west of Rock Harbor and a mile or so off the Brewster Flats in an area we call the New Grounds. There are really no boundaries to this spot just a general area. Anyway, two to three seas clammers work this area on a regular basis. Capt. Steve Ellis, of the Watanye, out of Rock Harbor, and a true Cape Codder, developed a method of coming up behind one of these sea clammers and dropping baited hooks just behind the cage being towed behind the dragger. He uses chucks of seas clams as bait. At times you may get a mess of dog fish, but a good many times you'll get a number of bass mixed in. Some of the fish have been over 40 inches. He uses spinning tackle with 20 lb. test line with heavier leaders. It works very well and is a lot of fun.
Taking to another level was something I wanted to do. I specialize in using light tackle, mainly tackle that you troll with. I have a pair of nice light action rods with small bait cast reels on them using 6 lb. test line and use this to troll for bass and bluefish. I also to have some light action spinning tackle for those who like to cast on fish when the opportunity presents itself. This spinning gear has 8 lb. test line on it. Well, why not put a 20 lb. test leader on this gear with a 3/4 egg sinker and see how this works behind one of these draggers. I had Tom Burns and Dan Maguire, both from Great Falls, Va., out on a full day trip where all we use is this light gear. They have never fished way so it was all new to them as well as new to me. I had tried it a few other time with fairly good success. We used this 6 lb. test and 8 lb. test tackle in this method. After landing well over 20 keepers in a two to three hour span as well as a large number of dog fish, I had tired these two angler out. The biggest fish we landed was over 40 inches and it was released. They kept 4 of the smaller legal fish to eat. Next season, when they come back, they want to try it with even lighter tackle. What did I get myself into...
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