It's the early part of February 2007 and 6:30 in the morning. The temperature outside is 14 degrees here in Orleans, Ma. down on Cape Cod. There's not much wind. If it was the middle of May I'd be getting ready to go fishing this morning to see if the big bass have move out of the Sunken Meadow area and out by the #3 and #5 cans near Billingsgate Island. It's not, it's still winter and cabin fever is starting to take it's toll. My rods are in a corner gathering dust and the boat is still covered with a white plastic. However, there is hope. A sign that may mean we will have another good season with the bass and bluefish staying in the Bay and in our area . Ice, and lots of it. Ice in Cape Cod Bay.
Over the past few seasons I've noticed something. When we've had a mild winter when we don't have much ice build up in Cape Cod Bay we also don't have much of a influx of bait in the Bay. The sand eels, squid and other bait may move into the Bay for a while but not for long and not in any volume. If we have a cold winter and a good amount of ice in the Bay the bait seems to come in early and stay for a while. The amount of bait is significantly larger and the variety of bait is more extensive.
The last two winter we've had, there has been a fair amount of of ice in the Bay. We had large schools of big sand eels on the north edge of Billingsgate Shoals, a good amount of squid was also in the Bay from the shallow water in by the Eastham shore out to the deep water off the Path. P-town had large schools of sand eels and squid also and this kept larger schools of bass in the areas from Long Point around to Race Point and further down the coast.
I'm not a marine biologist but it seems to me that the bait comes in to the Bay because there is an abundance of food for them. This food must be fairly small like krill or small sea life. They are there because there is food for these creatures also. This food has to be plankton which is created in abundance in cooler water as I remember. What they feed off of is beyond me but it is common sense to think the conditions must be good for the plankton to exsist. Another sign will be the whale activity in the early spring. When we've had this abundance of ice we have had a large number of Right Whales in the Bay in middle March into April. They too are here because there is a large amount of food for them.
Putting all of this together only one conclusion can be taken. We are going to have a very good season this year. The fish should be in the Cape Cod Bay area in the early spring and stick around until it's time to put the boats away next fall. So, it is going to be up to us to catch them. This is something I plan to do as much as humanly possible and I suspect I'll see you there too. We do have something to look forward to.